Thomas Jefferson Quotes

I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.

We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children.

I definitely prefer being a lover than a fighter.

... the greatest moral victory in the history of civilization if it actually keeps out of a war.

The right things to do are those that keep our violence in abeyance; the wrong things are those that bring it to the fore.

A liberal is a man who leaves the room when a fight begins.

Real Christians will abstain from violating the rights of others, and therefore will not provoke war.

When the war closed, I buried the hatchet, and I won't fight now unless I'm put upon.

Pacifism means letting the non-pacifists have control ... Pacifism will remain an ideal, war a fact. If the white races are resolved never to wage war again, the colored will act differently and become rulers of the world.

My opposition to war was not because of the horrors of war, not because war demands that the race offer up its very best in their full vigor, not because war means economic bankruptcy, domination of races by famine and disease, but because war is so completely ineffective, so stupid. It settles nothing.

I consider non-violence to be compassion in action. It doesn’t mean weakness, cowering in fear, or simply doing nothing. It is to act without violence, motivated by compassion, recognising the rights of others.

Weapons are not proper instruments for gentle people; they use them only when they have no other choice. Peace and quiet are what they value. They do not glory in victory.

The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am. None who would do more to preserve it.

I've never really been a fan of violence.

For we no longer take up "sword against nation," nor do we "learn war any more," having become children of peace, for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader.

You have not been mistaken in supposing my views and feeling to be in favor of the abolition of war. Of my dispos[i]tion to maintain peace until its condition shall be made less tolerable than that of war itself, the world has had proofs, and more, perhaps, than it has approved. I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the dispos[i]tion to war; but of its abolition I despair.

Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies! But beautiful as songs of the immortals, The holy melodies of love arise.

If thou art of elephant-strength or of lion-claw, still peace is, in my opinion, better than strife.

It is my conviction that there is no way to peace - peace is the way.

It is painful enough to discover with what unconcern they speak of war and threaten it. They do not know its horrors. I have seen enough of it to make me look upon it as the sum of all evils.

If we desire to live securely, comfortably, and quietly, that by all honest means we should endeavor to purchase the good will of all men, and provoke no man's enmity needlessly; since any man's love may be useful, and every man's hatred is dangerous.

What does it mean then to live with one another? It can be unhappy, it can be wretched, it can be ambivalent, it can even be full of antagonism, but all of that can play out in the political sphere without recourse to expulsion or genocide. And that is our obligation, to stay in the sphere with whatever murderous rage we have, without acting on it.

We don't want wars even when we win.

Peace is a desire, war is a fact; and history has never paid heed to human desires and ideals.

I cease not to advocate peace; even though unjust it is better than the most just war.