Words of Peace

Whenever I come across a quotation I like, I tend to record it in one of several files on my computer.  One of these files is named: Words of Peace.

I thought today, on the anniversary of September 11, 2001, it would be appropriate to share a few of these quotes.

And I go on believing in the possibility of love. I am convinced that there will be mutual understanding among human beings, achieved in spite of all the suffering, the blood, the broken glass.

-- Pablo Neruda, Memoirs

Citizens, in the future there shall be neither darkness nor thunderbolts, neither ferocious ignorance nor blood for blood...In the future no man will slay his fellow, the earth will be radiant, the human race will love. It will come, citizens, that day when all shall be concord, harmony, light, joy, and life.

-- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables (character: Enjolras)

When Pack meets with Pack in the Jungle, and neither will go from the trail,
Lie down till the leaders have spoken--it may be fair words shall prevail.
...
When ye fight with a Wolf of the Pack, ye must fight him alone and afar,
Lest others take part in the quarrel, and the Pack be diminished by war.

-- Rudyard Kipling, “The Law of the Jungle”

I have heard talk and talk, but nothing is done. Good words do not last long unless they amount to something.

-- Chief Joseph

If people wish to draw near to God, they must seek Him in the hearts of others. They should speak well of all people, whether present or absent, and if they themselves seek to be a light to guide others, then like the sun, they must show the same face to all. To bring joy to a single heart is better than to build many shrines for worship, and to enslave one soul by kindness is worth more than the setting free of a thousand slaves.

-- Sufi Abu Sa’id b. Abi ‘l-Khayr

I said it in Hebrew--I said it in Dutch--
I said it in German and Greek:
But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
That English is what you speak!

-- Lewis Carroll, Hunting of the Snark (Fit the Fourth)