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peace quotes

  • Peace cannot be built on exclusion. That has been the price of the last 30 years.

    - Gerry (Gerard) Adams
      In the Daily Telegraph,11  Apr.

  • See in what peace a Christian can die.

    -Joseph Addison
      Last words, to his stepson Lord Warwick. Quoted in EdwardYoung Conjectures on Original Composition (1759).

  • Pees maketh plente; Plente maketh pride; Pride make plee; Plee maketh povert; Povert maketh pees. Peace makes plenty; Plenty makes pride; Pride makes lawsuits; Lawsuits make poverty; Poverty makes peace.

    -Anonymous
    c.1470  Untitled lyric.

  • Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon, July1969.We came in peace for all mankind.

    -Anonymous
    AD1969  Text of the plaque left on the moon by the first astronauts to walk there, Buzz  Aldrin and Neil  Armstrong, 20  Jul.

  • The castor oil of the Palestinian peace movement.

    -Anonymous
      Of PLO ChairYassir  Arafat. In NPR broadcast, 4  Jul.

  •    Calm soul of all things! make it mine To feel, amid the city's jar, That there abides a peace of thine, Man did not make, and cannot mar.

    - Matthew Arnold
      Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems,'Lines written in Kensington Garden'.

  • Let us reunite ourselves with our better mind and with the world through science; and let it be one of our angelic revenges on the Philistines, who among their other sins are theguiltyauthors of Fenianism, tofound at Oxford a chair of Celtic, and to send, through the gentle ministration of science, a message of peace to Ireland.

    - Matthew Arnold
      'On the Study of Celtic Literature'.

  • When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.

    -W(ystan) H(ugh) Auden
      'The Unknown Citizen'.

  • Hark! The herald angels sing! Beecham's Pills are just the thing, Two for a woman, one for a child, Peace on earth and mercy mild!

    - SirThomas Beecham
    Quoted in Neville Cardus Sir Thomas Beecham (1961). Sir Thomas was heir to the Beecham pharmaceutical company.

  • The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.

    -William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge
      Social Insurance and  Allied Services, pt.7.

  • The L bless thee, and keep thee: The L makehisfaceshineuponthee, and be gracious unto thee: The L lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDORDORDNumbers 6:24^6.

  • Is it peace? and Jehu said,What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Kings 9:18.

  • But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Psalms 37:11.

  • Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Psalms119:165.

  • Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Psalms122:6^7.

  • Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that gettethunderstanding.For themerchandise of it isbetter than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the thingsthoucanst desirearenottobe compared untoher. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Proverbs 3:13^18.

  • To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Atimeto be born, and atimeto die; atimetoplant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; Atimetoweep, and atimeto laugh; atimetomourn, and a time to dance: A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Ecclesiastes 3:1^8.

  • For unto us a child is born, unto us a son isgiven: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,Counseller,The mighty God, The everlasting Father,The Prince of Peace.Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, uponthethrone of David, and uponhis kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the L of hosts will perform this.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDIsaiah 9:6^7.

  • Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Isaiah 26:3.

  • How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion,Thy God reigneth! Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the L shall bring again Zion.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDIsaiah 52:7^8.

  • But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we likesheep havegoneastray; wehaveturned everyoneto his own way; and the L hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDIsaiah 53:5^7.

  • For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Isaiah 55:12.

  • Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the L; and I will heal him.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    ORDIsaiah 57:19.

  • There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Isaiah 57:21.

  • Saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Jeremiah 6:14.

  • But thesouls of therighteous are inthehand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, And their going from us to be utter destruction: but theyare in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having beena little chastised,theyshall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself.

    -Bible (Apocrypha)
    Wisdom of Solomon 3:1^5.

  • Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.

    -Bible (Apocrypha)
    Ecclesiasticus 44:14.

  • Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew10:34.

  • Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Luke 2:29^32.

  • And intowhatsoeverhouseye enter, first say,Peacebeto this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Luke10:5^7.

