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Definitions of Nonviolence

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Martin Luther King Jr.

  • Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people
  • Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding
  • Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people
  • Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform
  • Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate
  • Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice

"We aren't going to march with any Molotov cocktails. That isn't our movement. We aren't going to march with any weapons. That isn't our movement. We aren't going to march with bricks and bottles. We are going to march with something much more powerful than all of that. We are going to march with the force of our souls, mobilized bodies in concern for justice. Somehow we are going to step out. We are going to take the ammunition of determination, we are going to move out with the weapons of courage, we are going to pull the breastplate of righteousness and the whole armor of God and we are going to march."

Mohandas K. Gandhi

"Democracy can only be saved through non-violence, because democracy, so long as it is sustained by violence, cannot provide for or protect the weak. My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest should have the same opportunity as the strongest. This can never happen except through non-violence . . . Non-violence cannot be preached. It has to be practised."

Zoughbi Elias Zoughbi

"Nonviolence is not passiveness, weakness or surrender. It is an empowerment and an ongoing struggle requiring inner strength and perseverance. 

"We are looking for a new spirituality, one which deals with the etiology of hate and finds a suitable remedy for it: a spirituality of transformation on the personal level, community level and cross-cultural level. Such spirituality satisfies the needs of all concerned. Arms of Dialogue should replace Dialogue of Arms. This kind of spirituality requires us to shift from blame, guilt and victimhood to collective responsibility."

--Zoughbi Zoughbi is founder and director of the Wi'am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center.

Dr. Arun Gandhi

"Nonviolence is a philosophy that appeals to the goodness in human nature. It fosters in the individual a love and respect for all of God's creation; an understanding of the nature of life; an acceptance of the physical and ideological differences that exist between people; and an appreciation of the need to let compassion be the cornerstone of one's life."

--Dr. Arun Gandhi is founder and president of the M.K. Gandhi Institute and grandson of Mohandas K. Gandhi

Dr. Kamla Chowdhry

"The practice of nonviolence calls forth the greatest of courage. Gandhi often said you cannot practice ahimsa (nonviolence) unless you are moral and spiritual, and you cannot be moral unless you are fearless, and you cannot be fearless unless you have experienced being a zero.

"To change the world, to move toward peace and nonviolence, we must listen to Gandhi: 'things of fundamental importance to the people are not secured by reason alone but have to be purchased with suffering . . . the appeal of reason is more to the head, but the penetration of the heart comes from suffering.' Writing about nonviolence, he said, 'Just as one must learn the art of killing in the training for violence, so one must learn the art of dying in the training for nonviolence.'

"Gandhi's view of progress was defined in terms of nonviolence, compassion and respect for life. He also pointed out that we have enough for our needs but not for our greed.

"In his footsteps have walked many, in all corners of the world, fighting for peace, justice and development with ahimsa, and with nonviolence."

--Dr. Kamla Chowdhry is a Gandhian disciple and cochair of the Earth Charter Commission.

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