Ramsay MacDonald Quotes

War is the rule of force, and peace is the reign of law.

Waging war we understand, but not waging peace, or at any rate less consciously so.

At the beginning of this century, people never questioned the effectiveness of war, never thought there could be real peace. Now, people are tired of war and see it as ineffective in solving anything.

We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war.

Without armaments peace cannot be kept; wars are waged not only to repel injustice but also to establish a firm peace.

Peace is the alternative to war, and nonviolence should be seen as the antidote to violence, not simply as its opposite. Nonviolence is more concerned with saving life than with saving face.

If peace is equated simply with the absence of war, it can become abject pacifism that turns the world over to the most ruthless.

I have been apt to think that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or a bad peace.

War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It's peace that's wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.

Because we want the peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course, continues, because the waging of war, by its nature, is total - but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial.

If the time comes when our culture tires of the endless homicidal feuds, despairs of the use of force and war as a means of bringing peace, becomes discontent with the half-lives that its members are living - only then will our culture seriously look for alternatives.

Peace is not sought in order to provoke war, but war is waged in order to attain peace.

War is not the answer. Violence is not the solution. A more peaceful world is possible.

We should wage war not to win war, but to win peace.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.

We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.

You have not been mistaken in supposing my views and feeling to be in favor of the abolition of war.

We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations—acting individually or in concert—will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.

If you use weapons of war to bring about peace, you're going to have more war and destruction.

You can’t have peace without a war.

You'll get more from being a peacemaker than a warrior.

We must shift the arms race into a 'peace race'.