Alfred Hermann Fried Quotes

To Perpetual Peace

The founders of the United Nations sought to replace a world at war with a world of civilized order. They hoped that a world of relentless conflict would give way to a new era, one where freedom from violence prevailed.... But the awful truth is that the use of violence for political gain has become more, not less, widespread in the last decade.

As long as the same passions and interests subsist among mankind, the questions of war and peace, of justice and policy, which were debated in the councils of antiquity, will frequently present themselves as the subject of modern deliberation.

Churchill knew the importance of peace, and he also knew the price of it. Churchill finally got his voice, of course. He stressed strategy, but it was his voice that armed England at last with the old-fashioned moral concepts of honor and duty, justice and mercy.

Law is always better than war.

In a shrinking world, the absence of order among nations is becoming less and less tolerable.

We are much in the position of those who love peace so much that they are ready to fight for it.

We are equal in war but not in peace.

Americans must not be given the impression that they have a duty to go to war against every evil leader in the world and against every transgression of the international order.

Borders cannot be redrawn in blood.

The United Nations’ founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America’s consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.

Democracies don't go to war against each other, and by and large they don't sponsor terrorism. They're more likely to respect the environment and human rights and social justice. It's no accident that most of the terrorists come from non-democratic countries.

Perpetual peace is a futile dream.

War has become a mode of sovereignty and rule, eroding the distinction between war and peace.

It may be that for a long time some nations will continue to fight each other, but the example of those nations who prefer arbitration to war, law courts to the battlefield, must sooner or later influence the belligerent powers and make war as unpopular as pugilism is now.

I prefer the hardest terms of peace to the most just war.

Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.

The end of the Cold War removed the immediate causes of whole destruction but not the threat contained in our knowledge. We must tame this knowledge with the ideals of justice, caring, and compassion summoned from our common human spiritual and moral heritage, if we are to live in peace and serenity in the twenty-first century.

In war, in some sense, lies the very genius of law. It is law creative and active; it is the first principle of the law. What is human warfare but just this, - an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party. Men make an arbitrary code, and, because it is not right, they try to make it prevail by might. The moral law does not want any champion. Its asserters do not go to war. It was never infringed with impunity. It is inconsistent to decry war and maintain law, for if there were no need of war there would be no need of law.

Wars are to be undertaken in order that it may be possible to live in peace without molestation.

War is the rule of force, and peace is the reign of law.

There is a difference between myself and some of the peace people in Europe: whereas they think that the ultimate evil in the world is war, I think the ultimate evil in the world is aggression, and aggression sometimes must be repelled by force.

We have practiced diplomacy since the very beginning of the nation. Sometimes it has not worked, and we've had to go to war. I always believe you should try to find peace and reconciliation before conflict. That has been the approach I've taken.

It is our belief that nations should embrace dialogue and peaceful settlement of disputes instead of rushing to arms, for suffering and bloodshed will ensue.

I was born in 1962, and it seems that throughout my entire life the world has demanded peace but maintained conflict.