  • And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Luke19:40.

  •   Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St  John14:27.

  • And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Ephesians 2:17.

  • Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Philippians 4:4^7.

  •    Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum in pace. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace: according to thy word. See Bible (NewTestament) 115:27.

    -Bible (Vulgate)
    St Luke 2:29.

  •    PaxVobis. Peace be unto you.

    -Bible (Vulgate)
    St Luke 24:36.

  • Peace, n. In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.

    - Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
      The Cynic's Word Book. Retitled  The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

  • For Mercy has a human heart Pity a human face: And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress.

    -William Blake
      Songs of Innocence,'The Divine Image'.

  • The Church knows nothing of a sacredness of war. The Church which prays'Our Father'asks God only for peace.

    - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
      Draft of a new Catechism with F Hildebrandt, in Gesammelte Schriften, vol.3 (1947, translated by E Robinson and J Bowden in No Rusty Sword,1965).

  • Give peace in our time,O Lord.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Morning Prayer, versicle.

  • The author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Morning Prayer, Second Collect, for Peace.

  • O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed: Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Evening Prayer, Second Collect.

  • The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keepyourheartsandmindsintheknowledgeand love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord: And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you and remain with you always. Amen.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Holy Communion, Blessing.

  • Therefore if any man can shew any just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Solemnization of Marriage, Exhortation.

  • Peace be to this house.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Visitation of the Sick.

  • I myself have seen the ungodly in great power, and flourishing like a green bay-tree.I went by, and lo, he was gone: I sought him, but his place could no where be found. Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right: for that shall bring a man peace at the last.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Psalm 37:36^8.

  •    In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

    - Rupert Chawner Brooke
      'The Soldier'.

  • Pax Romana.Where they made a desolation they called Burke it a peace.What absolutenonsense! It was a nasty, vulgar sort of civilization, only dignified by being hidden under a lot of declensions.

    -Wilson
      Inside Mr Enderby, pt.2, ch.2.

  • Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest! Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest! Thine be ilka joyand treasure, Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure!

    - Robert Burns
      'Ae Fond Kiss', stanza 5.

  • The deep, deep peace ofthe double-bed after thehurly- burly of the chaise-longue.

    - Mrs Patrick ne  e Beatrice Rose StellaTanner Campbell
    Her definition of marriage, quoted in  Alexander Woollcott While Rome Burns (1934),'The First Mrs Tanqueray'.

  • Peace without honour is not onlya disgrace, but, except as a temporary respite, it is a chimera.

    -of Salisbury
      In the Quarterly Review,  Apr.

  • My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.Go home and have a nice, quiet sleep. See also Disraeli 277:85.

    - (Arthur) Neville Chamberlain
      Speech from the window of No.10 Downing Street to the crowds outside, 30 Sep, having returned that day from signing the Munich  Agreement. The earlier peace referred to was the Treaty of Berlin which Beaconsfield brought back in1878.

  • Guerre aux cha"  teaux, paix aux chaumie'  res. War to the castles, peace to the cottages.

    - Se  bastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort
      Motto for the Revolution.

  • In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.

    - Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill
    c.1918  The Second World War (1948), vol.1, epigraph.  According to Sir Edward Marsh, in  A Number of People (1939), the phrase occurred to Churchill shortly after the end of  World War I. Some sources attribute it to Marsh himself.

  • Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace, and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

    - Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill
      My Early Life.

  • The Bomb brought peace, but man alone can keep that peace.

    - Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill
      Speech in the House of Commons,16  Aug.

  • Cedant arma togae, concedant laurea laudi. Let war yield to peace, laurels to paeans.

    -Cicero full name MarcusTullius Cicero
    De Officiis, bk.1, ch.77.

  • We have won the war. Now we have to win the peaceand that may be more difficult.

    - Georges Clemenceau
    Quoted in David R  Watson George Clemenceau;  A Political Biography (1974).

