193 Quotes About Nonviolence

Dr. King's policy was that nonviolence would achieve the gains for black people in the United States. His major assumption was that if you are nonviolent, if you suffer, your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That's very good. He only made one fallacious assumption: In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.

One tended to lose one’s bearings in the presence of willful and persistent acts of craziness, and the more gentle the act, the crazier it seemed, as if rage and violence, being closer to the norm, were easier to accommodate.

Had he learned nothing from all those years of teaching Hawthorne? Through story after story he’d led his boys to consider the folly of obsession with purity – its roots sunk deep in pride, flowering condemnation and violence against others and self.

Cowards show violence The people whobelief in non-violence never ask for revenge. They are strong enough to share love and appreciation in return.

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!

Returning insult for insult is justice, returning injury for insult is injustice.

When you find someone committing harm, restrain them, but don't do harm in return. Animals behave the way they do, because they can't help themselves, but humans must be better than that.

Violence cannot be revolution. Either you can have violence or you can have revolution.

Why isn't it justified to resort to violence in the course of justice? It's because if you resort to violence for your conviction of humanity, then nothing stops the inhumans to resort to violence for their conviction. Hence nothing changes. We must change the very notion that it is okay to resort to violence if we want to change the society. What's need is a desire for reform founded entirely on the premise of peace.