61 Inspiring Peace Quotes

In a world that often feels chaotic and divided, the quest for peace becomes ever more vital. Whether it’s finding a moment of tranquility in our daily lives or contributing to global harmony, the power of peace lies within reach for everyone. Words can be a guiding light on this journey, offering solace and inspiration. We’ve curated a collection of 61 inspiring peace quotes that not only uplift the spirit but also remind us of the profound beauty in pursuing calmness and understanding. Dive in to explore these timeless expressions that have the power to transform hearts and minds, fostering hope and compassion in our lives.

1. “You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” - Michael Cunningham

2. “I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful When rain bends down the bough; And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted Than you are now.” - Sara Teasdale

3. “It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.” - Chuck Palahniuk

4. “Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” - Maria Montessori

5. “War is over ... If you want it.” - John Lennon

6. “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” - Amelia Earhart

7. “Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.” - Zora Neale Hurston

8. “You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.” - Eckhart Tolle

9. “Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

10. “You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace. Power to the peaceful.” - Michael Franti

11. “Of course he wasn't dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.” - Zora Neale Hurston

12. “If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.” - George Washington

13. “Mankind must put an end to war - or war will put an end to mankind.[Address before the United Nations, September 25 1961]” - John F. Kennedy

14. “Sometimes a strikeout means that the slugger’s girlfriend just ran off with the UPS driver. Sometimes a muffed ground ball means that the shortstop’s baby daughter has a pain in her head that won’t go away. And handicapping is for amateur golfers, not ballplayers. Pitchers don’t ease off on the cleanup hitter because of the lumps just discovered in his wife’s breast. Baseball is not life. It is a fiction, a metaphor. And a ballplayer is a man who agrees to uphold that metaphor as though lives were at stake. Perhaps they are. I cherish a theory I once heard propounded by G.Q. Durham that professional baseball is inherently antiwar. The most overlooked cause of war, his theory runs, is that it’s so damned interesting. It takes hard effort, skill, love and a little luck to make times of peace consistently interesting. About all it takes to make war interesting is a life. The appeal of trying to kill others without being killed yourself, according to Gale, is that it brings suspense, terror, honor, disgrace, rage, tragedy, treachery and occasionally even heroism within range of guys who, in times of peace, might lead lives of unmitigated blandness. But baseball, he says, is one activity that is able to generate suspense and excitement on a national scale, just like war. And baseball can only be played in peace. Hence G.Q.’s thesis that pro ball-players—little as some of them may want to hear it—are basically just a bunch of unusually well-coordinated guys working hard and artfully to prevent wars, by making peace more interesting.” - David James Duncan

15. “We too should make ourselves empty, that the great soul of the universe may fill us with its breath.” - Lawrence Binyon

16. “Given enough time, you could convince yourself that loneliness was something better, that it was solitude, the ideal condition for reflection, even a kind of freedom.Once you were thus convinced, you were foolish to open the door and let anyone in, not all the way in. You risked the hard-won equilibrium, that tranquility that you called peace” - Dean Koontz

17. “...But the Mahommedan religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and ever since, its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness. In a moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the fear of death itself, are flung aside. The more emotional Pathans are powerless to resist. All rational considerations are forgotten. Seizing their weapons, they become Ghazis—as dangerous and as sensible as mad dogs: fit only to be treated as such. While the more generous spirits among the tribesmen become convulsed in an ecstasy of religious bloodthirstiness, poorer and more material souls derive additional impulses from the influence of others, the hopes of plunder and the joy of fighting. Thus whole nations are roused to arms. Thus the Turks repel their enemies, the Arabs of the Soudan break the British squares, and the rising on the Indian frontier spreads far and wide. In each case civilisation is confronted with militant Mahommedanism. The forces of progress clash with those of reaction. The religion of blood and war is face to face with that of peace.” - Winston Churchill

18. “Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism.” - Dorothy Thompson

19. “A life of happiness, peace, and love is all within our grasp.” - Steve Maraboli