  • Love of peace, and lonely musing, In hollow murmurs died away.

    -William Collins
      'The Passions,  An Ode for Music', l.67^8.

  • The murmuring poor, who will not fast in peace.

    - George Crabbe
      The Newspaper, l.158.

  • England has greater counties Their peace to hers is small; Low hills, rich fields, calm rivers, In Essex seek them all.

    - Arthur S(hearly) Cripps
    Quoted in S P B Mais and Tom Stephenson (eds) Lovely Britain (c.1930).

  • : If we beat the King ninety-nine times, yet he is King still so will his posterity be after him; but if the King beat us once we shall be hanged, and our posterity made slaves. : My Lord, if this be so, why did we take up arms at first? This is against fighting hereafter. If so, let us make peace, be it never so base.

    - Oliver Cromwell
      EARLOFMANCHESTEROLIVER CROMWELL1644  Recorded in The Calendar of State Papers,10 Nov.

  • E'n la sua voluntade e'   nostra pace. In His will is our peace.

    -Dante Alighieri originally Durante
    c.1320  Divina Commedia,'Paradiso', canto 3, l.85.

  •    Make it a green peace.

    - Bill Darnell
      Quoted in Robert Hunter Warriors of the Rainbow (1979).

  • I, Dekanahwideh, and the Confederated Chiefs, now uproot the tallest pine tree, and into the cavity thereby made we cast all weapons of war† Thus shall the Great Peace be established.

    -Dekanahwideh   fl.c.1450
    Traditional words from the Six Nations Confederacy (present- day Ontario and the Northeastern United States), one of the world's oldest constitutions, quoted in Paul  A  W  Wallace The White Roots of Peace (1946).

  • Lord Salisburyand myself have brought you peacebut a peace, I hope, with honour. See also Chamberlain 204:63.

    - Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield Disraeli
      Declaration,16  Jul, on returning from the Berlin Congress with the guarantees it had produced of continuing peace in Europe.

  • Father of Peace, and God of love! We ownThy power to save, That power by which our Shepherd rose Victorious o'er the grave.

    - Philip Doddridge
    Hymns,'Father of Peace' (published1755).

  • You haveto take chances for peace, just as you must take chances in war† The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessaryart. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost.

    -John Foster Dulles
      Quoted in'How Dulles  Averted War', in Life magazine, 16  Jan. His biographer Peter Grose in Gentleman Spy (1994) claims Dulles'never actually used the word 'brinkmanship', but the label stuck to him as the legacy of a diplomatic strategy that was reckless for the nuclear age'.

  • An election is coming.Universal peace is declared, and thefoxeshavea sincere interest inprolonging thelives of the poultry.

    - George pseudonym of  MaryAnn Evans Eliot
      Felix Holt, ch.5.

  • Experience shows that great enterprises seldom end with a tidy and satisfactory flourish. Together, we are doingourbesttore-establishpeaceand civil order inthe Gulf region, and to help those members of civil and ethnic minorities who continuetosuffer through no fault oftheirown.If wesucceed,ourmilitarysuccesswill have achieved its true objective.

    -Elizabeth II
      Commenting on the aftermath of the Gulf  War in the first address by a British monarch to Congress,16 May.

  • Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.

    - RalphWaldo Emerson
    Essays: First Series,'Self-Reliance'.

  • I have but one request to make at my departure from this world, it isthe charity of its silence. Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives, dare now vindicate them, let no prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them rest in obscurity and peace! Let my memory be left in oblivion, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times and other men can do justicetomycharacter.Whenmycountry takesher place among thenations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written.

    - Robert Emmet
      Speech before being sentenced.

  • Ce n'est pas un traite   de paix, c'est un armistice de vingt ans. This is not a peace treaty, it is an armistice for twenty years.

    - Ferdinand Foch
       At the signing of the Treaty of  Versailles. Quoted in Paul Reynaud Memoires (1963), vol.2.

