There is no squabbling so violent as that between people who accepted an idea yesterday and those who will accept the same idea tomorrow.

My dear sir, they don't debate. Each of them merely issues an ultimatum, and in what a tone! It all goes to show what extraordinary people they are, each more unequivocal than the other.

There are two dilemmas that rattle the human skull: How do you hang on to someone who won't stay? And how do you get rid of someone who won't go?

The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.

Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds

All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest--never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership.

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.

Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict -- alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence.

The torment of human frustration, whatever its immediate cause, is the knowledge that the self is in prison, its vital force and "mangled mind" leaking away in lonely, wasteful self-conflict.

Don't be afraid of opposition. Remember, a kite rises against; not with; the wind.

Science cannot resolve moral conflicts, but it can help to more accurately frame the debates about those conflicts.

But the greatest menace to our civilization today is the conflict between giant organized systems of self-righteousness -- each system only too delighted to find that the other is wicked -- each only too glad that the sins give it the pretext for still deeper hatred and animosity.

You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.

Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

Whenever two good people argue over principles, they are both right.

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.

If you ain't never pick up the sword, you ain't never have to worry about fallin' on it.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice.