QUOTES
FREEDOM
The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others
as well as ourselves.
HOPE
When hope is born, it is necessary to unite courage with wisdom. Only then is
it possible to avoid violence.
Hope
is the strongest driving force for a people. Hope which brings about change, which
produces new realities, is what opens man's road to freedom. Once hope has taken
hold, courage must unite with wisdom. That is the only way of avoiding violence,
the only way of maintaining the calm one needs to respond peacefully to offenses.
JUSTICE
Justice and peace can only thrive together, never apart.
LAW
I cannot accept that to be realistic means to tolerate misery, violence and hate.
I do not believe that the hungry man should be treated as subversive for expressing
his suffering. I shall never accept that the law can be used to justify tragedy,
to keep things as they are, to make us abandon our ideas of a different world.
Law is the path of liberty, and must as such open the way to progress for everyone.
LIVING
A LIFE OF COMPASSION
The effect of one good-hearted person is incalculable.
NUCLEAR
The existence
of nuclear weapons presents a clear and present danger to life on Earth. Nuclear
arms cannot bolster the security of any nation because they represent a threat
to the security of the human race. These incredibly destructive weapons are an
affront to our common humanity, and the tens of billions of dollars that are dedicated
to their development and maintenance should be used instead to alleviate human
need and suffering.
PEACE
Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions by many people in
many countries. It is an attitude, a way of life, a way of solving problems and
resolving conflicts. It cannot be forced on the smallest nation or enforced by
the largest. It cannot ignore our differences or overlook our common interests.
It requires us to work and live together.
Peace
is not a matter of prizes or trophies. It is not the product of a victory or command.
It has no finishing line, no final deadline, no fixed definition of achievement.
Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions.
Only
peace can write the new history.
Peace
consists, very largely, in the fact of desiring it with all one's soul. The inhabitants
of my small country, Costa Rica, have realized those words by Erasmus. Mine is
an unarmed people, whose children have never seen a fighter or a tank or a warship.
My
country is a country of teachers. It is therefore a country of peace. We discuss
our successes and failures in complete freedom. Because our country is a country
of teachers, we closed the army camps, and our children go about with books under
their arms, not with rifles on their shoulders. We believe in dialogue, in agreement,
in reaching a consensus.
