Violence - Quotes

A dissolute character is more dissolute in thought than in deed. And the same is true of violence. Our violence in word and deed is but a feeble echo of the surging violence of thought in us. - Mahatma Gandhi

A person who commits a violence against another is obviously in need of medical care. - Mack Reynolds

All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished. - Marshall B. Rosenberg

As long as people use violence to combat violence, we will always have violence. - Michael Berg

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. - Mahatma Gandhi

In violence, we forget who we are. - Mary McCarthy

No amount of violence you've done to others prepares you for violence done to yourself. - Glen Duncan

No newsman in his right mind objects to a little violence, for that's what news is made of. - Clifford D. Simak

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. - Thomas A. Edison

Not all men seek rest and peace; some are born with the spirit of the storm in their blood, restless harbingers of violence and bloodshed, knowing no other path. - Robert E. Howard

One simply cannot engage in barbarous action without becoming a barbarian ... one cannot defend human values by calculated and unprovoked violence without doing mortal damage to the values one is trying to defend. - J. William Fulbright

Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence. - Mahatma Gandhi

The people who burned witches at the stake never for one moment thought of their act as violence; rather they thought of it as an act of divinely mandated righteousness. The same can be said of most of the violence humans have ever committed. - Gil Bailie

The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime. - Max Stirner

The threat of violence can be almost as stressful as actually suffering or witnessing violence. - L. Eugene Arnold

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

The violence done us by others is often less painful than that which we do to ourselves. - Duc de La Rochefoucauld

There is no life to be found in violence. Every act of violence brings us closer to death. Whether it’s the mundane violence we do to our bodies by overeating toxic food or drink or the extreme violence of child abuse, domestic warfare, life-threatening poverty, addiction, or state terrorism. - Bell Hooks

Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy. - Anthony Burgess

Violence begets violence and destroys communities and people. It brings heartbreak, tears and bitterness – a bitterness that sometimes extends across generations and twists and warps lives. It is a terrible phenomenon. - Unknown

Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another. - Arthur Conan Doyle

Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you. - William Hazlitt

Violence is a disease, a disease that corrupts all who use it regardless of the cause. - Chris Hedges

Violence is an admission that one’s ideas and goals cannot prevail on their own merits. - Edward Kennedy

Violence is never the answer, until it's the only answer. - Derek Landy

Violence is not the problem; it is a consequence of the problem. - Jim Wallis

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. - Isaac Asimov

Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor. - Robert Heinlein

Violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph die; like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume. - William Shakespeare

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. - Martin Luther King Jr.

We pay for the violence of our ancestors. - Frank Herbert

What is gained by violence must be lost before superior violence. - Mahatma Gandhi

You can no more eradicate violence than you could eradicate love or hate or laughter.... The love of violence is an aspect of our humanity. Even the weak wish to be strong primarily so they can wield the whip. - Dan Simmons

You treat violence as an aberration ... when in truth it is the norm. It is the very essence of the human condition. - Dan Simmons