Top 53 Quotes & Sayings by Mairead Corrigan
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an activist Mairead Corrigan.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Our common humanity is more important than all the things that divide us.
We need political leadership that will move the world away from war into solving its problems through dialogue and negotiation, to build friendship with people, which is not what we've had with this war on terror.
I believe in a non-killing future.
The experience of a lot of us women is that too much money is being spent on militarism and war. We need human security: food, education, health care for our children. We don't want to waste it on wars and militarism. That will be our focus: building a culture that moves away from militarism.
I am very hopeful that there is a solution to the Israeli/Palestinian injustice.
To enable consensus politics to develop we need to empower people where they live. This means devolving financial resources and political power down to the community level. One of the greatest blocks to movement is fear. This fear can only be removed when people feel their voices are being heard by government and when they have a say in their own lives and communities.
I witnessed a lot of violence, and I found myself asking the question: Do you ever use violence to try to bring about political change?
One great hope lies in the fact that there is a new consciousness in our World, particularly among young people.
Palestine has a very strong nonviolent movement.
I go to places and I see all these people working on peace education and on a culture of nonviolence and non-killing. You look at all these different movements going on: the environment movement, the interfaith movement, the human rights movement, the youth movement, and the arts movement.
People have the right to come and choose their own political solutions.
I believe passionately in the power of people.
We have really got to create a culture in our world today where we recognize that every human life is sacred and precious and we have no right to take another human life.
There is no political will for peace in the Israeli government. They're not serious about political peace because they're still building settlements and demolishing Palestinian homes. That is a great tragedy.
I was born into a Catholic family. I grew up in West Belfast. Faith was very important to us eight children and my mother and father. It was grounded in the Christian tradition of social involvement.
Everyday there are people in our world that do absolutely amazing things. People of all ages are very capable of doing tremendous, courageous things in spite of their fear.
If we want to reap the harvest of peace and justice in the future, we will have to sow seeds of nonviolence, here and now, in the present.
Once we link up and network, there will be new institutions, new beginnings, and a change in the economy because capitalism is destroying many people's lives. It's just one leap to think in a different way.
The cross to me is complete nonviolence because Jesus said, "Love your enemy. Do not kill." I realized that I could never kill anyone or hurt anyone, but I was committed to trying to bring about social and political and economic change.
We as a human family are on this train that is taking us into more and more war and more and more abuse of human rights where a lot of civilians are being killed and where human rights and international law are being set aside by America and NATO.
The fact is that the American government and NATO have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan. Their next targets will be Syria and Iran.
We have to start from the fact that there are always alternatives to violence.
To stand up for peace and against war and for disarmament is very courageous here in America.
I think Assange has been very courageous. I've also defended Bradley Manning. I think they've been tremendously courageous in telling the truth, and the public has the right to the truth.
It's not for me to say from the outside what the Palestinian people should have. That would be very arrogant.
When I visited Auschwitz I was horrified. And when I visited Iraq, I thought to myself, 'What will we tell our children in fifty years when they ask what we did when the people in Iraq were dying.'
The experience of a lot of us women is that too much money is being spent on militarism and war.
It's okay to be scared, but fear is different. Fear is when we let being scared prevent us from doing what love requires of us.
To me the Nobel Peace laureates should not be hosted by a State Department that is continuing with war, removing basic civil liberties and human rights and international law and then talking about peace to young people. That's a double standard.
Those of us who believe in human rights and the truth - particularly the journalists and the media - should stand in defense of Julian Assange and Bradley Manning. We owe them a lot for telling us the truth of what is happening in our world, and that is why I would continue to support them.
President Obama continues to support war. He continues to remove many basic civil liberties and human rights. He continues to condone drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan that kill women and children. He meets with his advisers every Tuesday morning and signs extrajudicial killings. To me, those are not the actions of a peace person.
That will be my focus: building a culture that moves away from militarism.
People keep me going. I believe people are wonderful.
Perhaps the greatest contribution that those of us who come from a Christian tradition can make is to throw out the old just-war theory, embrace the nonviolence of Jesus, refuse to kill one another, and truly follow his commandment to "love our enemies.
In Northern Ireland, people said there would never be a solution. But once people begin to have the political will and force their governments to sit down, it can happen.
We are all invited to work together for peace. We shall join hands and minds to work for peace through active nonviolence. We shall help one another, encourage one another and learn from one another how to bring peace to our children and to all.
Setting aside human rights and international law to have an agenda of war and killing and occupation to me is totally unacceptable.
We frail humans are at one time capable of the greatest good and, at the same time, capable of the greatest evil. Change will only come about when each of us takes up the daily struggle ourselves to be more forgiving, compassionate, loving, and above all joyful in the knowledge that, by some miracle of grace, we can change as those around us can change too.
We reject the way the world is at the moment and we don't accept nuclear weapons
We mustn't start off with the idea that there's only militarism, invasions, and occupations. We really have to look: What are the alternatives here?
...I believe, with Gandhi, that we need to take an imaginative leap forward toward fresh and generous idealism for the sake of all humanity - that we neeed to renew this ancient wisdom of nonviolence, to strive for a disarmed world, and to create a culture of nonviolence.
We need human security: food, education, health care for our children.
We need now to build a culture of genuine nonviolence and real democracy.
I have always been inspired by the American peace movement because it is operating in a very hard and militarist environment.
As a person committed to human rights and international law and the right of self-determination, I would like to see the occupation end. And then it is up to the Palestinians themselves to decide what they want.
Love for others and respect for their rights and their human dignity, irrespective of who or what they are, no matter what religion - or none - that they choose to follow, will bring about real change and set in motion proper relationships. With such relationships built on equality and trust, we can work together on so many of the threats to our common humanity.
I believe that hope for the future depends on each of us taking nonviolence into our hearts and minds and developing new and imaginative structures which are nonviolent and life-giving for all.
I support this proposal and agree with this great and important initiative to abolish militarism and war. I will continue to speak out for an end to the institution of militarism and war and for institutions built on international law and human rights and nonviolent conflict resolution.
We need radical thinking, creative ideas, and imagination.
I believe we are on the edge of a quantum leap into a whole new way of organizing and living as a human family.
The vast majority of people have never hurt anybody in their lives, don't want killing, don't want wars. In all the countries of the world, they just want to love their families and get on with their lives.
We really can do things in support of each other very, very quickly.
We can rejoice and celebrate today because we are living in a miraculous time. Everything is changing and everything is possible.
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