Quotes about Violence

The rat race of such predation and usurpation is a restlessness that issues inescapably in anxiety that is often at the edge of being unmanageable; when pursued vigorously enough, moreover, one is propelled to violence against the neighbor in eagerness for what properly belongs to the neighbor.

commandment on sabbath is the most difficult and most urgent of the commandments in our society, because it summons us to intent and conduct that defies the most elemental requirements of a commodity-propelled society that specializes in control and entertainment, bread and circuses . . . along with anxiety and violence.

Thus I have come to think that the fourth commandment on sabbath is the most difficult and most urgent of the commandments in our society, because it summons us to intent and conduct that defies the most elemental requirements of a commodity-propelled society that specializes in control and entertainment, bread and circuses … along with anxiety and violence.

His [the author's] renown… has been purchased, not by deeds of violence and blood, but by the diligent dispensation of pleasure.

Christians today, no less than people of other faiths, are caught between pervasive apathy and acts of violence, apathy born of hopelessness about the enormity of the evils that confront us and recourse to violence and coercion that seriously compromises or even destroys the goals of a better future. Either way, we can close off the future to which we are directed by God our creator and redeemer.

Hearts of stone are often hearts that have been wounded, overburdened, and disappointed. The walls of the heart have toughened to prevent the absorption of more pain and to preserve the appearance of life. Left un-dealt with, these hearts can become cynical, untrusting, and able to see dire need and feel nothing. They can even live in continual violence and be seemingly unaffected.

Respect for everyone he met. The preference of service over power. The rejection of violence. Israel—its Law and worship—as the primal source of meaning.

An act of terrorism totally outside the bounds of international law and diplomatic tradition. ... a crisis that calls for firmness and restraint.

In the "lynching era," between 1880 to 1940, white Christians lynched nearly five thousand black men and women in a manner with obvious echoes of the Roman crucifixion of Jesus. Yet these "Christians" did not see the irony or contradiction in their actions.

Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

I heard them saying something about a razor—Miss Vane! What killed him?' There were no kindly words for this—not even a long, scientific, Latin name. 'His throat was cut, Mrs Weldon.' (Brutal Saxon monosyllables.)

The Oklahoma City bombing was simple technology, horribly used. The problem is not technology. The problem is the person or persons using it.