# Quotes about pacifism - Quotes: 32 - Authors: 14 - Broader topic: [Quotes about war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.json ## Quotes > Satyagraha derives its power from two apparently opposite attributes: fierce autonomy and total compassion. It says, in effect: I will not coerce you. Neither will I be coerced by you. If you behave unjustly, I will not oppose you by violence (bodyforce) but by the force of truth—the integrity of my beliefs. My integrity is evident in my willingness to suffer, to endanger myself, to go to prison, even to die if necessary. But I will not cooperate with injustice. [Marilyn Ferguson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson.md) · [The Aquarian Conspiracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson/the-aquarian-conspiracy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilyn-ferguson/the-aquarian-conspiracy/satyagraha-derives-its.md) Topics: [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > No legend told its children of beautiful princesses falling in love with conscientious objectors. [Warren Farrell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/warren-farrell.md) · [Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say](https://www.leafyquotes.com/warren-farrell/women-cant-hear-what-men-dont-say.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/warren-farrell/women-cant-hear-what-men-dont-say/no-legend-told.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [women](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > for all their failings, anti-war movements should already have taught us one crucial lesson: that the passions we bring to war can be brought just as well to the struggle against war. [Barbara Ehrenreich](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-ehrenreich.md) · [Blood Rites](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-ehrenreich/blood-rites.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-ehrenreich/blood-rites/for-all-their.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md), [passion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/passion-2.md) > it is a giant step from hating the warriors to hating the war, and an even greater step to deciding that the "enemy" is the abstract institution of war, which maintains its grip on us even in the interludes we know as peace. [Barbara Ehrenreich](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-ehrenreich.md) · [Blood Rites](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-ehrenreich/blood-rites.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-ehrenreich/blood-rites/it-is-a-giant.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [hatred](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > I must honor those who fight of their own free willl, he said to himself. And I must try to imitate their courage by following my path as a pacifist, wherever it takes me. [Christopher Isherwood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood.md) · [Christopher and His Kind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/christopher-and-his-kind.md) · p. 336 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/christopher-and-his-kind/i-must-honor.md) Topics: [courage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Suppose, Christopher now said to himself, I have a Nazi Army at my mercy. I can blow it up by pressing a button. The men in that Army are notorious for torturing and murdering civilians — all except for one of them, Heinz. Will I press the button? No — wait: Suppose I know that Heinz himself, out of cowardice or moral infection, has become as bad as they are and takes part in all their crimes? Will I press that button, even so? Christopher's answer, given without the slightest hesitation, was: Of course not. > > That was a purely emotional reaction. But it helped Christopher think his way through to the next proposition. Suppose that Army goes into action and has just one casualty, Heinz himself. Will I press the button now and destroy his fellow criminals? No emotional reaction this time, but a clear answer, not to be evaded: Once I have refused to press that button because of Heinz, I can never press it. Because every man in that Army could be someone's Heinz and I have no right to play favorites. Thus Christopher was forced to recognize himself as a pacifist — although by an argument which he could only admit to with the greatest reluctance. [Christopher Isherwood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood.md) · [Christopher and His Kind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/christopher-and-his-kind.md) · p. 335 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/christopher-and-his-kind/suppose-christopher-now.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > There are many things worth living for, there are a few things worth dying for, but there is nothing worth killing for. [Tom Robbins](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins.md) · [Even Cowgirls Get the Blues](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/even-cowgirls-get-the-blues.md) · p. 263 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/even-cowgirls-get-the-blues/there-are-many.md) Topics: [violence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > "What I say, what I have always said, is there has got to be an end to it. Now is the time to make an end. There will never be a better time, because there is always a reason to fight and kill and build more guns and weapons..." (p239) [Starhawk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/starhawk.md) · [The Fifth Sacred Thing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/starhawk/the-fifth-sacred-thing.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/starhawk/the-fifth-sacred-thing/what-i-say.md) Topics: [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee. > > I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that. (p. 19) [Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Slaughterhouse-Five](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five/i-have-told.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > “Violent men believe only in such concepts as ‘weakness’ and ‘cowardice’. They are so deeply cynical , so rooted in their own insane beliefs, that they cannot even begin to grasp the concept of ‘pacifism’.” [Michael Moorcock](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock.md) · [The Land Leviathan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-land-leviathan.md) · p. 214 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-land-leviathan/violent-men-believe.md) Topics: [violence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > If you are opposed to war, you are not a fringe minority. You are not a silent majority. You are part of a silenced majority. Silenced by the mainstream media. [Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/if-you-are.md) Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > They had learned how to listen for the sense of the meeting, not the voice of the loudest. They had learned that they must judge each time whether obedience was necessary and right, or misplaced and wrong. They had learned that the act of violence is the act of weakness, and that the spirit’s strength lies in holding fast to the truth. [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin.md) · [The Eye of the