Pacifists

"My motivation and drive in life is God. I have a personal relationship with Him. And my hunger for the impossible quickens something in me to rise to the occasion and make it possible."

"For the sake of peace, it is important to build a community of women with one purpose and work for the overall well-being of the people notwithstanding their religious and tribal affiliations."

"My father taught me integrity while my mother taught me to be industrious, hardworking and disciplined. My husband, Dr. Iko Ibanga, is another person who has taught me to strike a balance between my pioneering, result-oriented spirit and loving people sincerely. He is one man that brings beauty out of relationships."

"We are mothers we are life-givers and we are solution bearers we think that we should bring solutions to the table rather than dwell on the problem."

"We want to do away with the walls that divide and separate us, whether it's the walls of social class or the wall of ethnicity, or the walls of religion."

"During the twenty past centuries our Christians from the Holy Land were like condemned and privileged to share oppression, persecution and suffering with Christ. He is risen but his cross is still high in our sky. Our Christianity is still hanging on that terrible cross. They still live under daily threats from officials who dream continuing the transfer of our minority, away from their lands, their homes, away from their ancestral homeland. If it was not for Him, the cross would have been damned and hated."

"I became a victim all over again; my life became as a bird in a cage. I asked, why me? Why do I suffer so much? I felt so bitter and angry, I wanted those who had caused me suffering to suffer even more than me."

"Try not to see her as she was then – suffering, crying out in pain and fear. Try to see her as she is today: as a mother, a grandmother and a survivor, calling out for peace."

"The fire burned off my clothes. And I saw my arm got burned with the fire. I thought, oh, my goodness, I get burned. People will see me different way. Nine years old, I became the victim of war. I didn’t like that picture at all. I felt like, why he took my picture, when I was agony, naked, so ugly? I wished that picture wasn’t taken. I went through 17 operations. I had to deal with the pain every single day. I used to compare my scars with buffalo skin. And because my skin wasn’t have any pores, I cannot sweat, make me feel so tired, so headache."

"I came through the fire, and I am so blessed to be with you today. My dream is that one day, all people will live without fear, in real peace, with no fighting and no hostility."

"All my journey, I help children, building school, building hospital, orphanage home. It’s about relationship. Now I’m working, not because of my duty, not because of my mission, but because of my love."

"If I could talk face to face with the pilot who dropped the bomb, I could tell him we cannot change history. But we should try to do good things for the present and for the future to promote peace."

"The more I prayed for my enemies, the softer my heart became. When I felt real forgiveness, my heart was set free. If I can do it, all of you can do it too."

"Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed. Napalm is very powerful, but faith, forgiveness, and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope, and forgiveness. If that little girl in the picture can do it, ask yourself: Can you?"

"When I was growing up, the pain was so sharp, it was like I’d been cut by a knife. As I get older, the pain is different, it is deep in there and stays there."

"Every time I touch my scar I am so thankful. My scar reminds me that God is with me. It is the mark that God stamped on my body to remind me he is there. I touch my scar and I love it – it humbles me, it makes me love people and do the work I am doing now. It takes me back to being that little girl, but now I have no upset or anger about it, I just go to the Lord and pray. And the more I pray, the more peace I have over my suffering. My scar makes me have more intimacy in my relationship with God. It’s the strength inside of me. My scar is a miracle."

"[The Molotov–Ribbentrop] was not an alliance, such as the USSR offered Britain and France; it was merely an affirmation of neutrality such as the USSR had had with Germany since 1926, but which had fallen into disuse under Hitler. Molotov reported that the USSR signed because "the conclusion of a pact of mutual assistance (with Britain and France) could not be expected." The signing of the Pact at the moment when Europe, from hour to hour, awaited Hitler's attack on Poland, changed the balance of forces in Europe. [...] East Europe clearly hoped that the Pact, while it might not stop Hitler's attack on Poland, would stop the eastward spread of the war. Hitler's allies were angry. Mussolini and Franco openly disapproved. Terrible was the blow to Tokyo, for Japan was already fighting the USSR on the edge of Mongolia, and was reported have told Hitler that she would be ready by August to join "the big push.""

