Norman Cousins Quotes

Our experience shows that security does not lie in weapons or fences or armies.

I was one of the first people in the Palestinian world, in the late 1970s, to say that there is no military option, either for us or for them, and I'm certainly the only well-known Arab who writes these things - and who writes exactly the same things in the Arab press that I say here.

War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can invent peace with justice.

War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed; peace is preferable to war in almost every contingency. Arbitration is the true method of settlement of international as well as local or individual differences.

The way to disarm is to disarm....

Listen, my friends, I am a friend of the white people and have been so for a long time. I do not want to see blood spilt about this agency. I am going north to my own country. If you are going to send your soldiers after me, I wish you would let us get a little distance away. Then if you want to fight, I will fight you, and we can make the ground bloody at that place.

We believe in resolving all disputes peacefully.

I do not believe in terrorism, violence, destruction, murder, pre-emption, or War.

I spent an important part of my life participating in conflicts. But for me, conflict was not the main principle.

We want peace, but not at any price.

We will not have peace by afterthought.

The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society.

Better talk than fight, if nothing of sovereign value is anyway lost. Dialogue has achieved more than confrontation in many parts of the world.

The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue.

The conflict in the Middle East needs to be solved for the same reasons. It is necessary to reach a two-states solution, built on international law, for sustainable peace and development, and it can only be achieved through joint efforts by the international community.

Everybody wants peace. That's a truism. There is no point in accomplishing through war what you can accomplish through peace.

Terror can never be defeated by force alone.

War is what happens when language fails.

We try very quickly to show that we are not at war with the Iraqi people. We're trying to deal with the people who are indeed themselves at war with the Iraqi people.

More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.

The PLO and the Palestinian people adhere to the renouncement of violence and rejection and condemning of terrorism in all its forms, especially State terrorism, and adhere to all agreements signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.

War is not the only arena where peace is done to death.

Like most Americans, I hope and wish is that there is a peaceful resolution to the Middle East conflict. Unfortunately, there are extremists on both sides who oppose a peaceful resolution and instead choose violence.

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

But the deep desire for peace remained with the American people.