Heron](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-eye-of-the-heron.md) · p. 53 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-eye-of-the-heron/they-had-learned.md) Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > As I refuse violence, I refuse to serve the violent. [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin.md) · [The Eye of the Heron](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-eye-of-the-heron.md) · p. 13 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-eye-of-the-heron/as-i-refuse.md) Topics: [violence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Our century of war, militarism, and political terror has produced great — and successful — advocates of true peace, among whom Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., are the paramount examples. The considerable success that they achieved testifies to the presence, in the midst of violence, of an authentic and powerful desire for peace and, more important, of the proven will to make the necessary sacrifices. [Wendell Berry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry.md) · [Citizenship Papers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/citizenship-papers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/citizenship-papers/our-century-of-war.md) Topics: [peace](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/peace.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > We have become blind to the alternatives to violence. This involves us in a sort of official madness, in which, while following what seems to be a perfect logic of self-defense and deterrence, we commit one absurdity after another: We seek to preserve peace by fighting a war, or to advance freedom by subsidizing dictatorships, or to "win the hearts and minds of the people" by poisoning their crops and burning their villages and confining them in concentration camps; we seek to uphold the "truth" of our cause with lies, or to answer conscientious dissent with threats and slurs and intimidations. … I have come to the realization that I can no longer imagine a war that I would believe to be either useful or necessary. I would be against any war. [Wendell Berry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry.md) · [The Long-Legged House](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/the-long-legged-house.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/the-long-legged-house/we-have-become.md) Topics: [violence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Nonviolence does not necessarily emerge from a pacific or calm part of the soul. Very often it is an expression of rage, indignation, and aggression. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 21 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/nonviolence-does-not.md) Topics: [anger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/anger.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > The ethical stand of nonviolence has to be linked to a commitment to radical equality. And more specifically, the practice of nonviolence requires an opposition to biopolitical forms of racism and war logics that regularly distinguish lives worth safeguarding from those that are not—populations conceived as collateral damage, or as obstructions to policy and military aims. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 62 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/the-ethical-stand.md) Topics: [equality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Nonviolence is less a failure of action than a physical assertion of the claims of life, a living assertion, a claim that is made by speech, gesture, and action, through networks, encampments, and assemblies; all of these seek to recast the living as worthy of value, as potentially grievable, precisely under conditions in which they are either erased from view or cast into irreversible forms of precarity. When the precarious expose their living status to those powers that threaten their very lives, they engage a form of persistence that holds the potential to defeat one of the guiding aims of violent power—namely, to cast those on the margins as dispensable, to push them beyond the margins into the zone of non-being, to use Fanon’s phrase. When nonviolent movements work within the ideals of , it is the equal claim to a livable and grievable life that serves as a guiding social ideal, one that is fundamental to an ethics and politics of nonviolence that moves beyond the legacy of individualism. It opens up a new consideration of social freedom as defined in part by our constitutive interdependency. An egalitarian imaginary is required for such a struggle—one that reckons with the potential for destruction in every living bond. Violence against the other is, in this sense, violence against oneself, something that becomes clear when we recognize that violence assaults the living interdependency that is, or should be, our social world. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 24 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/nonviolence-is-less.md) Topics: [equality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Nonviolence does not make sense without a commitment to equality. The reason why nonviolence requires a commitment to equality can best be understood by considering that in this world some lives are more clearly valued than others, and that this inequality implies that certain lives will be more tenaciously defended than others. If one opposes the violence done to human lives—or, indeed, to other living beings—this presumes that it is because those lives are valuable. Our opposition affirms those lives as valuable. If they were to be lost as a result of violence, that loss would be registered as a loss only because those lives were affirmed as having a living value, and that, in turn, means we regard those lives as worthy of grief. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 28 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/nonviolence-does-not-make.md) Topics: [equality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > We must fight those who are committed to destruction, without replicating their destructiveness. Understanding how to fight in this way is the task and the bind of a nonviolent ethics and politics. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 64 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/we-must-fight.md) Topics: [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > The ethical and political practice of nonviolence can rely neither exclusively on the dyadic encounter, nor on the bolstering of a prohibition; it requires a political opposition to the biopolitical forms of racism and war logics that rely on phantasmagoric inversions that occlude the binding and interdependent character of the social bond. It requires, as well, an account of why, and under what conditions, the frameworks for understanding violence and nonviolence, or violence and self-defense, seem to invert into one another, causing confusion about how best to pin down those terms. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 62 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/the-ethical-and.md) Topics: [racism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/racism.