Peace Begins Here Quotes

“In Vietnam, we staged nonviolent action and brought down a government—not with guns or bullets. We must rely on ourselves and organize ourselves so that we can perform the peace work of transformation and healing within our family, group, and community. Then such action can be taken. When the whole world focuses its attention on you, that action is very powerful. If Gandhi was able to succeed, you will also succeed.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“I am reluctant to say that I am on your side, that I support you wholeheartedly, and will do everything you want me to do. I am not ready to take sides like that. I would ask, "Yes, I am ready to take your side, but are you ready to take my side? I am a human being like you. Do you know what my side is? It is that suffering must stop. I agree with you that there must be something that can and should be done to stop the suffering. But I may not agree on other things relating to your position. I want to act, I want to have compassion, but I don't want to act out of anger, violence, and discrimination. If you take my side, I will be with you one hundred percent.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“To be alone does not mean you have to cut yourself off from society, go to a mountain, and live in a cave. To live alone means you are always yourself—you do not lose yourself. You can sit in the marketplace, and yet you can be alone.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“Sometimes it is easier to be angry than to express your own suffering. The Israelis think that they are not Arabs, but they are very similar to the Arabs. They are human beings. They don’t want to die, and they want to live in safety. They want brotherhood, sisterhood, and peace. We are separated by names like “Buddhist,” “Christian,” “Jew,” “Muslim.” When we hear one of these words, we see an image and we feel alienated, we don’t feel connected. We have set up many structures in order to be separated from each other and make each other suffer. That is why it is very important to discover the human being in the other person, and to help the other person discover the human being in us. As human beings we are exactly the same. If you have many layers of garments, you prevent other people from seeing you as a human being.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“The Palestinians have to state their path of nonviolent revolution very clearly. They have to renounce violence and call upon their people to stop all acts of violence.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“The war machine is horrible. If you get into it, you will be crushed, and you will have to crush the lives of others. That is why I urge young people not to join violent revolution.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“When you operate within a political party, you have to listen to its orders. The party can tell you to do this or that. If the party wants you to kill someone, you have to kill him, even if he is your brother.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“If I can say anything to you, it is to invite you to look deeply and recognize the real enemy. That enemy is not a person. That enemy is a way of thinking that has brought a lot of suffering for everyone.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“The practice recommended in Plum Village is not to destroy the human being, but to destroy the real enemy that is inside the human being. If you want to help someone with tuberculosis, you kill the bacteria, not the person. All of us are victims of the bacteria called violence and wrong perception.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“I think everyone is a victim. If you are not a victim of this, you are a victim of that. For example, when you have anger and despair in you, you are a victim of your anger and despair, and you suffer very deeply. Building a wall or dropping a bomb can make you suffer, that is true, but having anger and despair makes you suffer also—maybe more. We may be the victim of others, and we may be the victims of ourselves.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“In the case of Israel and Palestine, it can feel as though the situation is impossible and that the sides are unequal because Israel has more political power, nuclear weapons, and the support of the United States. You may be deceived by appearance. During the Vietnam War everyone saw that America was the big power and the Vietnamese were a tiny nation without weapons, technology, or the huge amount of money that the Americans had. But the Americans had to withdraw from Vietnam. We should not be too sure.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“Injustice is suffered by both sides. The Palestinians have suffered much. And when the Israelis come and describe to us their suffering, we are able to see that they too have suffered. That kind of understanding is crucial. Once understanding and compassion are born in our heart, the poisons of anger, discrimination, hate, and despair will be transformed. That is why the only answer is to remove the poison and to allow the insight and compassion in. Then we will discover each other as human beings and we will not be deceived by outer layers like "Buddhism," "Islam," "Judaism," "pro-American," "pro-Arab," and so on. This is a process of liberation from our ignorance, ideas, notions, and our tendency to discriminate. When I see you as a human being who suffers so much, I will not have the courage to shoot you. I will ask you to come and work with me so that we have a chance to live peacefully together. It is a pity—the Earth is so beautiful and there is enough room for all of us, yet we are killing each other.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“In 1963, I was sitting with a number of my students on the campus of Columbia University in New York. The morning was beautiful, the sun was shining, and we were talking to each other about the Buddhist practice of removing concepts. Suddenly someone passing by stopped and looking at me for a few seconds, and then he asked, "Are you a Buddhist?" I looked up and said, "No."

Did I tell a lie? I hope that my students understood me at that moment. If I had said, "Yes, I am a Buddhist," then he would still be caught in his idea of what a Buddhist is, and that would not help him. So "No" was more helpful than "Yes." That is the language of Zen. When you do say or do something, it is to help undo the knots in people's minds, and not to bind them anymore. That is why the language we use should aim at liberation.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“We are separated by names like "Buddhist," "Christian," "Jew," "Muslim." When we hear one of these words, we see an image and we feel alienated, we don't feel connected. We have set up many structures in order to be separated from each other and make each other suffer. That is why it is very important to discover the human being in us. As human beings we are exactly the same.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“The Israelis think they are not Arabs, but they are very similar to the Arabs. They are human beings. They don't want to die, and they want to live in safety.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“Sometimes it is easier to be angry than to express your own suffering.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“There is a tendency to speak about your suffering and difficulties so that you can draw more people to support you in order to fight the other side. That is a big temptation. You think if you are strong and you will have more support, the other side will have to withdraw. That is the hope of many people. But we know that activities based on that kind of thinking have gone on for many years without bearing any fruit at all.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“If they come and burn your hut and chase you away, of course you suffer, but if you know how to go back to your true home, you will not lose your faith.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“Do you have enough understanding and compassion to truly see the situation?”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“Compassion is mindfulness. If you can maintain that awareness, you are protected. Your seeds of irritation and anger will not be watered and you can listen for one hour without being affected by what she says. You don't want to correct her, even if her speech is full of wrong perceptions and accusations—you feel only compassion, "Oh dear, she is the victim of so many wrong perceptions." You don't want to punish or criticize her because you have compassion.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“If fear, anger, and suspicion remain intact on both sides, then it is only a piece of paper; it is not peace. If there is compassion and mutual understanding, then you don't even need a piece of paper.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“We are all capable of recognizing that we are not the only one who suffers, that the other person also suffers very deeply, and that we are partly responsible for his or her suffering.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“You already suffer a lot, and if you get angry with your anger, you will suffer more.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“You may have opinions about everything, but that may not be what the other person needs. What the other person needs is your understanding, your love, and your insight—not as ideas but as a living reality.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“It is not my intention to give anyone ideas about peace; you already have plenty of ideas. Our intention is to be peace right in the here and the now.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other

“I have lived through two wars in Vietnam, and I know what war is—you don't know whether you will be alive this afternoon or this evening. There is fear, anger, and despair. If you don't know how to manage these things, you cannot survive. That is why our practice is to have a picnic right here, right now, and not wait. Is it possible for Israelis and Palestinians to have a picnic and for everyone to enjoy every moment of it? I think so.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Begins Here: Palestinians and Israelis Listening to Each Other