Non-Violent Conflict Quotes

In human societies there will always be differences of views and interests. But the reality today is that we are all interdependent and have to coexist on this small planet. Therefore, the only sensible and intelligent way of resolving differences and clashes of interests, whether between individuals or nations, is through dialogue. The promotion of a culture of dialogue and nonviolence for the future of humankind is thus an important task of the international community. It is not enough for governments to endorse the principle of nonviolence or hold it high without any appropriate action to promote it.

What is happened in the years since the Second World War is not a temporary truce. It is not simply a ceasefire. Instead of battling with weapons and armaments, people battle only with arguments and ideas.

No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one. You can wipe out your opponents. But if you do it unjustly you become eligible for being wiped out yourself.

A woman would never make a nuclear bomb. They would never make a weapon that kills - no, no. They'd make a weapon that makes you feel bad for a while.

Mediation is one of the most effective tools of non-violence. It can turn parties away from conflict, towards compromise.

If you can't protect yourself with talk, you won't be alive to protect yourself with guns.

The aim of war now is not to defeat your enemy – that’s probably impossible – but to change the way he and his supporters think.

Dialogue is the basis of Indian culture, and we don't want to make any enemies. Political and ideological adversaries, perhaps, but not enemies.

Free societies, which allow differences to speak and be heard, and live by intermarriage, commerce, and free migration, and democratic societies, which convert enemies into adversaries and reconcile differences without resort to violence, are societies in which the genocidal temptation is unlikely and even inconceivable.

Do I think there's a fight against the media and the Democrats? Yes, but I think it's one that's done with our heart and our minds. I don't believe that it's ever something being done with the fist.

Don’t swear; fight!

When conflicts end non-violently, it's more likely that the result will be longer-lasting, democratic societies.

In true budo there is no enemy or opponent. True budo is to become one with the universe, not train to become powerful or to throw down some opponent. Rather we train in hopes of being of some use, however small our role may be, in the task of bringing peace to mankind around the world.

Democracy is, in essence, a form of non-violent conflict management. If war is the worst enemy of development, healthy and balanced development is the best form of conflict prevention.

I've had a lot of arguments with people, but it's never really gotten physical.

If people want to make war they should make a color war, and paint each others’ cities up in the night in pinks and greens.

For me, I see myself as a role model because, everything I do, there is a person somewhere who needs to hear me spread a message of non-violent conflict resolution.

People who don't understand fighting think you need to hate somebody to beat them. But I keep hate and anger out of boxing, because it causes mistakes.

We are disagreeing. We are failing to reach compromises. But we are not killing each other.

War should be undertaken in such a way as to show that its only object is peace.

The jihad with decisive proofs and the tongue takes precedence over the jihad with the sword and the spear

Libel actions, when we look at them in perspective, are an ornament of a civilized society. They have replaced, after all, at least in most cases, a resort to weapons in defense of a reputation.