Peace is not passive, it is active. Peace is not appeasement, it is strength. Peace does not 'happen,' it requires work.
Interpretation
Peace requires active effort and strength rather than passivity or mere tolerance.
This quote by Hubert H. Humphrey emphasizes that true peace is not a passive state or a product of complacency; rather, it is an active endeavor that requires strength and dedication. It challenges the notion that peace can be achieved simply by avoiding conflict, highlighting instead that it demands continuous effort and engagement from individuals and communities alike.
In practice
In a speech about community building, mentioning this quote highlights the need for active participation in fostering peace.
It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.
Much of our American progress has been the product of the individual who had an idea; pursued it; fashioned it; tenaciously clung to it against all odds; and then produced it, sold it, and profited from it.
We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit.
You cannot go around and keep score. If you keep score on the good things and the bad things, you'll find out that you're a very miserable person. God gave man the ability to forget, which is one of the greatest attributes you have. Because if you remember everything that's happened to you, you generally remember that which is the most unfortunate.
Here we are the way politics ought to be in America; the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose and the politics of joy.
The pursuit of peace resembles the building of a great cathedral. It is the work of a generation. In concept it requires a mater-architect; in execution, the labors of many.
The powerful have invoked God at their side in this war, so that we will accept their power and our weakness as something that has been established by divine plan. But there is no god behind this war other than the god of money, nor any right other than the desire for death and destruction... Today there is a βNOβ which shall weaken the powerful and strengthen the weak: the βNOβ to war.
My constant prayer, my number one foreign goal, is to bring peace to Israel. And in the process to Israel's neighbours.
They assert that their program is purely peaceful. . . . We want them to demonstrate clearly in the actions they propose that they have truly abandoned any nuclear weapons ambition.
When you find Peace within, you create a Peaceful world around you.
Like any other people, like fathers, mothers, sons and daughters in every land, when the issue of peace or war has been put squarely to the American people, they have registered for peace.
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.
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