In times of deep crisis, hope is the light that guides us to find peace and build a better world.
From Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day to Malala Yousafzai, here are some famous leaders from across the world and their words of peace that we hope will inspire you.
Mahatma Gandhi
“There is a higher court than courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
John Lewis
“Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until we end hatred and division.”
Malala Yousafzai
“If you want to end the war, then instead of sending guns, send books. Instead of sending tanks, send pens. Instead of sending soldiers, send teachers.”
Mother Teresa
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
“When we hear and accept what we hear without meeting others, without asking how can it be, without looking for friends outside our circles, when we accept hatred for a group as a legitimate discourse – Pharaoh is alive and well, inside ourselves.”
Dalai Lama XIV
“Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and humane ways.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
Dorothy Day
“What we would like to do is change the world — make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute — the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words — we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
“The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.”
Nelson Mandela
“Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.”
