Blessed are the Peace Makers: Essential Quotes on Peace


I don't have to tell you how draining and how emotionally numbing this past week has been. Two very public incidents of police brutality followed by sniper attacks against law enforcement is enough to make you not want to turn on the TV and stay away from all newsfeeds. At this point, too many lives have been taken. At this point, too many families are grieving. At this point, too many communities have experienced loss. A storm of violence leaving a wake of emotional devastation. 

Some will spin (and have already spun) these events into a war of law enforcement versus people of color, or worse, a race war. Even now, those whose hearts are full of hate on both sides will begin to speak their venomous words over an already tumultuous situation. Our job is to not only time those words and provocative actions out, our job, the job of the sensible, the good hearted, the human, is to keep our focus in this fight. Our fight is not against each other. Our fight is against inequality. It's against racism. It's against injustice.


So what do we do now? 


Simply put: we make peace. And that, of course will be easier, much easier said than done. But it absolutely must be done; to honor all of this nation's great creeds and liberating ideals that many have fought and died for; and to give our children a future free from ignorance, violence, and hate.


Peace will not be won by silence and callous indifference, but it will be made. It will be made in every hard and every honest discussion, it will be made in actively listening to one another, it will be made in erasing stereotypes and combating ignorance, it will be made it will be made in every kind act and every loving gesture towards each other.  


I am ready. And I know I am not alone.


Today's post is simply on making peace and what those before us have said about it. my hope is that these quotes and scriptures really speak to all of our hearts, to your heart, and inspire whatever is necessary for us to make peace. 


Thanks for reading.


Matthew 5:9  “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.


“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.


“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi


“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” 
― Jimi Hendrix


"Peace is every step." 

- Thich Nhat Hahn

“Many people today agree that we need to reduce violence in our society. If we are truly serious about this, we must deal with the roots of violence, particularly those that exist within each of us. We need to embrace 'inner disarmament,' reducing our own emotions of suspicion, hatred and hostility toward our brothers and sisters.” 
― Dalai Lama XIV


"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding." 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it." 

- Eleanor Roosevelt

“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” 

-Malcolm X

Romans 12:17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.


"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." 

- Mother Teresa

"Nobody's free until everybody's free." 

- Fannie Lou Hamer

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." 

- Abraham Lincoln

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.” 
― John Lennon


“Healing begins where the wound was made.” 

-Alice Walker

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence.

--Gandhi

“Peace isn't the absence of wars provoked by a series of delinquents of all sort, but a dynamic process of cooperation between states and people...” 
― Ahmed Padia Binkatabana


“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” 
― Albert Einstein


“It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.” 
― Aristotle


"Peace is the only battle worth waging." 

- Albert Camus

"Let us not accept violence as the way of peace. Let us instead begin by respecting true freedom: the resulting peace will be able to satisfy the world's expectations, for it will be a peace built on justice, a peace founded on the incomparable dignity of the free human being." 

- Pope John Paul II

James 3:18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

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