  • There never was a good war or a bad peace. 334

    - Benjamin Franklin
      Letter,11 Sep. Italian  monk  and  saint,  founder  of  the  Franciscan  order. The son    of    a    wealthy    merchant,    in   1206    he    renounced    his patrimony   and   became   a   hermit,   attracting   followers   who rejected  all  forms   of   property.   His  works   include   sermons, ascetic treatises and hymns.

  • Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

    - Benjamin Franklin
    Attributed prayer, traditionally known as the'Prayer of St Francis'.

  • I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace on earth through the years to come than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war.

    -GeorgeV
      Message read at the Terlincthun Cemetery, Boulogne, 13 May.

  • Take your delight in momentariness, Walk between dark and darka shining space With the grave's narrowness, though not its peace.

    - Robert von Ranke Graves
      'Sick Love'.

  • Every night, whisper 'Peace' in your husband's ear.

    - Alfred Whitney Griswold
      Said to Nancy Reagan at a White House reception, 28 Sep.

  •    BeforeThee in humility, withThee in faith, inThee in peace.

    - Dag HjalmarAgne Carl Hammarskjo«  ld
      Va«  gmarken (translated by L Sjsy«  berg and W H  Auden as Markings,1964).

  • War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading.

    -Thomas Hardy
      The Dynasts, pt.1, act 2, sc.5.

  •    When we started the UN we were not trying to make a monument.We were building a workshopa workshop for world peace. And we tried to make it the best damn workshop we could.

    -Wallace K(irkman) Harrison
      In Time, 22 Sep.

  • Ihadthepaperbut Ididnot read it becauseIdidnot want to read about the war. I was going to forget the war. I had made a separate peace.

    - Ernest Millar Hemingway
      Frederic Henry.  A Farewell to  Arms, ch.34.

  •    King of glory, King of peace I will loveThee And that love may never cease, I will moveThee.

    - George Herbert
    'Praise', collected in The Temple, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (published posthumously,1633).

  • He that makes a good war makes a good peace.

    - George Herbert
    Outlandish Proverbs (published posthumously,1640), no.420.

  • In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the orderof nature and causes parentsto inter theirchildren.

    -Herodotus   c.485
    c.440  BC  The Histories of Herodotus, bk.1, ch.87 (translated by Aubrey de Selincourt).

  • I can scarcely fancy myself to ask a superior to publish a volume of my verse and I own that humanly there is very little likelihood of that ever coming to pass. And to be sure if I chose to look at things on one side and not the other I could of course regret this bitterly. But there is more peace and it isthe holier lot to be unknown than to be known.

    -Gerard Manley Hopkins
    Letter to Richard Watson Dixon, 29 Oct. Collected in C C Abbott (ed)  The Correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Richard Watson Dixon (1935).

  • Good-night. Ensured release Imperishable peace, Have these for yours, While earth's foundations stand And skyand sea and land And heaven endures.

    - A(lfred) E(dward) Housman
      More Poems, no.48.

  • And the elephant sings deep in the forest-maze About a star of deathless and painless peace But no astronomer can find where it is.

    -Ted (Edward James) Hughes
      'Crow's Elephant Totem Song'.

  •    The poet as well Builds his monument mockingly; For man will be blotted out, the blithe earth die, the brave sun Die blind, his heart blackening: Yet stones have stood for a thousand years, and pained thoughts found The honey peace in old poems.

    - (John) Robinson Jeffers
      Tamar and Other Poems,'To  the Stone-Cutters'.

  • The social progress, order, security and peace of each countryare necessarily connected with the social progress, order, securityand peace of all other countries.

    -PopeJohn XXIII originally Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli
      Pacem in Terris,10  Apr.

  • Nor for my peace will I go far, As wanderers do, that still do roam, But make my strengths, such as they are, Here in my bosom, and at home.

    - Ben Jonson
      The Forest,'To the World'.

  • Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.

    - Ben Jonson
      'On My First Son'.

