Marcus Garvey Quotes

It is certain two nations cannot engage in hostilities but one party must be guilty of injustice

In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty.

An unjust peace is better than a just war.

Peace without justice is tyranny.

We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now at least he will know what he is fighting against.

Even strong as they are today, rich countries should have no illusion: nobody is safe in aworld of injustices.War will never bring security.War can only generate monsters: bitterness, intolerance, fundamentalism, and the damaging denial of current hegemonies.The poor must be given reasons to live, not to kill or die.

No spoon has yet destroyed a mouth, but the knife of war cuts portions that are hard to swallow. Perhaps the big mouths of the privileged are able to cope with them, but they dull the teeth of the little people and ruin their stomachs.

It is better to have a war for justice than peace in injustice.

War is not the only arena where peace is done to death. Wherever suffering is ignored, there will be the seeds of conflict, for suffering degrades and embitters and enrages.

Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.

The term 'just war' is an internal contradiction. War is inherently unjust, and the great challenge of our time is how to deal with evil, tyranny and oppression without killing huge numbers of people.

They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and lives of their people.

I abhor unjust war. I abhor injustice and bullying by the strong at the expense of the weak, whether among nations or individuals. I abhor violence and bloodshed. I believe that war should never be resorted to when, or so long as, it is honorably possible to avoid it. I respect all men and women who from high motives and with sanity and self-respect do all they can to avert war. I advocate preparation for war in order to avert war; and I should never advocate war unless it were the only alternative to dishonor.

I came to the conclusion that war was an unacceptable way of solving whatever problems there were in the world--that there would be problems of tyranny, of injustice, of nations crossing frontiers and that injustice and tyranny should not be tolerated and should be fought and resisted, but the one thing that must not be used to solve that problem is war. Because war is inevitably the indiscriminate killing of large numbers of people. And that fact overwhelms whatever moral cause is somewhere buried in the history of that war.

If the Welsh will not have peace with us, they shall perish at the hands of the Saxons.

The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose; while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose, especially their lives.

The weak are always at war with the stronger; that is the source of eternal hatreds.

The Islamic Arab agenda is the cause of the [civil] war and the cause of the suffering. It is a choice between slavery and freedom. What is life worth to be at peace when you are a slave in your own country? …. The engine which drives the war is injustice.

Today, however, the world is deeply troubled everywhere and disorder seems endless. As the disasters that humankind may suffer are immeasurable, we sincerely hope to bring about a cessation of hostilities and a restoration of peace, and have therefore ordered the government to ally with Germany and Italy, nations which share the same intentions as ourselves ….

Peace, above all things, is to be desired. but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.

This is the Middle East. None of the people who were involved with this will be allowed to live.

To the uncircumcised, son of the uncircumcised, Desbordes, may Allah confound and bring ruin to your friends … No one is more of a malefactor, no one more of a traitor, no one more wicked than you. You say that you only wish to open up a road for trade. This is false and contrary to sense and reason. Your desire is to destroy the country, to close the trade routes and make war on believers….The day when we meet, the birds of the air will not need to look elsewhere for their food.

The march of history is accompanied by a steady flow of bodies into the abattoir of hate.

We will need ploughshares and swords.

After all, it is not nice going to war with one’s equal or possible superior in strength – so different from those delightful “military operations” which consist in “potting”, savages with an amount of danger just sufficient to give a zest to the sport …But then the special line the skill of our ablest and most valiant generals takes is that of “thrashing a cannibal.” Thrashing a Cossack is a different sort of thing.