Pope John XXIII Quotes

The popular, and one may say naive, idea is that peace can be secured by disarmament and that disarmament must therefore precede the attainment of absolute security and lasting peace.

I most sincerely wish that the world in which we live be free from the threat of a nuclear holocaust and from the ruinous arms race. It is my cherished desire that peace be not separated from freedom which is the right of every nation. This I desire and for this I pray.

The surest way to prevent war is not to fear it.

When distrust exists between governments, when there is a danger of war, they will not be willing to disarm even when logic indicates that disarmament would not affect military security at all.

The choice, however, is as clear now for nations as it was once for the individual: peace or extinction.

Where there is no trust, how can we give up our weapons first?

Keep us out of war. Be neutral.

The core of detente [with Russia] is the reduction in arms.

Peace is an unstable equilibrium, which can only be preserved by acknowledged supremacy or equal power.

In this age there can be no losers in peace and no victors in war. We must recognize the obligation to match national strength with national restraint.

A stable world may be one in which the United States can act to secure peace without fear of a nuclear attack.

Though the object of being a Great Power is to be able to fight a Great War, the only way of remaining a Great Power is not to fight one.

There is no need to fear Russia's actions, they are not aggressive... They are aimed at maintaining balance in the world order, and are extremely important for maintaining peace and security globally.

If the history of the past fifty years teaches us anything, it is that peace does not follow disarmament -- disarmament follows peace.

There is a widespread understanding among the people of this nation, and probably among the people of the world, that there is no safety except through the prevention of war.

He [Norman Angell] wrote these words in 1910. One politician after another lined up to praise the book. Four years later, the same men started World War I.

Disarmament requires trust.

The world knows that America will never start a war. This generation of Americans has had enough of war and hate... we want to build a world of peace where the weak are secure and the strong are just.

We can realise a lasting peace and transform the East-West relationship to one of enduring co-operation.

War as Napoleon knew it just not possible any more. However, we're very unlikely to accept or recognize 'world peace' even when we get it.

Moreover, war has become a thing potentially so terrible and destructive that it should have been the common aim of statesmen to put an end to it forever.

Let us assume that the ideal were reached; let us imagine a state of international life in which the danger of war no longer exists. Then no one would dare to demand a penny for obviously completely superfluous armaments.

In 1913 many believed that there would never again be a war in Europe. The great powers of the continent were so closely intertwined economically that the view was widespread that they could no longer afford to have military confrontations.

Nobel was a genuine friend of peace. He even went so far as to believe that he had invented a tool of destruction, dynamite, which would make war so senseless that it would become impossible. He was wrong.

Certain it is that a great responsibility rests upon the statesmen of all nations, not only to fulfill the promises for reduction in armaments, but to maintain the confidence of the people of the world in the hope of an enduring peace.