Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

Apostle Paul

 

I believe that the major religions of the world have their roots in love, tolerance, respect and nonviolence. Therefore, I passionately believe that the only way to accomplish real change is through the power of love operating in the world.
Mairead Maguire

 

Treat people the same way you want them to treat you.
Jesus

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This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good,
falsehood with truth, and hatred with love.

Peace Pilgrim

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The way of Jesus is the way of active nonviolence against evil. He does not use evil means to fight evil. As a Christian I repent that we Christians have not taught or lived the full gospel message of Jesus’ nonviolence and love for enemies. I am convinced, however, that we are evolving into a new age, and that in time, the Christian church will again proclaim a theology of nonviolence
as the norm for Christian life.
Mairead Maguire

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The way to peace is through forgiveness.  There is no other way.

A Course in Miracles

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People try nonviolence for a week, and when it doesn’t ‘work’ they go back to violence, which hasn’t worked for centuries

Michael N. Nagler

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

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Love is what we were born with.  Fear is what we leaned here.
Marianne Williamson

 

Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.
Apostle Paul

 

There is no fear in love, but perfect love replaces fear.

Apostle John

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Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. This is not the peace the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Jesus

 

The Christian is independent of every human authority by the fact that he regards the divine law of love…as the sole guide of his life…. The Christian will not dispute with anyone, nor attack anyone, nor use violence against anyone. 

On the contrary he will bear violence without opposing it.
But by this very attitude to violence, he will not only himself be free, but will free the whole world from all external power.

Leo Tolstoy

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Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars….Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

A Course In Miracles

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Hope is the final refusal to give up.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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All men desire peace, but few there are
who desire the things that make for peace.
Thomas a Kempis

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For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross,
he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.

Apostle Paul

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“If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.”
― Lao-tse

 

Jesus’ strategy is “love your neighbor as yourself” and “love your enemies.” This means we overcome evil through active nonviolence. We respect the humanity of each person, even if we cannot agree with that person’s actions.

Mairead Maguire

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Inner peace doesn’t come from getting what we want
but in remembering who we are.
Marianne Williamson

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This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real ….

You are not a drop in the ocean but the entire ocean in a drop.

Why do you stay in prison when the door is wide open?

  Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes, because for those who love with their heart & soul there is no separation….

Love is the bridge between you and everything….

You need not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.

Rumi

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Peace is an attribute in you. You cannot find it outside. All mental illness is some form of external searching. Mental health is inner peace.
A Course in Miracles

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I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence, we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural injustice, exclusion of citizens for management of the country, and repression.
Oscar Romeo

 

The choice is no longer violence or nonviolence;
it’s nonviolence or non-existence.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Put your sword back in its place,
for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.
Jesus
 

Don’t live the way this world lives.
Let your way of thinking be completely changed.

Apostle Paul

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We are constantly being astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence.
Mahatma Gandhi

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Nonviolent action on behalf of suffering humanity and
peace is the core requirement of Christian discipleship.
John Dear

 

We can change the world if we do it nonviolently. If we can just show people how they can organize nonviolently, we can’t fail.
Nonviolence has never failed when it’s tried.

Cesar Chavez

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The issue of war is perhaps the most crucial test point for our age.  The point where we are asked whether it is ultimately Jesus
or some other authority that we confess as the light of the world.
John Howard Yoder

Especially in the view of the eruptive signs of the times, the fundamental option of faith in Jesus Christ requires faith in redemption from violence.
Bernard Häring

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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
Marianne Williamson

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"In the spiritual renaissance that I believe is coming to birth, it will not be the message of Paul…or the Reformation…but the human figure of Jesus. 
And in the teachings of Jesus, the sayings on nonviolence
and love of enemies will hold the central place…"

Walter Wink

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"You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
Jesus

To reject Christ’s command of non-resistance to evil is
a misunderstanding of the teaching of Christ
Leo Tolstoy

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The character which Christ has set forth in the Beatitudes is purity, love and truth in a world given over to violence. He repudiated violence in all its forms…
C.F. Andrews

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You know that you have been taught, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I tell you offer no violent resistance to the one who does evil.

Jesus

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If we practice and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,  soon the whole world will be blind and toothless.

Mahatma Gandhi

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There is only one problem and one solution.
All problems are a deviation from love, and all solutions are a return to it.
Marianne Williamson

Europe took the bold and brave resistance of Jesus Christ for passive resistance, as it was of the weak.  As I read the New Testament, I detected no weakness and no passivity about Jesus as depicted in the four gospels.
Mahatma Gandhi

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If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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May nobody wish harm to any single creature. Let us cherish all beings as a mother her only child. May our loving thoughts fill the whole world, above, below, across, without limit; a boundless goodwill toward the whole world,
unrestricted, free from hate and enmity.
The Buddha

To me, nonviolence is the all-important virtue to be nourished

and studied and cultivated.

