Margaret Mead Quotes

At the beginning of this century, people never questioned the effectiveness of war, never thought there could be real peace. Now, people are tired of war and see it as ineffective in solving anything.

I see this as the central issue of our time: how to find a substitute for war in human ingenuity, imagination, courage, sacrifice, patience... War is not inevitable, however persistent it is, however long a history it has in human affairs. It does not come out of some instinctive human need. It is manufactured by political leaders, who then must make a tremendous effort--by enticement, by propaganda, by coercion--to mobilize a normally reluctant population to go to war.

Peace is the alternative to war, and nonviolence should be seen as the antidote to violence, not simply as its opposite. Nonviolence is more concerned with saving life than with saving face.

War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life.

Because we want the peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course, continues, because the waging of war, by its nature, is total - but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial.

It is not only war that can stop war but men of goodwill, conscious of their mission can deal with such deadly enemy.

I consider even a victorious war as an evil, from which statesmanship must endeavor to spare nations.

The present war is the saturation point in violence. It spells, to my mind, also its doom.

I think that one can seek a way to eliminate war, and still agree that fighting the Nazis was a good thing.

Today the real test of America's power and wisdom is not our capacity to make war but our capacity to prevent it. Prevention must be our overriding objective. It can be done. Surrendering to the inevitability of combat only paves the way for its occurring.

The methods of peace propaganda which aim at establishing peace doctrine by argument and by creating a feeling favorable to peace in general seem to fall short of reaching the springs of human action and of dealing with the causes of the conduct which they seek to modify.

Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.

It is not our business to collect trophies but to try … [to] bring back the world to peaceful habits

You'll get more from being a peacemaker than a warrior.

Civil wars are the greatest of evils. They are inevitable, if we wish to reward merit, for all will say that they are meritorious.

War's Legitimate Object Is More Perfect Peace.

No man should think that peace comes easily. Peace does not come by merely wanting it, or shouting for it, or marching down Main Street for it. Peace is built brick by brick, mortared by the stubborn effort and the total energy and imagination of able and dedicated men. And it is built in the living faith that, in the end, man can and will master his own destiny.

We are living in a time of many wars. The call for peace must be shouted. Peace sometimes gives the impression of being quiet, but it is never quiet. Peace if always proactive and dynamic.

What’s so civil about war anyway?

I want that there should be a belief, a faith in the possibility of removing mountains to the side of right. If we believe that war is wrong, as everyone must, then we ought to believe that by proper efforts on our part, it may be done away with.

The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace.

If peace is equated simply with the absence of war, it can become abject pacifism that turns the world over to the most ruthless.

You can't beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people revenge-seeking. [...] Our opponents are going to resort to car bombs and suicide attacks because they have no other way to win. I believe (Rumsfeld) thinks this is a war that can be won, but there is no such thing anymore. We can't beat anyone anymore.

I have been apt to think that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or a bad peace.