Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism.
Interpretation
Peace must be actively pursued and nurtured through strong values and actions.
This quote emphasizes that peace is not a passive state that can be obtained without effort; it requires active engagement and the cultivation of various virtues such as faith, strength, and justice. Dorothy Thompson suggests that achieving a lasting peace relies on a proactive approach, involving imagination and steadfast principles, rather than simply waiting for peace to occur or accepting the status quo.
In practice
In a speech on international relations, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of active diplomacy.
Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow.
When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.
It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.
Age is not measured by years. Nature does not equally distribute energy. Some people are born old and tired while others are going strong at seventy.
Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
You can always make peace with an F-16 in your pocket.
In the age when the atom has been split, the moon encircled, diseases conquered, is disarmament so difficult a matter that it must remain a distant dream?
The more we elevate people's lives - the more we treat people with dignity and respect and honor their rights and freedoms - the more we discourageand even preventterrorism.
On this International Day of Peace, let us dare to imagine a world free of conflict and violence
For our part, we shall continue to work for the new dawn when all the Children of Abraham and their descendants are living together in the birthplace of their three great monotheistic religions, a life free from fear, a life free from want - a life in peace.
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