Amos Oz Quotes

I often write about reconciling. Reconciling, or maybe half-reconciling between antagonists, between people who are deadly enemies.

To reconcile conflicting parties, we must have the ability to understand the suffering of both sides. If we take sides, it is impossible to do the work of reconciliation. And humans want to take sides. That is why the situation gets worse and worse. Are there people who are still available to both sides? They need not do much. They need do only one thing: Go to one side and tell all about the suffering endured by the other side, and go to the other side and tell all about the suffering endured by this side. This is our chance for peace. But how many of us are able to do that?

One doesn't make peace with one's friends. One makes peace with one's enemies.

In Turkey, we have lived almost everything that could be lived; war and torture... The war concept was consumed to its limits. But there is only one way we have not tried: negotiations, peace, and talking.

There are universal traits and aspects of all these conflicts, and I think that all of them have bridgeable solutions. The only question is whether you are ready to take the challenge, to pay the price, to compromise in order to get more. This, I believe, is the challenge for all the peacemakers in the world.

This may not be a just peace, but it is more just than the continuation of war.

One minute of reconciliation is worth more than a whole life of friendship!

To reconcile conflicting parties, we must have the ability to understand the suffering of both sides.

Let us ask Mary to help us respond to violence, to conflict and to war, with the power of dialogue, reconciliation and love. She is our mother: may she help us to find peace; all of us are her children!

Taking sides cannot bring peace and balance.

When we seek reconciliation with our enemies, it is commonly out of a desire to better our own condition, a being harassed and tired out with a state of war, and a fear of some ill accident which we are willing to prevent.

A word of truth can mobilise two peoples looking for the road to reconciliation.

I do know that you have to choose between the logic of reconciliation and the logic of justice. Pure justice leads to new civil war. I prefer the negotiable revolution.

I think most of the time when people have big disagreements and big misunderstandings, when time lessens that blow it creates a deeper understanding for both people.

Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal.

We extend our hand towards peace. Our people are committed to peace. We know that peace entails painful compromise for both sides.

It is highly probable that in most cases, war could be avoided or ended. For discussions allow passion to subside, and to persuade alienated neighbors, or at least one of them, to listen to the voice of a conciliator is a step in the direction of peace.

In the aftermath of any war or genocide, healing and reconciliation are ultimate aspirations.

I think placing preconditions before negotiations is the quickest way to undermine peace.

I'm not a politician or a political expert, but I believe that there are many ways to look at peace.

I am hoping that in this year of the family we will go into our families and reconcile differences.

Reconciliations are for after the violence has ended.

Winning the peace is harder than winning the war.

Making peace, I have found, is much harder than making war.

We cannot get stuck in a cycle of violence which cannot be broken.