Conscientious Objection Quotes

“He goes on and on about war like it is something beautiful and noble, which only means he's never seen it himself. War is hideous and it leaves you covered in shit. I cannot kill anyone else. I will not.”
― Anita Diamant, Day After Night

“The refusal to take part in all war under any conditions is an unworldly view bound to remain a sectarian doctrine. It no more challenges the state's authority than the celibacy of priests challenges the sanctity of marriage.”
― John Rawls, A Theory of Justice

“There are hundreds of political prisoners right now in America’s jails who were so taken by Malcolm [X’s} spirit that they became warriors and the powers that be understood them as warriors. They knew that a lot of these other middle-class [black] leaders were not warriors; they were professionals; they were careerists. But these warriors had callings, and they have paid an incalculable and immeasurable price in those cells.”
― Cornel West, Black Prophetic Fire

“Conscience is the parliament in our mind. It depends on who holds the majority”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, The Great Pearl of Wisdom

“It may be well here to sum up, in the fewest possible words, the conclusions reached in this book:
(I) That our present so called "Civilisation" is only a "manner of speaking," and is in fact quite a rude state as compared with what may already be foreseen.
(2) That the basis of any real morality must be the sense of Kinship between all living beings.
(3) That there can be no abiding national welfare until the extremes of Wealth and Poverty are abolished.
(4) That Warfare will not be discontinued until we have ceased to honour soldiering as heroic.
(5) That the Rights of Animals have henceforth to be considered; and that such practices as cruel sports, vivisection, and flesh eating are not compatible with civilised life.
(6) That Free Thought is essential to progress, and that the religion of the future will be a belief in a Creed of Kinship, a charter of human and sub-human relationships.”
― Henry Stephens Salt, The Creed of Kinship