Our choice is not between war and peace but between life with dignity or without
Subcomandante MarcosRead
The word of the oldest of the old of our peoples didn't stop. It spoke the truth, saying that our feet couldn't walk alone, that our history of pain and shame was repeated and multiplied in the flesh and blood of the brothers and sisters of other lands and skies.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the interconnectedness of human experiences and the collective history of suffering.
Subcomandante Marcos highlights the idea that the struggles faced by one group are reflected in the experiences of others across the globe. It calls for an acknowledgment of shared pain and the collective responsibility we have toward each other as part of a larger human history and community.
Themes
InterconnectednessHistoryPainSolidarityHumanity
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech at a human rights rally, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for global solidarity.
More from Subcomandante Marcos
All quotes βAlways, since our birth, we've insisted on another way of doing politics. Now, we had the chance to do it without arms, but without stopping being Zapatistas; that's why we keep the masks on.
Subcomandante MarcosRead
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.
Subcomandante MarcosRead
In our dreams we have seen another world, an honest world, a world decidedly more fair than the one in which we now live. We saw that in this world there was no need for armies; peace, justice and liberty were so common that no one talked about them as far-off concepts, but as things such as bread, birds, air, water, like book and voice.
Subcomandante MarcosRead
Similar quotes
Man can embody truth but he cannot know it.
William Butler YeatsRead
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
Thomas PaineRead
The teachings of Christianity - from vicarious redemption to the love of enemies, no thought for the morrow need be taken, that no thrift or care or family or society or solidarity is necessary - these are immoral teachings that have done and continue to inflict untold moral and physical harm on our species. And until we outgrow this nonsense, we have no chance of emancipating ourselves.
Christopher HitchensRead
Poverty must be reduced not only for reasons of moral and justice, but also of security.
Anna LindhRead
Instead of loaves of bread, many times God gives out handfuls of purpose.
T. D. JakesRead
I think it is a problem of our society that we don't enjoy (ourselves.) We have these values, like, you have to be rich, you have to get a diploma, you have to work hard, otherwise you are useless, you are nothing but a pariah. And the book asks, 'Is it true? This is what my mom told me, but is it true?
Paulo CoelhoRead