Jimmy Carter Quotes

We go to war only to make peace. We never went to war with any other design. We carry the national conscience wherever we go.

Peace is not sought in order to provoke war, but war is waged in order to attain peace.

We should wage war not to win war, but to win peace.

Whenever you have a possibility of going in two ways, either for peace or for war, for peaceful methods of for military methods, in the present age there is a strong prejudice for the peaceful ones. War seldom ever leads to good results.

It is very important for I think those of us who desperately want peace, who see war as, at some level, a break-down, a manifestation of human weakness, to understand that sometimes it’s also necessary – and you know, to – to be able to balance two ideas at the same time; that we are constantly striving for peace, we are doubling up on our diplomacy, we are going to actively engage, we are going to try to see the world through other people’s eyes and not just our own.

So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.

Now, and ever, I shall do all in my power for peace, consistently with the maintenance of government.

I think anything is better than war. The extent to which one can negotiate with fanatics, I have no idea. I don't know.

Arms alone are not enough to keep the peace. It must be kept by men.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.

Blessedness is promised to the peacemaker, not to the conqueror.

Peace, like war, can succeed only where there is a will to enforce it, and where there is available power to enforce it.

War's Legitimate Object Is More Perfect Peace.

The quest for peace is the statesman's most exacting duty... Practical progress to lasting peace is his fondest hope.

Peace is the alternative to war, and nonviolence should be seen as the antidote to violence, not simply as its opposite. Nonviolence is more concerned with saving life than with saving face.

We have thought of peace as passive and war as the active way of living. The opposite is true. War is not the most strenuous life. It is a kind of rest cure compared to the task of reconciling our differences ... From War to Peace is not from the strenuous to the easy existence; it is from the futile to the effective, from the stagnant to the active, from the destructive to the creative way of life ... The world will be regenerated by the people who rise above these passive ways and heroically seek, by whatever hardship, by whatever toil, the methods by which people can agree.

War destroys, kills, impoverishes. Lord, give us your peace!

The great lesson to be learned in the battered towns of England and the ruined cities of Germany is that the best way to win a war is to prevent it from occurring.

Peace is not something you wish for, it's something you make

Peace is impossible, war is improbable.

War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It's peace that's wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.

The best missile defense system of all would be a just and lasting peace.

The building of such a peace is a bold and solemn purpose. To proclaim it is easy. To serve it will be hard. And to attain it, we must be aware of its full meaning - and ready to pay its full price.

All of us realize that war requires action. What is sometimes harder for us to realize is that peace and neutrality also require action.