Pierre Trudeau Quotes

In the name of religion many great and fine deeds have been performed. In the name of religion also, thousands and millions have been killed, and every possible crime has been committed.

A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb.

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.

… morality ends where the gun begins.

When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her.

Well, it has done terrifying things. Religious ideas are inflammatory in a way that I find difficult to understand. There are very few wars over the theory of relativity. Very few heated arguments, for that matter. Whereas, in Northern Ireland, they are killing one another over religion.

No nations are more warlike than those which profess Christianity.

I've always identified [myself] with the warrior and good over evil, and you don't negotiate for good over evil, if you want peace and love, kill people that deny you that.

It's obvious that humanity continues to be torn by religious violence.

The term 'just war' is an internal contradiction. War is inherently unjust, and the great challenge of our time is how to deal with evil, tyranny and oppression without killing huge numbers of people.

It is not difficult to find a religious justification for killing.

Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.

We've come to know truths that we will never question: evil is real, and it must be opposed.

Religious questions have often led to wicked and impious actions.

You know what I think about violence. For me it is profoundly moral -more moral than compromises and transactions.

It is precisely that requirement of shared worship that has been the principal source of suffering for individual man and the human race since the beginning of history. In their efforts to impose universal worship, men have unsheathed their swords and killed one another. They have invented gods and challenged each other: "Discard your gods and worship mine or I will destroy both your gods and you!"

It is indeed probable that more harm and misery have been caused by men determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on doing evil.

He once told Allie and I that if he'd had to shoot anybody, he wouldn't've known which direction to shoot in. He said the Army was practically as full of bastards as the Nazis were.

War is just to those to whom war is necessary.

Maybe we could learn a little lesson, maybe this all shine a little light, cause there's no healthy way to mess with the line between wrong and right.

I wept heartily over this poor little deceased soul. It was the first sentient being I had ever killed. I was now a killer. I was now as guilty as Cain. I was sixteen years old, a harmless boy, bookish and religious, and now I had blood on my hands. It's a terrible burden to carry. All sentient life is sacred.

Jane! will you hear reason?' (he stooped and approached his lips to my ear) 'because, if you won't, I'll try violence.

Shall I pass by and leave you lying there because of the expedition you led against Greece, or shall I set you up again because of your magnanimity and your virtues in other respects?