John Lewis Quotes

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Nonviolence to be worth anything has to work in the face of hostile forces.

For me nonviolence is a creed. I must act up to it, whether I am alone or have companions.

nonviolence first changes the individual.

Nonviolent action, born of the awareness of suffering and nurtured by love, is the most effective way to confront adversity.

Nonviolence with Dr. [Martin Luther ]King is only a method. That's not his objective.

Nonviolence is a universal law acting under all circumstances.

Nonviolence, in its dynamic condition means conscious suffering.

The essence of nonviolence is love. Out of love and the willingness to act selflessly, strategies, tactics, and techniques for a nonviolent struggle arise naturally. Nonviolence is not a dogma; it is a process.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political moral questions of our time.

Nonviolence, applied to very large masses of mankind, is a new experiment in the history of the world.

Nonviolence is a universal principle and its operation is not limited by a hostile environment.

Civil disobedience has almost always been about expression. Generally, it's nonviolent, as defined by Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, and King.

Nonviolence is an intensely active force when properly understood and used.

A little of true nonviolence acts in a silent, subtle, unseen way and leavens the whole society.

Nonviolence requires great patience.

Nonviolence and cowardice go ill together. True nonviolence is an impossibility without the possession of unadulterated fearlessness.

Our nonviolence in respect of the Government is a result of our incapacity for effective violence.

Nonviolence is an active force of the highest order. It is soul force or the power of the godhead within us.

If we are nonviolent through and through, our nonviolence would have been self-evident.

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.

Nonviolence is a method that transforms, first of all, the individual once you understand it and embrace it. It begins with you and, if you can, about transforming individuals so that they love unconditionally.

Nonviolence, when it becomes active, travels with extraordinary velocity, and then it becomes a miracle.

Nonviolence is not a cloistered virtue, confined only to the rishi and the cave-dweller.

Nonviolence is a plant of slow growth, it grows imperceptibly but surely.