ANSWERS
The
simplest questions are the most profound. Where were
you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What
are you doing? Think about these once in a while and
watch your answers change. ~Richard Bach |
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It would be naïve to think that peace and justice
can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of
history will automatically resolve the problems …
However, with faith and perseverance, … complex problems
in the past have been resolved in our search for justice
and peace.
-- Jimmy
Carter
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"There
are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome
the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest
search for understanding, education, organization,
action that raises the cost of state violence for
its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional
change -- and the kind of commitment that will persist
despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite
many failures and only limited successes, inspired
by the hope of a brighter future."
-- Noam
Chomsky
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"I
think war is never the answer to solving any problems.
The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies.”
--
Sheryl
Crow
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All
my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere
I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted
their answers too, though they were often in contradiction
and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking
for myself and asking everyone except myself questions
which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long
time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations
to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have
been born with: that I am nobody but myself. –Ralph
Ellison |
Nonviolence,
therefore, can be described as an honest and diligent
pursuit of truth. It could also mean the search for
the meaning of life or the purpose of life, questions
that have tormented humankind for centuries. The fact
that we have not been able to find satisfactory answers
to these questions does not mean there is no answer.
It only means we have not searched with any degree
of honesty. The search has to be both external and
internal. We seek to ignore this crucial search because
the sacrifices it demands are revolutionary. It means
moving away from greed, selfishness, possessiveness,
and dominance to love, compassion, understanding,
and respect.
-- Arun
Gandhi
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Truth
resides in every human heart, and one has to search
for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees
it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act
according to his own view of truth.
-- Mohandas
Gandhi
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A
balance of interests rather than a balance of power,
a search for compromise and concord rather than a
search for advantages at other people's expense, and
respect for equality rather than claims to leadership
- such are the elements which can provide the groundwork
for world progress…
~ Mikhail
Gorbachev
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Forgiveness
is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by
which what is broken is made whole again, what is
soiled is made clean again.
-- Dag
Hammarskjöld
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I would like to appeal to all those in whose hands
the future of mankind lies, to use their power not
to destroy or kill, nor to create suffering in a grasping
search for selfish objectives, but to help alleviate
the plight of the needy; to aim at justice and freedom
for the individual.
-- Poul
Hartling
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"Somebody
said to me the other day, 'You know, it's really senseless,
what you're doing. There's always been suffering,
there will always be suffering, and you're just prolonging
the suffering of these children [by rescuing them].'
My answer is, 'Okay, then, let's start with your grandchild.
Don't buy antibiotics if it gets pneumonia. Don't
take it to the hospital of it has an accident. It's
against life-against humanity-to think that way."
--
Audrey
Hepburn
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Difference
is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident
of birth and it should therefore never be the source
of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is
to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle
of peace: respect for diversity.
--
John Hume
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And
when at some future date the high court of history
sits in judgment on each of us, recording whether
in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities
to the state, our success or failure, in whatever
office we hold, will be measured by the answers to
four questions: First, were we truly men of courage...
Second, were we truly men of judgment... Third, were
we truly men of integrity... Finally, were we truly
men of dedication?—
-- John
F. Kennedy, 1961
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Ultimately,
America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity,
the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom
has inspired.
-- Robert
F. Kennedy |
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I
would always encourage people of any age not to be
so quick to follow other people's truths but to search
and follow your own moral code and live by your own
integrity, and mostly just be brave.
-- Jewel
Kilcher
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Honest
hope has an edge. It's messy. It requires that we let
go of all pat answers, all preconceived formulas, all
confidence that our sailing will be smooth. It's not
a resting point. Honest hope is movement.
-- Frances
Moore Lappe |
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"The
most revolutionary thing anybody can do is to raise
good, honest and generous children who will question
the answers of people who say the answer is violence.
That's what the schools should be doing."
-- Colman
McCarthy
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"The
young, free to act on their initiative, can lead their
elders in the direction of the unknown... The children,
the young, must ask the questions that we would never
think to ask, but enough trust must be re-established
so that the elders will be permitted to work with
them on the answers."
-- Margaret
Mead
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If
we destroy their environments and communities, we will
lose the answers they have to solving our problems,
and to the protection of our common futures.
--
Raúl
Montenegro
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The world’s major religions in the end all want the
same thing, even though they were born in different
places and circumstances on this planet. What the
world needs today is a convergence of the different
religions in the search for and definition of the
cosmic or divine laws which ought to regulate our
behavior on this planet.
--
Robert
Muller
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One
of the advantages of being born in an affluent society
is that if one has any intelligence at all, one will
realize that having more and more won't solve the
problem, and happiness does not lie in possessions,
or even relationships: The answer lies within ourselves.
If we can't find peace and happiness there, it's not
going to come from the outside.
-- Tenzin
Palmo
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The
first part of the Answer to the Question of the 'Meaning
of Life' is about the way to truly Live. And that
is to love and be loved by the people in your life
with all your heart, and to seek to live in the Now
– to strive to be present with them, and remember
this mission and purpose through the struggles and
the joy, and to share together the amazing journey
of life. The second part is to see Life as more than
your own life and your own time. To see that throughout
time, humanity has shared a vision of ‘peace on earth’.
And though it is an impossible dream, only a life
lived in service to humanity – in honor of this shared
goal – can help to validate the struggles of the 93
billion people who have lived and died, the 7 billion
dreams of those alive today, and the hope of humanity
to come. The third is to find a balance between the
two – between living your individual life to the fullest,
while striving to help humanity evolve to a higher
consciousness of compassion, meaning and purpose.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
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Exactly
what brings happiness is a mystery for most people.
Some try to find the answer by pursuing wealth, love,
adventure and climbing the corporate ladder. Many
who reach the goals that they've convinced themselves
they need to reach to be happy, however, find themselves
still searching for happiness. The conclusion that
many heroes for a better world have discovered, is
that helping others to be happy is the surest way
to find happiness. -- Robert
Alan Silverstein
Love
is the way we show peace, love sets us free.
Love is the bond that joins us to our community.
Love is the answer that we've been searching for.
It lives inside all of us, just open up the door,
And Love to find Peace...
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
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Many
folks have asked me, ‘How do you do it and why have
you sacrificed so much to do this work? The answer
comes easy. I look at my daughter and find hope
in that she is living in a world of struggle, of
social and political movement. She and the other
five-year-olds will grow up in a more just, more
equitable world. She motivates me.
-- Lateefah
Simon
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"I've
seen miracles in post-war situations, in famines,
in places of horrendous brutal subjugation and oppression,
when women step forward and play their rightful role
in co-equal partnership with men. It's not the answer
all by itself, but it is a powerful and incredibly
effective step to give women their rightful role and
voice and the resources to back it up."
-- Lynne
Twist
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"Nonviolence
is the answer for the questions of our time. Love
will conquer evil every time."
-- James
Twyman
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In many parts of the world the people are searching
for a solution which would link the two basic values:
peace and justice. The two are like bread and salt
for mankind.
-- Lech
Walesa
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It is
wise to direct your anger towards problems - not people;
to focus your energies on answers - not excuses.
- William Arthur Ward
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