Dorothy Day

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I think nonviolence is a very natural way of doing things,
and violence is highly out of the ordinary.
Cesar Chavez

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 Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven
and everything else shall be added unto you.
The Kingdom of Heaven is nonviolence.
Mahatma Gandhi

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Through nonviolence, courage displaces fear, love transforms hate...
justice for all overthrows injustice.
Rev. James Lawson

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We have to make truth and nonviolence not matters for mere individual practice but for practice by groups and communities and nations. That at any rate is my dream. I shall live and die in trying to realize it.

Mahatma Gandhi

 

The essence of nonviolence is love... Nonviolence is not a dogma; it is a process. Other struggles may be fueled by greed, fear, or ignorance, but a nonviolent one cannot use such blind sources of energy, for they will destroy those involved and also the struggle itself. Nonviolent action, born of the awareness of suffering and nurtured by love,is the most effective way to confront adversity.

Thich Nhat Hanh

 

I’m committed to nonviolence absolutely. I’m just not going to kill anybody, whether it’s in Vietnam or here. I’m not going to burn down any building. If nonviolent protest fails, I will continue to preach it and teach it. I plan to stand by nonviolence because I have found it to be a philosophy of life that regulates not only my dealings in the struggle for racial justice, but also my dealings with people, with my own self. I will still be faithful to nonviolence.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Love is not neutral; it takes a stand.
It is a commitment to the attainment of the conditions of peace
for everyone involved in a situation.
Marianne Williamson

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If we choose to live nonviolently, we will have to do more than pledge never to kill another. Our nonviolence must push us to reject every weapon of mass destruction, every war, and every gun right down to the refusal even to slight another person. This way of active nonviolence will enable us to change our unjust political structures and redistribute the world’s goods equally. From now on, we will uphold the sanctity of life and treat everyone with the deepest respect.

Mairead Maguire

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Nonviolence is the great and most active force in the world. One person who can express nonviolence in life exercises a force superior to all the forces of brutality. My optimism rests on my belief in the infinite possibilities of the individual to develop nonviolence. The more you develop it in your own being, the more infectious it becomes till it overwhelms your surroundings
and by and by might over sweep the world.
Mahatma Gandhi

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Your nonviolence must shine through your speech,
your action, your general behavior.
Mahatma Gandhi

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Living as we are in a time of emergency, thrown together in companionship with others of different races and creeds, let us try to think of ourselves as a community.  Let us live in peace, and then we are a little oasis of peace in a war-torn world. Let us have no bitterness, no class strife, so that we can build up our strength to work for justice and love. Let us pray together, no matter what our faith is, for each other and for the whole world.
Dorothy Day 

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Nonviolence is not like a garment to be put on and off at will.
Its seat is in the heart, and it must be
an inseparable part of our very being.
Mahatma Gandhi

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Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.
Apostle Paul

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Devotion to nonviolence is the highest expression
of humanity’s conscious state.
Mahatma Gandhi

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Jesus calls us to … “hate” money, give it away to the poor, simplify our lives, practice universal love and compassion, and focus our attention, time, and energy on the God of love and peace. Of course, this either/or teaching can be applied to all the consequences of the idolatry of money. Jesus could just as easily say: “You cannot serve both God and country". "You cannot serve both God and war." "You cannot serve both God and nuclear weapons." "You cannot serve both the God of life and peace and the false gods of death and war." 
It’s one or the other.

John Dear

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Nonviolence means avoiding injury to anything on earth
in thought, word, or deed.
Mahatma Gandhi

 

At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives. Agape love means understanding redeeming good will for all men and women, an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. It is the love of God working in the lives of men and women. When we love on the agape level we love men and women not because we like them, not because their attitudes and ways appeal to us, but because God loves them. Here we rise to the position of loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed he does.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson

 

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.
When evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo,
good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Catastrophic climate change is the natural consequence of global systemic violence. That means, it is intimately connected with racism, sexism, classism, militarism, war, nuclear weapons, and every form of violence.
John Dear

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There is no greater block to world peace, or inner peace, than fear.
What we fear we tend to develop an unreasonable hatred for...and we tend to attract the things which we fear.  If we fear nothing and radiate love, we can expect good things to come.

Peace Pilgrim

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Was not Jesus an extremist in love—"love your enemies, bless them that curse you…" Was not Amos an extremist for justice—"Let justice roll down like waters…" Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ?... The question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the  preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?
Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation… Let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter--but beautiful--struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons and daughters of God.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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