The Quotes canon

Sourced and curated.

Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Peace is much more precious than a piece of land. — Anwar Sadat · 1978
Aristotle1 quote
Make war that we may live in peace. — Aristotle · 322 BC
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice. — Baruch Spinoza · 1677
There never was a good War, or a bad Peace. — Benjamin Franklin · 1783
But there is another element, more important than all, without which there can not be the slightest hope of a permanent peace. That element lies in the heart of humanity. Unless the desire for peace be cherished there, unless this fundamental and only natural source of brotherly love be cultivated to its highest degree, all artificial efforts will be in vain. Peace will come when there is realization that only under a reign of law, based on righteousness and supported by the religious conviction of the brotherhood of man, can there be any hope of a complete and satisfying life. — Calvin Coolidge · 1925
This peace we seek cannot be born of fear alone: it must be rooted in the lives of nations. There must be justice, sensed and shared by all peoples, for, without justice the world can know only a tense and unstable truce. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1957
It is easier to make war than to make peace. — Georges Clemenceau · 1919
War appears to be as old as mankind, but peace is a modern invention. — Henry Maine · 1887
Surely civilization is old enough, surely mankind is mature enough so that we ought in our own lifetime to find a way to permanent peace. — Herbert Hoover · 1929
Herodotus1 quote
No one is stupid enough to prefer war to peace; in peace sons bury their fathers and in war fathers bury their sons. However, I suppose the god must have wanted this to happen. — Herodotus · 430 BC
Jesus1 quote
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. — Jesus · 60
All we are saying is give peace a chance. — John Lennon · 1969
A war can perhaps be won single-handedly, a lasting peace cannot be secured without the support of all. — Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva · 2003
Malcolm X1 quote
You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom. — Malcolm X · 1965
To make peace with an enemy one must work with that enemy, and that enemy becomes one's partner. — Nelson Mandela · 1995
Were I to... Take a peasant by the shoulders and whisper to him, "In your lifetime, have you known peace?" wait for his answer, shake his shoulders and transform him into his father, and ask him the same question, and transform him in turn into his father, I would never hear the word "yes" if I carried my questioning of the dead back for a thousand years. — Rebecca West · 1941
The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. This honor now beckons America—the chance to help lead the world at last out of the valley of turmoil, and onto that high ground of peace that man has dreamed of since the dawn of civilization. — Richard Nixon · 1969
War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading. — Thomas Hardy · 1904
Voltaire1 quote
Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts flourish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege. — Voltaire · 1759
Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It's sprightly waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible. — William Shakespeare · 1616