Chief Joseph Quotes

We want peace, but not at any price.

Yoiu have to fight in order to live in peace.

When human beings live together, conflict is inevitable. War is not.

In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it.

Let me just say: Peace to you, if you're willing to fight for it.

It is highly probable that in most cases, war could be avoided or ended. For discussions allow passion to subside, and to persuade alienated neighbors, or at least one of them, to listen to the voice of a conciliator is a step in the direction of peace.

War is never a lasting solution for any problem.

The war... was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides.

We will not have peace by afterthought.

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

War is what happens when language fails.

Smoke the pipe of peace, bury the tomahawk, and become one nation.

If peace cannot be maintained with honour, it is no longer peace.

I could start a war in 30 seconds. But some countries spend 100 years trying to find peace. Just like good manners, peace has to be learned.

Take away the violence and who will hear the men of peace?

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

We love peace, but not peace at any price.

Making peace, I have found, is much harder than making war.

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

Peace will never be won if men reserve for war their greatest efforts.

But the real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.

There is no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended. Conflicts are started by human beings, sustained by human beings, and they can be ended by human beings.

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.

There is no such thing as a conflict that cannot be ended.

It is easier to obstruct peace than it is to promote it.