20. “The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.” - Mahatma Gandhi

21. “It is my conviction that there is no way to peace - peace is the way.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

22. “I don't remember Moses writing, 'Thou shalt not kill.. unless you think you have a good reason.” - Willie Nelson

23. “Enthusiasm is a supernatural serenity.” - Henry David Thoreau

24. “Though all the guns be silenced,each soldier in his home,There is no peace till Love comes,till the meek may safely roam.” - C.P. Klapper

25. “The turmoil and dislocations confronting present-day society will not be solved until both the scientific and religious genius of the human race are fully utilized.” - Baha'i International Community

26. “A feeling is not bottomless. once felt all the way through,a great peace greets you there” - Alanis Morissette

27. “If everyone who had a gun just shot themselves, there wouldn't be a problem.” - George Harrison

28. “We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.” - William Ewart Gladstone

29. “I don't just want to ban The Bomb. I want to ban all bombs, whatever, and all bombers, whoever, and all bombings, whyever. There have to be better ways of saying no and making changes.” - Aidan Chambers

30. “People who insist on dividing the world into 'Us' and 'Them' never contemplate that they may be someone else's 'Them'.” - Ray A. Davis

31. “When an invincible weapon deals with an impenetrable defense,war is useless. The wisest decision is to ceasefire and do synergy.” - Toba Beta

32. “If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character.If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home.If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nations.When there is order in the nations, there will peace in the world.” - Confucius

33. “Peace is not an easy prospect--it requires greater bravery than does conflict.” - Ozzie Zehner

34. “Tension, in the long run, is a more dangerous force than any feud known to man.” - Criss Jami

35. “What you are, and who you are should provide greater clarity about where you have been and where you are headed. Although one distinguishes spiritual from physical nature, the ultimate unification of the two is the consequence of the struggle for internal, external and eternal – peace.” - T.F. Hodge

36. “If the entire world sought to make itself worthy of happiness rather than make itself happy, then the entire world would be happy.” - Criss Jami

37. “All sentient beings should have at least one right—the right not to be treated as property” - GaryLFrancione

38. “Being alone can be good. It's easy to find peace alone. But sometimes, being alone is a king of death.” - Dean Koontz

39. “She had storms all her life, but she died peacefully.” - Janet Flanner

40. “Si percibo en otra persona nada más que lo superficial, percibo principalmente las diferencias, lo que nos separa. Si penetro hasta el núcleo, percibo nuestra identidad, el hecho de nuestra hermandad.” - Erich Fromm

41. “Instead of engaging in cutthroat competition, we should strive to create value. In economic terms, this means a transition from a consumer economy - the mad rush for ownership and consumption - to a constructive economy where all human beings can participate in the act of creating lasting worth.” - Daisaku Ikeda

42. “The word God can mean whatever you believe it to mean, for me it is the conscious stream of life from which we all come, and to which we can stayconnected throughout our lives as a source of peace, wisdom, love, support, knowing, inspiration, vitality, security, balance, and inner strength.I think that awareness is paramount, because in awareness we gain understanding, which then enables us to regain our feeling of empowerment.We need to feel empowered to make our choices conciously, about how to deal with changes in life, rather than reacting in fear (which tends to make us blind and weak).If we are aware, we can be realistic yet postive, and we can properly focus our intentions.Awareness can be quite sensual (which can add to your sense of feeling empowered). Think about how your body moves as you live your life, how amazing it is; think about nature, observe the intricate beautiful details of natural thngs, and of things we create, and breathe deeply to soak it all in.. Focus on the taste of food, the feel of textures in cloth, the feel of you partner's hand in yours; smell the sea breeze, listen to the wind in the trees, witness the colours of the leaves, the children playing; and be thankful for this life we are experiencing - this life we can all help to keep wonderful. Feel the wonder of being alive flood into you anytime you want, by taking a deep breath and letting the experience of these things fill you, even just by remembering.We all have that same stream of life within us, so you are a part of everything. Each one of us has the power to make a difference to everything.Breathe in that vital connection to the life source and sensual beauty everywhere, Feel loved and strong.” - jay woodman