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Nonviolence is perhaps best described as a practice of resistance that becomes possible, if not mandatory, precisely at the moment when doing violence seems most justified and obvious. In this way, it can be understood as a practice that not only stops a violent act, or a violent process, but requires a form of sustained action, sometimes aggressively pursued. So, one suggestion I will make is that we can think of nonviolence not simply as the absence of violence, or as the act of refraining from committing violence, but as a sustained commitment, even a way of rerouting aggression for the purposes of affirming ideals of equality and freedom. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 27 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/nonviolence-is-perhaps.md) Topics: [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > If nonviolence is to make sense as an ethical and political position, it cannot simply repress aggression or do away with its reality; rather, nonviolence emerges as a meaningful concept precisely when destruction is most likely or seems most certain. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 39 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/if-nonviolence-is-to-make.md) Topics: [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > There is no practice of nonviolence that does not negotiate fundamental ethical and political ambiguities, which means that “nonviolence” is not an absolute principle, but the name of an ongoing struggle. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 23 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/there-is-no-practice.md) Topics: [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Nonviolence is not an absolute principle, but an open-ended struggle with violence and its countervailing forces. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 56 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/nonviolence-is-not.md) Topics: [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > It is precisely because we can destroy that we are under an obligation to know why we ought not to do it, and to summon those countervailing powers that curb our destructive capacity. Nonviolence becomes an ethical obligation by which we are bound precisely because we are bound to one another; it may well be an obligation against which we rail, in which ambivalent swings of the psyche make themselves known, but the obligation to preserve the social bond can be resolved upon without precisely resolving that ambivalence. The obligation not to destroy each other emerges from, and reflects, the vexed social form of our lives, and it leads us to reconsider whether self-preservation is not linked to preserving the lives of others. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 148 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/it-is-precisely.md) Topics: [responsibility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Nonviolence has now to be understood less as a moral position adopted by individuals in relation to a field of possible action than as a social and political practice undertaken in concert, culminating in a form of resistance to systemic forms of destruction coupled with a commitment to world building that honors global interdependency of the kind that embodies ideals of economic, social, and political freedom and equality. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 20 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/nonviolence-has-now.md) Topics: [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Nonviolent forms of resistance can and must be aggressively pursued. A practice of aggressive nonviolence is, therefore, not a contradiction in terms. Mahatma Gandhi insisted that , or “soul force,” his name for a practice and politics of nonviolence, is a nonviolent force, one that consists at once of an “insistence on truth … that arms the votary with matchless power.” To understand this force or strength, there can be no simple reduction to physical strength. At the same time, “soul force” takes an embodied form. The practice of “going limp” before political power is, on the one hand, a passive posture, and is thought to belong to the tradition of passive resistance; at the same time, it is a deliberate way of exposing the body to police power, of entering the field of violence, and of exercising an adamant and embodied form of political agency. It requires suffering, yes, but for the purposes of transforming both oneself and social reality. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 21 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/nonviolent-forms-of-resistance.md) Topics: [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Nonviolence is an ideal that cannot always be fully honored in the practice. To the degree that those who practice nonviolent resistance put their body in the way of an external power, they make physical contact, presenting a force against force in the process. Nonviolence does not imply the absence of force or of aggression. It is, as it were, an ethical stylization of embodiment, replete with gestures and modes of non-action, ways of becoming an obstacle, of using the solidity of the body and its proprioceptive object field to block or derail a further exercise of violence. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 22 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/nonviolence-is-an-ideal.md) Topics: [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > When the world presents as a force field of violence, the task of nonviolence is to find ways of living and acting in that world such that violence is checked or ameliorated, or its direction turned, precisely at moments when it seems to saturate that world and offer no way out. [Judith Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler.md) · [The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind.md) · p. 10 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/judith-butler/the-force-of-nonviolence-an-ethico-political-bind/when-the-world.md) Topics: [violence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > "But there are two things that different kinds of people believe that are the worst, most dangerous, wrongest of all. Some people believe that the best way to solve a problem is with violence; they beat up or kill anyone who disagrees with them." > > … "But what's the other worst kind of bad thinking?" > > "Pacifism," she said. "That's just the opposite of the first kind of bad thinking. Pacificists believe that you should never lift a hand against another human being, no matter what he has done or what you know he's going to do." … "Some pacificists are cowards in disguise, but some really believe it's right to permit the murder of an innocent person rather than kill to stop it. They're wrong because by not fighting evil, they've become part of it." [Dean Koontz](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz.md) · [Lightning](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz/lightning.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz/lightning/but-there-are.md) Topics: [violence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md) > Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty [Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Double Star](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/double-star.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/double-star/pacifism-is-a-shifty.md) Topics: [hypocrisy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md)