CURATED COLLECTION

Choosing Peace Over Conflict

The choice to de-escalate takes more strength than the choice to fight — and these words make the case.

43 quotes found

“
It is a general and necessary law of nature to rule wherever one can.

—ThucydidesGeneral & Historian

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

“
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

—Winston ChurchillStatesman & Writer

Early Modern ERA • Western Europe

“
With malice toward none, with charity for all.

—Abraham LincolnPresident

Industrial Age ERA • North America

“
I was born in the night of January second to third, 1891.

—Osip MandelstamPoet

Early Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

“
History has never been made by happy people.

—Boris PilnyakNovelist

Early Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

“
Guerrilla warfare requires patience, resilience, and the support of the people.

—Chin PengAuthor & Thinker

Contemporary ERA • Southeast Asia

“
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

—Sun TzuAuthor

Ancient World ERA • East Asia

“
Death is nothing to me, if I die for my country.

—Sándor PetőfiPoet & Revolutionary

Industrial Age ERA • Eastern Europe

“
Exile is a wound that never heals, only changes its shape.

—Marjorie AgosínPoet & Activist

Late Modern ERA • Latin America

“
Peace is not an absence of war; it is a virtue, a state of mind.

—Gabriela MistralPoet, Diplomat & Author

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
The jungle does not lie. It keeps every secret you bury in it.

—Chin PengAuthor & Thinker

Post-War ERA • Southeast Asia

“
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

—John F. KennedyPresident

Post-War ERA • North America

“
The state is broken; mountains and rivers remain.

—Du FuPoet & Sage

Medieval ERA • East Asia

“
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

—KautilyaPhilosopher & Economist

Ancient World ERA • South Asia

“
Unless war be better than peace, then peace is more noble.

—John MiltonEnglish Poet and Intellectual

Renaissance ERA • Western Europe

“
There are many causes that I am prepared to die for, but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.

—Mahatma GandhiLawyer

Early Modern ERA • South Asia

“
My only duty is to bear witness. To tell what I saw and what I heard.

—Nadezhda MandelstamMemoirist

Post-War ERA • Eastern Europe

“
The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

—ThucydidesGeneral & Historian

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

“
Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

—Gautama BuddhaSpiritual Teacher

Ancient World ERA • South Asia

“
I was born in Budapest in 1929 and the twentieth century immediately showed me its face.

—Imre KertészNovelist

Contemporary ERA • Eastern Europe

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