Quotes About Violence

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit.  You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.  ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.


In some cases nonviolence requires more militancy than violence.  ~ Cesar Chavez


So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private citizens will occasionally kill theirs.  ~ Elbert Hubbard


I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed, without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.


Violence in the voice is often only the death rattle of reason in the throat.  ~ John Frederick Boyes


People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.  ~ George Orwell


The only thing that's been a worse flop than the organization of non-violence has been the organization of violence.  ~ Joan Baez


Never strike your wife - even with a flower.  ~ Hindu proverb


I don't even call it violence when it's in self defense; I call it intelligence.  ~ Malcolm X


I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.  ~ John Lennon


The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi


If it's natural to kill, how come men have to go into training to learn how?  ~ Joan Baez


Violence is essentially wordless. and it can begin only where thought and rational communication have broken down,  ~ Thomas Merton


Those who abjure violence can only do so by others committing violence on their behalf.  ~ George Orwell


Violence is a disease, a disease that corrupts all who use it regardless of the cause.  ~ Chris Hedges


Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -how passionately I hate them!  ~ Albert Einstein


Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi


Violence is just, wher kindness is vain.  ~ Corneille


Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.  ~ Salvor Hardin


I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.  ~ Hunter S. Thompson


Poverty is the worst form of violence.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi


How fortunate it was for the world that when these great trials came upon it there was a generation that terror could not conquer and brutal violence could not enslave.  ~ Winston Churchill


Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.  ~ Alexis de Tocqueville


Violence is the repartee of the illiterate.  ~ George Bernard Shaw


Violence is man re-creating himself.  ~ Frantz Fanon


Poverty is the worst form of violence.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi


Art should cause violence to be set aside and it is only art that can accomplish this.  ~ Leo Tolstoy


Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.


Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.  ~ Thomas A. Edison


Violence is never the answer but sometimes, like with cockroaches, it is the only possible response.  ~ Tanya Huff


Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr


We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.  ~ John Lennon


Root out the violence in your life, and learn to live compassionately and mindfully. Seek peace. When you have peace within, real peace with others is possible.  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh


I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi


Violence is as American as cherry pie.  ~ H. Rap Brown


Do not conquer the world with force, for force only causes resistance. Thorns spring up when an army passes. Years of misery follow a great victory. Do only what needs to be done without using violence.  ~ Lao Tzu


Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat for it is momentary.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi


We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.


I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi


All violence, all that is dreary and repels, is not power, but the absence of power.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.  ~ Mahatma Ghandi


See, people with power understand exactly one thing: violence.  ~ Noam Chomsky


The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.


The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.  ~ David Friedman


Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.  ~ Leo Tolstoy


Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men.  ~ Augustine of Hippo