  • And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun, And she forgot the blue above the trees, And she forgot the dells where waters run, And she forgot the chillyautumn breeze; She had no knowledge when the day was done, And the new morn she saw not: but in peace Hung over her sweet Basil evermore, And moistened it with tears unto the core.

    -John Keats
      Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St.  Agnes and Other Poems, 'Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil', stanza 53.

  • Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined bya hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall payany price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.

    -John F(itzgerald) Kennedy
      Inaugural address, Washington, 20  Jan.

  • History teaches us that enmities between nations†do not last forever.Wemustconduct ouraffairsinsuchaway that it becomes in the communists' interests to agree on a genuine peace†to let each nation choose its own future, so long as that choice does not interfere with the choices of others. If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

    -John F(itzgerald) Kennedy
      Speech,  American University, Washington DC,10  Jun.

  • Keep ye the lawbe swift in all obedience Clear the land of evil, drive the road and bridge the ford. Make ye sure to each his own That he reap where he hath sown; By thepeaceamongourpeopleslet men know weserve the Lord!

    - (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling
      'A Song of the English'.

  • At its birth, the republic gave voice to three wordsLiberty,Equality,Fraternity! If Europeiswiseand just, each of those words signifies Peace.

    - Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine
      A Manifesto to the Powers, 4 Mar.

  •    I do not want peace nor beauty nor even freedom from 494 pain. I want to fight and to feel new gods in the flesh.

    - D(avid) H(erbert) Lawrence
      Letter to E H Brewster, 2  Jan.

  •    Science has promised us truthan understanding of such relationships as our minds can grasp; it has never promised us either peace or happiness.

    - Gustave Le Bon
    US psychologist,  Professor at the Universities of California and 1895  Psychologie des foules, introduction.

  •    There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness or death. Anyattempt to prove otherwise constitutes unacceptable behaviour.

    - Fran(ces Ann) Lebowitz
      Metropolitan Life,'Manners'.

  • All we are saying isgive peace a chance.

    -JohnWinston Lennon
      Song (with his wife,Yoko Ono), used widely in protests against the Vietnam War.

  • And who will bring white peace That he may sleep upon his hill again?

    - (Nicholas) Vachel Lindsay
      The Congo and Other Poems,'Abraham Lincoln Walks  At Midnight'.

  •    Give it because it isright.Give it because it is just.Give it because it isgood for Ireland and good for the United Kingdom.Give it because it brings peace and good will, but do not give it because you are bullied byassassins.

    - David, 1st Earl Lloyd George (of Dwyfor)
      Speech on an Irish settlement, Caernarvon, 9 Oct.

  • Policemen so cherish their status as keepers of the peace and protectors of the public that they have occasionally been known to beat to deaththose citizens or groups who question that status.

    - David Alan Mamet
      Writing in Restaurants,'Some Thoughts On Writing In Restaurants'.

  • The inglorious arts of peace.

    - Andrew Marvell
      'An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland'.

  • For some time I watch the coming of the night† Above is the glistening galaxy of childhood, now hidden in the Western world by air pollution and the glare of artificial light; for my children's children, the power, peace and healing of the night will be obliterated.

    - Peter Matthiessen
      Of the night sky in Nepal. The Snow Leopard,'Northward, October18'.

  • Let the thing fall down in peace.

    - Bernard Ralph Maybeck
    On the crumbling remains of his Corinthian classic Palace of Fine  Arts, designed for San Francisco's1915 Panama^Pacific Exposition. Recalled in the NewYork Times, 9 May1965.

  • Towered cities pleased us then, And the busy hum of men, Where throngs of knights and barons bold In weeds of peace high triumphs hold, With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and judge the prize Of wit or arms, while both contend To win her grace, whom all commend.

    -John Milton
    c.1631 L'Allegro, l.117^24.

  • Yet much remains To conquer still; peace hath her victories No less renowned then war, new foes arise Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains: Help us to save free conscience from the paw Of hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw.

