QUOTES
"You
know, if people are not pacifists, it's not their fault. It's because society
puts them in that spot. You've got to change it. You don't just change a man -
you've got to change his environment as you do it."
"Non-violence
is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak … Non-violence
is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win."
"If
you give yourself totally to the nonviolence struggle for peace and justice you
also find that people give you their hearts and you will never go hungry and never
be alone."
"I
am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is
to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice.
To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!"
"It's
amazing how people can get so excited about a rocket to the moon and not give
a damn about smog, oil leaks, the devastation of the environment with pesticides,
hunger, disease. When the poor share some of the power that the affluent now monopolize,
we will give a damn."
"There
is no such thing as defeat in nonviolence."
"The
first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything
humiliating."
"Once
social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who
has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot
oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.