Amos Oz Quotes

I often write about reconciling. Reconciling, or maybe half-reconciling between antagonists, between people who are deadly enemies. I write about reconciliation, but not as a miracle, as a slow, gradual process of mutual discovery - discovering one another. I write about sad, sober, sometimes heart-breaking compromises.

When we seek reconciliation with our enemies, it is commonly out of a desire to better our own condition, a being harassed and tired out with a state of war, and a fear of some ill accident which we are willing to prevent.

To reconcile conflicting parties, we must have the ability to understand the suffering of both sides. If we take sides, it is impossible to do the work of reconciliation. And humans want to take sides. That is why the situation gets worse and worse. Are there people who are still available to both sides? They need not do much. They need do only one thing: Go to one side and tell all about the suffering endured by the other side, and go to the other side and tell all about the suffering endured by this side. This is our chance for peace. But how many of us are able to do that?

One doesn't make peace with one's friends. One makes peace with one's enemies.

When bitter enemies make peace, surely some bitterness remains.

To reconcile conflicting parties, we must have the ability to understand the suffering of both sides.

Let us ask Mary to help us respond to violence, to conflict and to war, with the power of dialogue, reconciliation and love. She is our mother: may she help us to find peace; all of us are her children!

It is much safer to reconcile an enemy than to conquer him; victory may deprive him of his poison, but reconciliation of his will.

Without forgiveness there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations.

It is the acid test of nonviolence that in a nonviolent conflict there is no rancor left behind, and in the end the enemies are converted into friends.

We should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.

In Turkey, we have lived almost everything that could be lived; war and torture... The war concept was consumed to its limits. But there is only one way we have not tried: negotiations, peace, and talking.

In the aftermath of any war or genocide, healing and reconciliation are ultimate aspirations.

Winning the peace is harder than winning the war.

It cuts all the common bonds between the contending peoples and threatens to leave a legacy of embitterment that will make any renewal of those bonds impossible for a long time to come.

Enmity immediately tumbles away when one side lets it fall.

There are universal traits and aspects of all these conflicts, and I think that all of them have bridgeable solutions. The only question is whether you are ready to take the challenge, to pay the price, to compromise in order to get more. This, I believe, is the challenge for all the peacemakers in the world.

It takes years to turn enmity to amity.

What we need is anger management right now …. The reaction right now is just anger. We tried to get even. But we shouldn’t try to get even—we should try and reconcile.

This may not be a just peace, but it is more just than the continuation of war.

Middle East history is replete with examples of missed and lost chances to make peace.

There is not a more prudent maxim, than to live with one's enemies as if they may one day become one's friends; as it commonly happens, sooner or later, in the vicissitudes of political affairs.

I don't mind violence, but it's quite an interesting thing for people to deal with. I don't know many people that like fighting. I certainly don't, myself. But it's always interesting to work on a shows where there's so much violence, as a part of the world.

Love your enemy. But don't forget he is not your friend

No greater victory can be won by citizens or soldiers than to transform temporary foes into permanent friends.