    -John Milton
      'To the Lord General Cromwell'.

  • A dungeon horrible, on all sides round As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all.

    -John Milton
      Of Hell. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.1, l.61^7.

  • Thus Belial with words clothed in reason's garb Counselled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, Not peace.

    -John Milton
      Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.2, l.226^8.

  • So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace.

    -John Milton
      God speaking to Michael of  Adam and Eve. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.11, l.117.

  • Now I see Peace to corrupt no less than war to waste.

    -John Milton
      Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.11, l.783^4.

  • Everlasting peace is a dream, and not even a pleasant one; and war is a necessary part of God's arrangement with the world† Without war the world would deteriorate into materialism.

    - Helmuth von, Count Moltke
      Letter to Dr  J K Bluntschi,11 Dec, collected in Helmuth von Moltke as a Correspondent (1893).

  • Le droit des gens est naturellement fonde   sur ce principe: que les diverses nations doivent se faire, dans la paix, le plus de bien, et, dans la guerre, le moins de mal qu'il est possible, sans nuire a'   leurs ve  ritables inte  re"  ts. Law is naturally founded on this principle: that different nations should do, in peace and as far as best as they can in war, the least harm as possible, without harming their true interests.

    -Bre'  de et de
      De l'esprit des lois, vol.1, ch.3.

  • In the first place, most princes apply themselves to the arts of war, in which I have neither ability nor interest, instead of to the good arts of peace. Theyare generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms by hook or by crook than on governing well those that theyalready have.

    - SirThomas More
      Utopia (English translation1556), bk.1.

  • We have seen Good men made evil wrangling with the evil, Straight mindsgrown crooked fighting crooked minds. Our peace betrayed us; we betrayed our peace. Look at it well.This was the good town once.

    - Edwin Muir
      The Labyrinth,'The Good Town'.

  • What can one do with the past? Forgive it. Let it enter into you in peace.

    - Les(lie Allan) Murray
      The Nice and the Good.

  • Wisdom and policy dictate that we must do as destiny demands and keep peace with the irresistible march of events.

    -Napoleon I
      Said to  Alexander I of Russia, 2 Feb.

  • Stalin†that great lover of peace, a man of giant stature who moulded, as few other men have done, the destinies of his age† The occasion is not merely the passing away of a great figure but perhaps the ending of an historic era.

    -Jawaharlal Nehru
       Tribute, Indian Parliament, 9 Mar.

  • May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done! Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last.

    -John Henry Newman
      'Wisdom and Innocence', collected in Sermons Bearing on Subjects of the Day.

  • War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

    - George pseudonym of  Eric Arthur Blair Orwell
      Nineteen Eighty-Four, pt.1, ch.1.

  • Diplomats and protocols are very good things, but there are no better peace-keepersthanwell-appointed three- deckers.

    - HenryJohnTemple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
    c.1840  Quoted in Denis Judd Palmerston (1975). A three-decker is a warship.

  • England is one of the greatest powers of the world. No event or series of events bearing on the balance of power, or on probabilities of peace or war, can be matters of indifferencetoher, and herrighttohaveand to express opinions onmattersthusbearingonher interests is unquestionable.

    - HenryJohnTemple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
      Letter to QueenVictoria, 23 Aug.

  • The grim fact, however, is that we prepare for war like precocious giants and for peace like retarded pygmies.

    - Lester Bowles Pearson
      Acceptance speech on receiving the Nobel peace prize, 11 Dec.

  • War its thousands slays, Peace its ten thousands.

    - Beilby Porteus
      'Death'.

  • Old Hodge stays not his hand, but whips to kennel The renegade.God's peace betide the souls Of the pure in heart. But in the box that fennel Grows around, are two red eyes that stare like coals.

    -John Crowe Ransom
      Two Gentlemen in Bonds,'Dog'.

  • When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries is in danger.

