Murray Bookchin Quotes

The point on nonviolence is to build a floor, a strong new floor, beneath which we can no longer sink.

There's no problem on the planet that can't be solved without violence. That's the lesson of the civil rights movement.

We are rooted in Kingian nonviolence.

[A.J. Muste] was very influenced - in - influential in the peace movement, in the civil rights movement.

We're not really pacifists, we're nonviolent soldiers.

Those of us who are most genuinely repelled by war and violence are also those who are most likely to decide that some things, after all, are worth fighting for.

I cannot make myself believe that God wanted me to hate. I'm tired of violence, I've seen too much of it. I've seen such hate on the faces of too many sheriffs in the South. And I'm not going to let my oppressor dictate to me what method I must use. Our oppressors have used violence. Our oppressors have used hatred. Our oppressors have used rifles and guns. I'm not going to stoop down to their level. I want to rise to a higher level. We have a power that can't be found in Molotov cocktails.

Violence becomes imperative when an attempt is made to assert rights without any reference to duties.

The legacy of [Martin Luther] King is the very thing that must be expanded if America is to be free and democratic in the 21st century. It's just as simple as that.

My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.

In that respect, Martin Luther King, whom A.J.[Muste] advised in the civil rights movement, was also a radical pacifist.

Nonviolent resistance makes it possible for the Negro to remain in the South and struggle for his rights. The Negro's problem will not be solved by running away.

The point of nonviolence is to build a floor, a strong new floor, beneath which we can no longer sink. A platform which stands a few feet above napalm, torture, exploitation, poison gas, A and H bombs, the works. Give man a decent place to stand.

Martin Luther King taught us all nonviolence. I was told to extend nonviolence to the mother and her calf.

Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity.

When you do something in a nonviolent way, people will die and there will be casualties. But you're taking a different point of view that has a power.

Martin Luther King Jr. was not just a man of peace. He was a radical pacifist, and so he was against war across the board.

I can think of nothing more American than to peacefully stand up or take a knee for your rights - anytime, anywhere, anyplace.

My work has always been rooted in nonviolence, as espoused by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The fact is, human rights victories are rarely won by powerful governments or well-armed militaries. More often than not, these battles are led by individuals and small groups of people determined to overcome wrong. Think King, Gandhi, Mandela.

Civil disobedience is the only nonviolent escape from the soul-destroying heat of violence.

We speak here of the challenge of the dichotomies of war and peace, violence and non-violence, racism and human dignity, oppression and repression and liberty and human rights, poverty and freedom from want.

I don't favor violence. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by peaceful means, well and good. Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. But I'm also a realist. The only people in this country who are asked to be nonviolent are black people.

I myself would go for nonviolence if it was consistent, if everybody was going to be nonviolent all the time. I'd say, okay, let's get with it, we'll all be nonviolent. But I don't go along with any kind of nonviolence unless everybody's going to be nonviolent. If they make the Ku Klux Klan nonviolent, I'll be nonviolent. If they make the White Citizens Council nonviolent, I'll be nonviolent. But as long as you've got somebody else not being nonviolent, I don't want anybody coming to me talking any nonviolent talk.

I think we brought to the world, the United States anyway, the whole idea of boycotting as a nonviolent tactic. I think we showed the world that nonviolence can work to make social change.