Best 148 quotes in «nonviolence quotes» category

We can't win the world with weapons or violence. We can win the world with love and practice of nonviolence.

We should always be clear that animal exploitation is wrong because it involves speciesism. And speciesism is wrong because, like racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-semitism, classism, and all other forms of human discrimination, speciesism involves violence inflicted on members of the moral community where that infliction of violence cannot be morally justified. But that means that those of us who oppose speciesism necessarily oppose discrimination against humans. It makes no sense to say that speciesism is wrong because it is like racism (or any other form of discrimination) but that we do not have a position about racism. We do. We should be opposed to it and we should always be clear about that.

We should not be surprised that more and more people feel comfortable about consuming animal products. After all, they are being assured by the “experts” that suffering is being decreased and they can buy “happy” meat, “free-range” eggs, etc.. These products even come with labels approved of by animal organizations. The animal welfare movement is actually encouraging the “compassionate” consumption of animal products. Animal welfare reforms do very little to increase the protection given to animal interests because of the economics involved: animals are property. They are things that have no intrinsic or moral value. This means that welfare standards, whether for animals used as foods, in experiments, or for any other purpose, will be low and linked to the level of welfare needed to exploit the animal in an economically efficient way for the particular purpose. Put simply, we generally protect animal interests only to the extent we get an economic benefit from doing so. The concept of “unnecessary” suffering is understood as that level of suffering that will frustrate the particular use. And that can be a great deal of suffering. Killing Animals and Making Animals Suffer | Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach

We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface hidden tension that is already alive

What does our commitment to nonviolence mean as citizens of one of the most powerful and oppressive nations in recorded history?

You see all the other fellows were so active and earnest and all that sort of thing- always rampaging, and skirmishing, and scouring the desert sands, and pacing the margin of the sea, and chasing knights all over the place, and devouring damsels, and going on generally- whereas I liked to get my meals regular and then to prop my back against a bit of rock and snooze a bit, and wake up and think of things going on and how they kept going on just the same, you know!

When you are grateful,' Brother Steindl-Rast explained, 'you are not fearful, and when you are not fearful, you are not violent. When you are grateful, you act out of a sense of enough and not out of a sense of scarcity, and you are willing to share. If you are grateful, you are enjoying the differences between people and respectful to all people. The grateful world is a world of joyful people. Grateful people are joyful people. A grateful world is a happy world.

You kill life and call it an act of religion. Then what is irreligion?

Complete independence will be complete only to the extent of our approach in practice to truth and nonviolence.

My love for nonviolence is superior to every other thing, mundane or super mundane.

I hold that without truth and nonviolence there can be nothing but destruction of humanity.

For mass struggles, nonviolence is essential.

For me nonviolence is a creed. I must act up to it, whether I am alone or have companions.

[He] alone is truly nonviolent who remains nonviolent even though he has the ability to strike.

I have no weapon but nonviolence.

In a society based on nonviolence, the smallest nation will feel as tall as the tallest.

India has an unbroken tradition of nonviolence from times immemorial.

I will not have the power of nonviolence to be underestimated in order to cover my limitations or weaknesses.

Marshall took nonviolence a step further - beyond Gandhi.

Nonviolence is the summit of bravery.

Nonviolence is the means, the end for everyone is complete independence.

Nonviolent defence presupposes recklessness about one's life and property.

Nonviolence and cowardice go ill together.

Nonviolence does not require any outside or outward training.

Nonviolence is an unchangeable creed.

Nonviolence is essentially based on recognizing the humanity in every one one of us.

Nonviolence abhors fear and therefore, secrecy.

Nonviolence cannot be learnt by staying at home.

Nonviolence is a plant of slow growth, it grows imperceptibly but surely.

Nonviolence requires more courage than the soldier of war.

No perfect democracy is possible without perfect nonviolence at the back of it.

Perfect nonviolence is difficult. It admits to no weakness.

Self-suppression is often necessary in the interest of truth and nonviolence.

Preaching nonviolence on principle reproduces the existing institutionalized violence.

The Charkha is an outward symbol of truth and nonviolence.

The Charkha is the symbol of nonviolence on which all life, if it is to be real life, must be based.

The bravery of the nonviolent is vastly superior to that of the violent.

The lessons of nonviolence are universal. Not just for America.

The practice of truth and nonviolence melted religious differences, and we learnt to see beauty in each religion.

The panoplied warrior of truth and nonviolence is ever and incessantly active.

There is nothing but nonviolence to fall back upon for retaining our freedom, even as we had to do for gaining it.

There is no such thing as compulsion in the scheme of nonviolence.

Truth (satya) is positive, nonviolence is negative.

The spinning wheel is a symbol of nonviolence for me.

To build a mass movement, nonviolence is indispensable.

3. War Peace & Action - 3B.02 LOVE & PEACE Hatred goes not by hatred, Violence not by violence, Disappear hatred and violence, By love, understanding, non-violence. [241] - 3B

Veganism is about nonviolence: nonviolence to other sentient beings; nonviolence to yourself; nonviolence to the earth.

A final victory is an accumulation of many short-term encounters. To lightly dismiss a success because it does not usher in a complete order of justice is to fail to comprehend the process of full victory. It underestimates the value of confrontation and dissolves the confidence born of partial victory by which new efforts are powered.

Advaita, being the non-dual reality, necessarily points to the essential truth in all religions. Paula Marvelly points out that: 'All religions and faiths contain an esoteric heart, a mystical belief that I AM is in fact synonymous with God.' (Ref. 353) As Gandhi said: 'If the same divinity constitutes the core of all individuals, they cannot but be equal. Further, divinity in one person cannot in any way be unjust to the same divinity in another person.' (Ref. 215) Sayings from the bible such as those of God to Moses ('I am that I am' ) or of Christ ('The kingdom of heaven is within you') express the fundamental truth of Advaita, the non-dual reality of Brahman.

Action is a part of the very reality it transforms, just as the wave is a part of the ocean. The point is not to renounce action, but to act with serenity. Our action will be all the more effective, and all the happier.