"Peace is not merely the absence of..." - Quote by Barack Obama
Peace is not merely the absence of visible conflict. Only a just peace based on the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting.
More by Barack Obama
“History doesn't always move in a straight line. Sometimes it zigs and zags.”
“The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure.”
“The United States, we know what happens when we start dividing ourselves along lines of race or religion or ethnicity.”
More on Peace
“And the ones who would not make war? Can they stop it?”
“So let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.”
“I think most Americans are ready for waging peace and not just brutalizing our foreign policy which is boomeranging against us.”
More on Justice
“How do we transform mere power into justice, mere sentiment into love?”
“In the many forms of government which have sprung up there has always been an acknowledgement of justice and proportionate equality, although mankind fail in attaining them, as indeed I have already explained. Democracy, for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.”
“Open the doors of opportunity to talent and virtue and they will do themselves justice, and property will not be in bad hands.”