Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don't need a lot of money to be happy--in fact, the opposite.
Jean VanierRead
True peace can rarely be imposed from the outside; it must be born within and between communities through meetings and dialogue and then carried outward.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True peace comes from within and requires communication among communities.
This quote emphasizes that genuine peace cannot be enforced through external measures but must grow organically through understanding, dialogue, and collaboration among individuals and communities. It highlights the importance of internal harmony and respectful interactions as the foundational elements of lasting peace.
Themes
PeaceCommunityDialogueInternalUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
During a community meeting, I quoted Jean Vanier to inspire dialogue and cooperation.
More from Jean Vanier
All quotes βOne of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.
Jean VanierRead
We all know well that we can do things for others and in the process crush them, making them feel that they are incapable of doing things by themselves. To love someone is to reveal to them their capacities for life, the light that is shining in them.
Jean VanierRead
In any case, community is not about perfect people. It is about people who are bonded to each other, each of whom is a mixture of good and bad, darkness and light, love and hate.
Jean VanierRead
We have to remind ourselves constantly that we are not saviours. We are simply a tiny sign, among thousands of others, that love is possible, that the world is not condemned to a struggle between oppressors and oppressed, that class and racial warfare is not inevitable.
Jean VanierRead
When we begin to believe that there is greater joy in working with and for others, rather than just for ourselves, then our society will truly become a place of celebration.
Jean VanierRead
Similar quotes
War is not the answer, because only love can conquer hate.
Marvin GayeRead
Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice.
Thomas MertonRead
Mankind will never win lasting peace so long as men use their full resources only in tasks of war. While we are yet at peace, let us mobilize the potentialities, particularly the moral and spiritual potentialities, which we usually reserve for war.
John Foster DullesRead
World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.
Dalai LamaRead
Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal.
Martti AhtisaariRead
The question that we must ask is whether we are making progress toward the goal of universal peace. Or are we caught up on a treadmill of history, turning forever on the axle of mindless aggression and self-destruction?
F. W. De KlerkRead