Violence and Nonviolence / The Way of Heart

“The way of acquiescence leads to moral and spiritual suicide. The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But, the way of non-violence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.”
Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Buber, describing dialogue as “a conversation whose result is unknown, because it has not been predefined or imposed by a single source of power. Rather, in dialogue power is shared.”
Martin Buber

Urgency is violence.
Thomas Merton

“An enemy is a person whose story we have not heard”.
Gene Knudsen Hoffman

“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist fighting for peace by nonviolent methods most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his work, because it kills the roots of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”
Thomas Merton

“One role of a robust civil society is to overcome both normative and cultural blindness to human suffering. The raising of awareness requires deliberate efforts to counteract the vulnerability of previously excluded groups; lessening vulnerability in turn depends on developing inclusive forms of decentralized participatory democracy.”
Richard Falk (quoted by Dominic Barter at his restorative justice workshop at Preservation Park, Oakland, California in July 2007.)

“Love cures people, both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.”
Karl Menninger, founder of the famed Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas

“Each person is sacred, each person makes a difference, each choice we make affects others. An injury to one person is an injury to all.”
Dennis Kucinich

“Nonviolence which is a quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
Walt Kelly

“I developed NVC as a way to train my attention – to shine the light of consciousness – on places that have the potential to yield what I am seeking.”
Marshal Rosenberg

“When people should on themselves they get depressed.When they should on others they get angry.
You can make it worse by thinking that you should not think that way (i.e. shoulding on others so that you become angry).”
Marshall Rosenberg 2005 at opening of NVC convention in Spa, Belgium

“The force generated by nonviolence is infinitely greater than the force of all arms invented by man’s ingenuity.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”
Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.”
Julius Caesar

“It is not the violence of a few that scares me, but the silence of the many.”   Dr. Martin Luther King.

“I couldn’t make them do anything. All I could do is make them wish they had.If I tried to make them wish they had,They would make me wish I hadn’t made them with they had.”
Marshall Rosenberg says he learned the above from his children.

“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, not establish the truth. Through violence, you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In face, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

“Requests are received as demands when others believe they will be blamed or punished if they do not comply. When people hear us make a demand, they see only two options: submission or rebellion. “
Marshall Rosenberg

“How do you do a don’t? All I know is I feel won’t when I’m told to do a don’t.”
Marshal Rosenberg

“Yesterday morning we awoke to a vision of the world filled with evil and darkness. This morning I ask you to join me in choosing a higher vision- a vision filled with goodness and light. Grieve for those who have lost their lives. Tend to the injured. Search for survivors. Find those responsible for yesterday’s violent acts and bring them and any who aided them to justice. Do all of this purposefully and powerfully. But choose to do all of this without hardening your heart. Stand firmly in your personal place of power. But choose to wield that power with wisdom and compassion. For power without wisdom and compassion is evil and it was evil that we awoke yesterday. Today and tomorrow and in the days and months to come join me in choosing a higher vision for yourself, your loved ones and for our brave, new world.”
Peggy Mackay, 12 September 2001.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
Helen Keller

“It never hurts to think too highly of a person. Often they act the better because of it.”
Nelson Mandela

“I’m one of the people in the room.”
Mary Mocine