Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them. Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

quote by Robert F. Kennedy
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Love as Thought is Truth. Love as Action is Right Conduct. Love as Understanding is Peace. Love as Feeling is Non-violence.

quote by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Lightning Struck Pat Robertson's Church

God sent a lightning warning through the windows
of Pat Robertson's church. It struck
the 10 Commandments carved in stone
on a tablet in the church... and
effaced the 'not' in Thou Shalt Not Kill.
God does not like hypocrites or those
who asterisk His message of universal
nonviolence with exceptions for war,
execution, and animal slaughter.

(based on a vision H had)

poem by O. Anna Niemus
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Blistering Attack

A peacock becomes non-violent
keeping the warheads
in his tail. In bird hour
who wants to blink?

The chicken runs amok.
Lying motionless was
painful for being slaughtered.
Subversion was more acceptable-

than falling in love. The bare
chest shows a gored scar.
They have started a dance
to entice a herd of pachyderms.

Bleeding? No. They have
cobbled an army of bedbugs
to start a violent protest
against the moon.

poem by Satish Verma
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Rosa Parks' courage, determination, and tenacity continue to be an inspiration to all those committed to non-violent protest and change nearly half a century later.

quote by Bob Filner
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Colors Of Peace

When
a skunk dies by violence
a bad smell infects the land.
When a cow dies by violence
her unheard cries pollute the land.

When a pig lives out his life
in safety,
good fortune accrues.

*********************
Annie Besant in the years when Chicago
was the physical slaughterhouse capital
of America saw its aura of red anger
an hour away.
Nonviolence can change any aura
to deep violet.

poem by O. Anna Niemus
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

We Often Hold

We often hold non-violence so dear
When it is violence that we fear

We often hold honesty so dear
When it is dishonesty that we fear

We often hold love so dear
When it is hatred that we fear

We often hold chastity so dear
When it is society that we fear

We often hold things so dear
When it is fear that we fear

poem by S. Ashok Kumar
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

quote by Mohandas Gandhi
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Outrage!

let me see if i understand this...
you go to 'liberate' Vietnam,
at the cost of thousands of lives...
you invade Iraq, and their fake WMD's.
you go to battle in Afghanistan,
using terrorisn for an excuse...

but you cant and wont
lift a damn finger to help
the people of Tibet...
a nonviolent people,
being abused, ravaged, raped,
and killed by The Chinese government...
who's sleeping with who?

and who do you think you're fooling?

poem by Eric Cockrell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Peace Corps helps promote global acceptance of the principles of international peace and non-violent co-existence among people of diverse cultures and systems of government.

quote by Sam Farr
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

I believe that Gandhi was correct. Non-violent civil disobedience is the only way to bring about change that allows people to enjoy the change and not get killed in the process.

quote by Edward James Olmos
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

It is, therefore, a fact that anybody who wants to realise Truth or who wants to be humane, must follow non-violent ways of life, otherwise he will not be able to reach the Truth.

quote by Morarji Desai
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Kindness and compassion toward all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cock fighting, bull fighting and rodeos are cut from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent toward all life will we have learned to live well ourselves.

Cesar Chavez in letter
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian

Violent End

Crush of holy hands
on blue skin of a flame
was the wet revenge
of a withering rose.

That defiant streak bursts
with knowledge of a sin.
White and black,
this was me and my unwrapped flesh.

Dirty glory of a monologue
downs the shutters and takes a plunge
with a chute into the smoking
cauldron of a cult.

In the bed a grave was dug
deep to bury the ashen virtue
of a chopped-up moon,
who had a dream of nonviolence.

poem by Satish Verma
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

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.

quote by Thomas A. Edison
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Non-violence does not signify that man must not fight against the enemy, and by enemy is meant the evil which men do, not the human beings themselves.

quote by Mahatma Gandhi
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

quote by Mohandas Gandhi
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.

quote by Mohandas Gandhi
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Be angry for the truth

Anger is not always bad
Specially when it is for the truth
If truth is wounded,
Humanity is wounded
So the truth should be brought forward
Even at the cost of tranquility and non-violence
With anger or violence
When all the alternatives of peace are ceased
For the truth cannot be held so long
Else falsehood will take it over
Though it is bound to perish by nature
Yet might do a cosiderable damage
Before being uprooted.

poem by Mohammad Akmal Nazir
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

A tribute to Power

He embodied a silent power

Small and slight

he was a pioneer

His message rang through

loud and clear

'An eye for an eye makes

the whole world blind'

The power behind these words

[...] Read more

poem by Priya Patel
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!