Non-violence Quotes

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 Edison)
At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love. View quote
Martin Luther King Jr.
Conflict exists only when there are two opposing things: fear and non-fear, violence and non-violence. View quote
Jiddu Krishnamurti
We are opposed to all cruelty, so as advocates of non-violence, opponents of oppression, people who abhor the cruelty inherent in slaughtering we say the only ethical way to consume flesh is to pick up the carcass of an animal who has died naturally or been killed accidentally, say by being hit by a car, and eat that. View quote
Ingrid Newkirk
I really believe in non-violence, but I also believe in a short of resistance that has to be respectful. View quote
Alexandra Paul
Concerning non-violence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks. View quote
Malcolm X
There are thousands of people who feel that it is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and non-violence - against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenceless people. View quote
Nelson Mandela
One individual can begin a movement that turns the tide of history. Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement, Mohandas Ganhi in India, Nelson Mandela in South Africa are examples of people standing up with courage and non-violence to bring about needed changes. View quote
Jack Canfield
What is magnificent about humans is when they decide to turn and stand. If they respond with non-violence on principle and hold their ground, they are really magnificent. View quote
James Cromwell
Violence is not more efficient than non-violence. View quote
Andrew Young
Together we can decrease the level of violence, raise awareness of our activities and save lives around the world. The impact of a day of global ceasefire and non-violence cannot be underestimated. (Jeremy Gilley)
Non-violence is not glamorous, and you don't see the effects right away. View quote
Julia Bacha
If I do not respond to some situation, my conscience kills me. I believe in permissible violence, not necessarily non-violence. View quote
Pawan Kalyan
On examination, I have found [Hinduism] to be the most tolerant of all religions known to me. Its freedom from dogma makes a forcible appeal to me in as much as it gives the votary the largest scope for self-expression. Not being an exclusive religion, it enables the followers of the faith not merely to respect all the other religions, but it also enables them to admire and assimilate whatever may be good in the other faiths. Non-violence is common to all religions, but it has found the highest expression and application in Hinduism. (I do not regard Jainism or Buddhism as separate from Hinduism.) Hinduism believes in the oneness not of merely all human life but in the oneness of all that lives. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi
Whatever the ultimate fate of my country, my love for you remains, and will remain, undiminished. My non-violence demands universal love, and you are not a small part of it. It is that love which has prompted my appeal to you. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi
It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our breasts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi
Disobedience without civility, discipline, discrimination, non-violence, is certain destruction. Disobedience combined with love is the living water of life. Civil disobedience is a beautiful variant to signify growth, it is not discordance which spells death. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi
Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi
Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi
My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realising Him. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi
Non-violence is not 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 being. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Non-violence is the article of faith. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi
We have to live and move and have our being in ahimsa, even as Hitler does in himsa. It is the faith and perseverance and single-mindedness with which he has perfected his weapons of destruction that commands my admiration. That he uses them as a monster is immaterial for our purpose. We have to bring to bear the same single-mindedness and perseverance in evolving our ahimsa. Hitler is awake all the 24 hours of the day in perfecting his sadhana. He wins because he pays the price. His inventions surprise his enemies. But it is his single-minded devotion to his purpose that should be the object of our admiration and emulation. Although he works all his waking hours, his intellect is unclouded and unerring. Are our intellects unclouded and unerring? A mere belief in ahimsa or the charkha will not do. It should be intelligent and creative. If intellect plays a large part in the field of violence, I hold that it plays a larger part in the field of non-violence. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi
By its very nature, non-violence cannot ‘seize' power, nor can that be its goal. But non-violence can do more; it can effectively control and guide power without capturing the machinery of government. That is its beauty. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi
The only thing lawful is non-violence. Violence can never be lawful in the sense meant here, i.e., not according to man-made laws, but according to the laws made by Nature for man. View quote
Mahatma Gandhi