Confidence alone does not make peace, but acknowledging rights and confidence do. Failure to recognize these rights creates a sense of injustice; it keeps the embers burning under the ashes.
Yasser ArafatRead
I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the duality of seeking peace while being prepared to fight for freedom.
Yasser Arafat's quote symbolizes the balance between diplomacy and the struggle for freedom. It conveys a powerful message that while one seeks peace (represented by the olive branch), the reality of conflict (represented by the gun for freedom) cannot be ignored. Arafat emphasizes the importance of not abandoning peaceful resolutions, even in the face of struggle, thus illustrating a complex relationship between peace and conflict.
Themes
PeaceFreedomConflictDiplomacyStruggle
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech on conflict resolution.
More from Yasser Arafat
All quotes βPalestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart.
Yasser ArafatRead
Similar quotes
Peace is no mere matter of men fighting or not fighting. Peace, to have meaning for many who have known only suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health, and education, as well as freedom and human dignity - a steadily better life. If peace is to be secure, long-suffering and long-starved, forgotten peoples of the world, the underprivileged and the undernourished, must begin to realize without delay the promise of a new day and a new life.
Ralph BuncheRead
Take away the violence and who will hear the man of peace?
Lorraine HansberryRead
We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.
Omar N. BradleyRead
The world will never have lasting peace so long as men reserve for war the finest human qualities. Peace, no less than war, requires idealism and self-sacrifice and a righteous and dynamic faith.
John Foster DullesRead
The methods of peace propaganda which aim at establishing peace doctrine by argument and by creating a feeling favorable to peace in general seem to fall short of reaching the springs of human action and of dealing with the causes of the conduct which they seek to modify.
Elihu RootRead
I want to say a simple thing, that the dividing line exists not between Jordan and Israel, but between the proponents of peace and the opponents of peace.
King Hussein IRead