43. “On this platform of peace, we can create a languageto translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.” - Maya Angelou

44. “For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it.” - Thomas Hobbes

45. “Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.” - Winston Churchill

46. “The universe is not for man alone, but is a theater of evolution for all living beings. Live and let live is its guiding principle. 'Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah' - Non-injury is the highest religion.” - Virchand Raghavji Gandhi

47. “The only way to gain power in a world that is moving too fast is to learn to slow down. And the only way to spread one’s influence wide to learn how to go deep. The world we want for ourselves and our children will not emerge from electronic speed but rather from a spiritual stillness that takes root in our souls. Then, and only then, will we create a world that reflects the heart instead of shattering it.” - Marianne Williamson

48. “To generate an enduring peace, we will each have to continue to make progress as Christ conscious leaders, becoming increasingly aware of our unity with others and expanding our ability to receive Divine Love and be a vehicle for Divine Love. We will each have to detach from any impediments in our tribes, our families, and our own self-will that deter us from a commitment to fulfill God’s purpose in our lives, to do our work, and to continue our lifelong transformation as Christ conscious leaders. And we will have to come to realize that, in partnership with the Eternal Absolute, we each have the power – and thecalling – to build the kingdom of God on earth.” - Barbara Benjamin

49. “The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.” - Carl von Clausewitz

50. “And do you know another thing, Arthur? Life is too bitter already, without territories and wars and noble feuds.” - T.H. White

51. “What is this peace, different from that which the world gives? This peace is the one your love gives... a peace greater than suffering, not a peace without war, but a peace in spite of war, during war, above war, the peace of the soul, having, through love, its whole life in heaven and thus enjoying the peace of heaven in spite of everything which may happen on earth around it and against it. - from Michel Carrouges, "Soldier of the Spirit” - Charles de Foucauld

52. “Peace without shield and weapon is a no man's land.Shield and weapon without war won't be thoroughly tested.” - Toba Beta

53. “The precious gift of life must be preserved no matter now painful and pointless it seemed. Peace, I told them, is a gift so perfect that only God should grant it. I told people, only God’s most selfish children would steal God’s greatest gift, His only gift greater than life. The gift of death.This lesson is to the murderer, I said. This is to the suicide. This is to the abortionist. This is to the suffering and sick.Only God has the right to surprise His children with death.” - Chuck Palahniuk

54. “Life must have its sacred moments and its holy places. We need the infinite, the limitless, the uttermost -- all that can give the heart a deep and strengthening peace.” - A. Powell Davies

55. “Hope that justice will be done to those brave men who stood up for their convictions.” - Albert Einstein

56. “I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats.” - Eckhart Tolle

57. “Now we will count to twelveand we will all keep still.For once on the face of the earthlet's not speak in any language,let's stop for one second,and not move our arms so much.It would be an exotic momentwithout rush, without engines,we would all be togetherin a sudden strangeness.Fishermen in the cold seawould not harm whalesand the man gathering saltwould look at his hurt hands.Those who prepare green wars,wars with gas, wars with fire,victory with no survivors,would put on clean clothesand walk about with their brothersin the shade, doing nothing.What I want should not be confusedwith total inactivity.Life is what it is about;I want no truck with death.If we were not so single-mindedabout keeping our lives moving,and for once could do nothing,perhaps a huge silencemight interrupt this sadnessof never understanding ourselvesand of threatening ourselves with death.Perhaps the earth can teach usas when everything seems deadand later proves to be alive.Now I'll count up to twelveand you keep quiet and I will go.” - Pablo Neruda

58. “Life is short. Life is uncertain. But we know that we have today. And we have each other. I believe that for each of us, there is a place on the frontlines.” - Eric Greitens

59. “I have found that the less expectation you put on others, the more happiness you will find with them and yourself.” - K.L. Toth

60. “If peace had a smell,it would be the smell of a library full of old, leather-bound books.” - Mark Pryor

61. “There is nothing more powerful and nothing more dangerously beautiful than a free mind.” - Bryant McGill