conflict resolution quotes

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

Pre-emptive war might fall within the framework of international law.

The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.

We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace.

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

My position has always been, along with many other people, that any differences be resolved in a nonviolent way.

Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

Since the civil war in Laos was resumed in earnest in 1963, American participation has been veiled in secrecy.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.

You must show the world that you abhor fighting.

Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.

Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.

I have a scheme for stopping war. It’s this – no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one.

Always remember that your calmness under fire is your best defense in any argument or discussion.

It is far more important to be able to hit the target than it is to haggle over who makes a weapon or who pulls a trigger.

Debates, I hate.

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

I have known war as few men now living know it. It’s very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.

What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?

Poverty breeds despair. We know this. Despair breeds violence. We know this. In turbulent times, isn’t it cheaper, and smarter, to make friends out of potential enemies than to defend yourself against them later?

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it… You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.

Occasionally the conflict between ‚what we stand for‘ and ‚what we do‘ has been forthrightly addressed.

Diplomacy is the art of saying ‚Nice doggie‘ until you can find a rock.

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.

The best way to resolve any problem in the human world is for all sides to sit down and talk.

It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.

Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.

An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

Because I know about the Holy Land, I’ve taught lessons about the Holy Land all my life, and – but you can’t bring peace to Israel without giving the Palestinian also peace. And Lebanon and Jordan and Syria as well.

You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

We can best help you to prevent war not by repeating your words and following your methods but by finding new words and creating new methods.

As a tactic, violence is absurd. No one can compete with the Government in violence, and the resort to violence, which will surely fail, will simply frighten and alienate some who can be reached, and will further encourage the ideologists and administrators of forceful repression.

Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.

Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.

When things haven’t gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention.

You can disagree without being disagreeable.

I grew up in an environment where being polite was taken as a weakness. So I just fought everybody.

I don’t understand why or how we can bully each other.

You have to make sure you know why you are going to war and then use decisive force to end it as soon as possible.

Whoever has provoked men to rage against him has always gained a party in his favor, too.

But I do not believe that the world would be entirely different if there were more women leaders. Maybe if everybody in leadership was a woman, you might not get into the conflicts in the first place. But if you watch the women who have made it to the top, they haven’t exactly been non-aggressive – including me.

There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.

When I was elected President nobody asked me to negotiate between Israel and Egypt. It was not even a question raised in my campaign. But I felt that one of the reasons that I was elected President was to try to bring peace to the Holy Land.

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?

I don’t feel bitterness, I don’t feel anger towards anybody. Fighting is never emotional to me.

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.

If you’re yelling you’re the one who’s lost control of the conversation.