"No voice today can be final about the Stalin era. Stalin is one of those who are judged by long history, the character of whose work grows clearer as it recedes from view. What we know, at least, is that he set out in 1928 to build socialism in one country, a backward peasant land surrounded by a world of foes. When he began, Russia was peasant, illiterate; when he finished, it was the world's second industrial power. Twice over he thus built it, once before the Hitler invasion and again upon the war's ruin. That stands to his credit forever; he engineered that job."

"The [Soviet] Constitution was a direct challenge to Nazi-Fascism, then in power in Germany. The Nazis called democracy outworn; all Soviet speakers hailed democracy and socialism as "unconquerable." Hitler preached "superior and inferior races." Stalin challenged him in one of the most sweeping statements ever made of human equality: "Neither language nor color of skin nor cultural backwardness nor the stage of political development can justify national and race inequality"."

"In all lands, whether for him or against him, Stalin created history."

"British finance, which had strangled German democracy by demanding impossible reparation, helped Hitler with investments and loans. Every intelligent world citizen knew that these favors were given to Hitler because British Tories saw in him their "strong-arm gangster" against the Soviets."

"In capitalist Britain, the factory appeared as a weapon of exploitation for profit. In the USSR, it was not only a means to collective wealth, but a tool consciously used to break past shackles."

"[Stalin] had a deep sense of what I can only call the "will of the people"; he had matchless technique in releasing that will in action. Lastly, he had the conviction, and was able to give it to others, that his actions carried mankind forward to a better way."

"One of the first Americans to go down into the famine district was Anna Louise Strong, who ever since has spent most of her time in the Soviet Union and through her writing and lecturing has contributed so much toward greater understanding of the Soviet Union in America."

"A cry for mercy and Justice rises from the Congo."

"I saw those hunted woman, the blood flowing as the whip struck and struck again, the savage soldiers and their burning villages, casement told me to be amazed that i 5000 miles away had come to conclusions identical with his in every respect, an immense weight passed from me."

"In any inclusive study of the roots of modern British socialism and internationalism, Casement’s collaboration with E.D. Morel should be cited as a critical conjuncture in a tradition of English radicalism and the struggle for the fairer distribution of land."

"Congo reformers like Morel, much to the annoyance of Hochschild, advocated either German or British colonization of the area (Congo). Morel’s view, according to Hochschild, speaking ex cathedra from the hallowed seat of modern California, “seems surprising to us today” and was among his “faults” and “political limitations.” Quite the opposite. The moment the Belgians colonized the Congo in 1908, a miraculous improvement was noted on all fronts. Seeking to debunk colonialism, Hochschild’s book demonstrates the opposite. This is the first and biggest lie at the heart of King Leopold’s Ghost."

"I was filled with determination, to do my best to expose and destroy what i then knew to be a legalized infamy, responsible for a vast destruction of human life."

"I do thank our Savior that I was allowed to suffer for Him, and that I may also die for Him."

"The coming of George Lansbury, whose daring rectitude expressed itself in splendid, shameless words and deeds, seemed to herald a better time."

"Lansbury obviously is the idol of all these workers and their women-folk. He has moved, in his time, in proud places. But his heart remains with people."

"A few centuries ago one King who stood up against the common people of that day lost his head—lost it really. (Laughter and cheers.) Later, one of his descendants was told to get out as quickly as he could. Since that day Kings and Queens had been what they ought to be. They never interfered with ordinary politics, and George V would be well advised to keep his finger out of the pie now."

"[David Lloyd George] said he had talked to George Lansbury in the House about Lansbury's recent visit to Hitler, and Lansbury had entirely agreed that Hitler wanted peace and to be friends with this country. ‘Lansbury talked to me very frankly. He said he was in despair in regard to his own party.’"