    - Franklin D(elano) Roosevelt
      Radio broadcast, 3 Sep.

  • If peace cannot be maintained with honour, it is no longer peace. See Cecil 202:26, Chamberlain 204:63, Disraeli 277:85.

    -John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
      Speech, Greenock,19 Sep.

  • Peace is much more precious than a piece of land.

    - Anwar el- Sadat
      In Search of Identity.

  • Long life to thy fame and peace to thy soul, Rob Burns! When I want to express a sentiment which I feel strongly, I find the phrase in Shakespeareor thee. The blockheads talk of my being like Shakespearenot fit to tie his brogues.

    - Sir Walter Scott
      Journal,11 Dec.

  • In the arts of peace Man is a bungler.

    - George Bernard Shaw
      The Devil to DonJuan. Man and Superman, act 3.

  • Alas! I have nor hope nor health, Nor peace within nor calm around, Nor that content surpassing wealth The sage in meditation found.

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
      'StanzasWritten in Dejection, near Naples'.

  • Peace is in the grave. The grave hides all things beautiful and good: I am a God and cannot find it there.

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
      Prometheus Unbound act1, l.638^40.

  • Less oft peace in Shelley's mind, Than calm in waters seen.

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
      'To Jane:The Recollection'.

  • Come sleep,O sleep, the certain knot of peace, The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe, The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release, The indifferent judge between the high and low.

    - Nevil originally Nevil Shute Norway Shute
    Astrophel and Stella, sonnet 39.

  • In ease of body, peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level and the beggar who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for.

    - Adam Smith
      TheTheory of Moral Sentiments.

  • I came to the conclusion that some more ascetic reason than mere enjoyment should be found if one wishes to travel in peace: to do things for fun smacks of levity, immoralityalmost, in our utilitarian world. And though personally I think the world is wrong, and I know in my heart of hearts that it is a most excellent reason to do things merely because one likes the doing of them, I would advise all those who wish to see unwrinkled brows in passport offices to start out ready labelled as entomologists, anthropologists, or whatever other - ology they think suitable and propitious.

    - Dame Freya Madeleine Stark
      TheValleys of theAssassins and other PersianTravels.

  • Alas! so all things now do hold their peace, Heaven and earth disturbed in no thing† Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less; So am not I whom love, alas, doth wring, Bringing before my face the great increase Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing, In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease. For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring, But by and by the cause of my disease Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting, When that I think what grief it is again To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.

    - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
      'Alas! so all things now do hold their peace'.

  • Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant. They make a wilderness and they call it peace.

    -Tacitus
    Speech of the British chieftain Calgacus, before the battle of Mons Graupius, referring to the Romans. Agricola, ch.30.

  • Miseram pacem vel bello bene mutari. Even war is preferable to a shameful peace.

    -Tacitus
    Annals, bk.3, ch.44.

  • An English homegrey twilight poured On dewy pasture, dewy trees, Softer than sleepall things in order stored, A haunt of ancient Peace.

    -Tennyson
      Poems,'The Palace of Art', stanza 22, l.85^8.

  • But we grow old, Ah! when shall all men's good Be each man's rule, and universal peace Lie like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Through all the circle of the golden year.

    -Tennyson
      'The GoldenYear', l.47^51.

  • Peace; come away: the song of woe Is after all an earthly song: Peace; come away: we do him wrong To sing so wildly: let us go.

    -Tennyson
      In Memoriam A.H.H., canto 57, l.1^4.

  • Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land; 844 Ring in the Christ that is to be.

    -Tennyson
      In Memoriam A.H.H., canto106, l.17^32.

  • For me, exploration was a personal venture. I did not go to the Arabian desert to collect plants nor to make a map; such things were incidental. At heart I knew that to write or even to talk of my travels was to tarnish the achievement. I went there to find peace in the hardship of desert travel and the company of desert people. I set myself a goal on these journeys, and, although the goal itself was unimportant, its attainment had to be worth every effort and sacrifice.

    - Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger
      Arabian Sands.

  •    Hobbits are an unobtrusive but veryancient people, more numerous formerly than theyare today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well- ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt† Even in ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of 'the Big Folk', as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find.

    -J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien
      The Fellowship of the Ring, prologue.

  • Since wars begin in theminds of men, it isintheminds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.

    -Unesco Constitution
      Signed16 Nov.The Unesco Constitution came into force 4 Nov1946.

  • We the Peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, whichtwice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to 873 mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignityand worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, and for these ends, to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one anotherasgood neighbours, and tounite our strengthto maintain international peace and security, and to ensure by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.

    -United Nations Charter
      26 Jun.

  • Qui desiderat pacem, praeparat bellum. Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

    -Vegetius full name FlaviusVegetius Renatus
    c.380  AD  Epitoma Rei Miltaris, no.3, prologue.This became familiar in the MiddleAges as Si vis pacem para bellum (If you want peace, prepare for war).

  • When will the world know that peace and propagation are the two most delightful things in it?

    - Horace, 4th Earl of Orford Walpole
      Letter to Sir Horace Mann,7 Jul. In The Correspondence of HoraceWalpole (Yale edition,1937^8).

  • Sir Henry Wotton†was also a most dear lover, and a frequent practiser of the art of angling; of which he would say,'it was anemployment forhisidletime†a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness; and that it begat habits of peace and patience in those that professed and practised it.'

    - Izaak Walton
      The Compleat Angler, pt.1, ch.1.

  • To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

    - BookerTaliaferro Washington
      First Annual Address, 8 Jan.

  • In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshedthey produced Michelangelo, Leonardo daVinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.

    - (George) Orson Welles
      Harry Lime's speech to Holly Martins as he leaves the great wheel,TheThird Man.This phrase was added to the script by Welles who played Harry Lime.

  • Hark! how all the welkin rings, Glory to the King of kings. Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.

    - Charles Wesley
      'Hymn for Christmas'. In Hymns and Sacred Poems.The first two lines were changed to'Hark! the herald-angels sing/ Glory to the new born king' inWhitfield's Hymns for Social Worship (1753).

  • The essence of Christianity is the appeal to the life of Christ as a revelation of the nature of God and of his agency in the world. The record is fragmentary, inconsistent and uncertain† But there can be no doubt as to the elements in the record that have evoked the best in human nature. The Mother, the Child and the bare manger: the lowly man, homeless and self- forgetful, with his message of peace, love and sympathy: the suffering, the agony, the tender words as life ebbed, the final despair: and the whole with the authority of supreme victory.

    - Alfred North Whitehead
     Adventures of Ideas.

  • When you're at war you think about a better life; when you're at peace you think about a more comfortable one.

    -Thornton Niven Wilder
      The Skin of OurTeeth, act1.

  • The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted on the tested foundations of political liberty.

    - (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson
      Speech before a joint session of Congress, 2 Apr, to request a declaration that a state of war exists between Germany and the US.

  • In this war, we demand nothing that is peculiar to ourselves; only thatthe world be made fit and safeto live in.The programme oftheworld'speace, therefore, is our programme.

    - (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson
      The'Fourteen Points'speech to Congress, 8 Jan.

  • Compassed round by pleasure, sighed For independent happiness; craving peace, The central feeling of all happiness, Not as a refuge from distress or pain, A breathing-time, vacation, or a truce, But for its absolute self.

    -William Wordsworth
      'The Excursion', bk.3, l.380^5.

  • I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet's wings.

    -W(illiam) B(utler) Yeats
      'The Lake Isle of Innisfree', stanzas1^2. Collected in The Rose (1893).

  • Cricket can be a bridge and a glue† Cricket for peace is my mission.

    - Mohammed Zia Ul-Haq
    Quoted in Helen Exley Cricket Quotations (1992).

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2010 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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