Violence quotes
1.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside violence — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"While all other things are uncertain, evanescent, and ephemeral, virtue alone is fixed with deep roots; it can neither be overthrown by any violence or moved from its place."
"Argument closes off the doors of the senses. It always masks violence. Continued too long, argument always leads to violence."
"They say they seek security and quiet, the condition they call peace. Even as they speak they create the seeds of turmoil and violence."
"Behind every person who’s committed an unimaginable crime is an adult who committed unimaginable violence against them as a child. All of them, as if it was plotted that way. Violence begets violence, and that violence begets even more violence."
"Deliberate violence is more to be quenched than a fire"
"Violence is not a catalyst but a diversion."
"The question is no longer between violence and non-violence it is between non-violence and non-existence."
"If there are sound reasons or bases for the points you demand, then there is no need for violence. On the other hand, when there is no sound reason that concessions should be made to you but mainly your own desire, then reason cannot work and you have to rely on force. Thus using force is not a sign of strength but rather a sign of weakness."
"Refraining from harm, not out of fear, but out of concern for others, their well-being and out of respect is non-violence."
"Although under particular circumstances, the violence method - any method - can be justified, nevertheless once you commit violence, then counterviolence will be returned."
"I could justify violence only in this extreme case, to save the last living knowledge of Buddhism itself."
"Humanity happy, I get benefit. Humanity in state of trouble, or violence, I cannot escape from that."
"We don't need to respond with desperate violence."
"The world's a poor standard. any society which is free of hunger and violence looks bright against that background."
"I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there's nothing weak - nothing passive - nothing naïve - in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King."
"We may never understand what leads anybody to terrorize their fellow human beings. Such violence, such evil is senseless. It's beyond reason."
"The fundamentalist violence is, so is it, an attempt to increase the stakes, i.e. to discourage the potential desertions by showing that defection will cost them dear, that those who adopt other values will be persecuted or even killed."
"Violence is its own anesthetist. The numbness it induces feels very much like calm."
"[Uniting workers should not] lead to a war upon property, or the owners of property."
"Destruction, violence, ravages, murder, are perpetrated by statute law."