"The workers of all countries have no quarrel. They are ... exploited in times of peace and sent out to be massacred in times of war."

"The workers must be given tangible proof that Labour administration means something different from capitalist administration, and in a nutshell this means diverting wealth from wealthy ratepayers to the poor."

"There is only one way to peace, and it is to be found in the words, "Throw down your arms.""

"The most lovable figure in modern politics."

""The old White Rabbit", as Hugh Dalton called him, hampered rearmament till 1935. He was one of those first-class Christians who have so nearly wrecked Christian civilization."

"The time has arrived for the working classes to seize political power and use it to overthrow the competitive system and establish in its place state cooperation."

"Liberalism would progress just as far as the great money bags of capitalism would allow it to progress, and so I took the plunge and joined the SDF ... because I felt that they stood in England for revolt against present conditions, and for a reorganised society which would be built up by the efforts of the workers themselves."

"I object altogether to the idea of teaching children that the British Empire is something which ought to be preserved in its present form, and that the British Empire is something which, through the mercy and help of God, has been brought into being."

"[F]or years I worshipped at the political shrine of Mr. Gladstone."

"'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' was the basis of policy where jobs and contracts were concerned ... the slum owner and agent could be depended upon to create the conditions which produce disease; the doctor would then get the job of attending the sick, the chemist would be needed to supply drugs, the parson to pray, and when, between them all, the victims died the undertaker was on hand to bury them."

"Although I have listened to many of his speeches and heard him say many things with which, rightly or wrongly, I have disagreed, I think I have never heard him say anything unkind, ungenerous or unfair. His earnestness, dignity and sincerity and his faithful and even passionate devotion to the people whom he served commanded our admiration while he lived and will now enrich the traditions of Parliament."

"In his later years Mr. Lansbury's intense hatred of war became more and more the leading feature of his political creed. I dare say there were not many hon. Members who felt convinced of the practicability of the methods which he advocated for the preservation of peace, but there was no one who did not realise his intense conviction, which arose out of his deep humanitarianism. He has perhaps been spared much that would have given him pain. He has left behind him the memory of a man who was deeply loved by all who knew him best, on account of his passionate devotion to the cause of the poor and helpless and his unselfish and kindly nature. I feel sure that in the Angel's Book his name will be found to be written like that of Abou ben Adhem as one who loved his fellow man."

"George Lansbury was filled with the burning zeal of the prophet. He hated cruelty, injustice and wrongs, and felt deeply for all who suffered. In the course of his long life he was ever the champion of the weak, and with that immense vitality of his, sustained right to the end of his life, he strove for that in which he believed."

"Generally speaking, anyone who expressed any desire to improve the lot of the exploited and injured, or proposed any remedy for the mortal sickness of acquisitive society, was regarded by the Conservative class as the vilest of criminals, an untouchable, an outcast, in short—a "Bolshevik." George [Lansbury] himself, had been imprisoned by the Tories in the days when he was a Poplar Guardian, and therefore, like so many heroes of the class-struggle, a "gaol-bird.""

"It should not be forgotten that until long after Hitler was in power the Leader of the Labour Party was an out-and-out pacifist. Everybody loved old Mr. Lansbury, and nobody could possibly doubt his sincerity. And this is what he said nearly ten months after Hitler came into power: "I would close every recruiting station, disband the Army and dismiss the Air Force. I would abolish the whole dreadful equipment of war and say to the world 'Do your worst'." Never had the leader of a great party in this country used words so wild and irresponsible. Mr. Lansbury was a sincere and devout Christian, but it may be said with certainty that, had he been Prime Minister, there would have been no Battle of Britain seven years later."

"[Lansbury attracted large audiences throughout Britain who saw] an old man full of energy, very much alive and possessed of an unquenchable zeal, breathing love and kindliness, and yet all the time a fighter, vehement and determined."