We have thought of peace as the passive and war as the active way of living. The opposite is true. War is not the most strenuous life. It is a kind of rest-cure compared to the task of reconciling our differences.
Interpretation
Peace requires active effort and engagement, while war is a destructive escape from conflict.
Mary Parker Follett highlights a profound understanding of the nature of peace and war. She suggests that society often views peace as too passive and war as an assertive and active state, but in reality, it takes much more strength and energy to engage in constructive dialogue and reconciliation than it does to engage in warfare. Thus, the real challenge lies in navigating differences and fostering peace, which is a labor-intensive process that demands resilience and commitment.
In practice
This quote could be used in a peace-building workshop to emphasize the need for active engagement in resolving conflicts.
There are three ways of dealing with difference: domination, compromise, and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish.
Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim.
Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders.
It is possible to conceive conflict as not necessarily a wasteful outbreak of incompatibilities, but a normal process by which socially valuable differences register themselves for the enrichment of all concerned.
Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. We attain unity only through variety. Differences must be integrated, not annihilated, not absorbed.
No theory ever agrees with all the facts in its domain, yet it is not always the theory that is to blame. Facts are constituted by older ideologies, and a clash between facts and theories may be proof of progress. It is also a first step in our attempt to find the principles implicit in familiar observational notions.
Each generation has its own rendezvous with the land, for despite our fee titles and claims of ownership, we are all brief tenants on this planet. By choice, or by default, we will carve out a land legacy for our heirs.
The last few hours were certainly very painful," replied Anne: "but when pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure. One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering-
I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don't know.
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison.
God never measures the mind... He always put His tape measure in the HEART
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