A Quote by Martha Nussbaum

I am not a pacifist - I think that violence and self-defence are often morally justified.

Martha Nussbaum

Quote Topics

Am Defence Justified Morally Often Pacifist Self Think Violence

Quote Author

Martha Nussbaum
American - Philosopher
Born: 1947

I am not an absolute pacifist, because I can't rule out the possibility that under some, carefully defined circumstances, some degree of violence may be justified, if it is focused directly at a great evil.

Howard Zinn

From pacifist to terrorist, each person condemns violence - and then adds one cherished case in which it may be justified.

Gloria Steinem

A pacifist will often - at least nowadays - be an internationalist and vice versa. But history shows us that a pacifist need not think internationally.

Christian Lous Lange

A people morally and intellectually equal to self-government must also be equal in self-defence.

Jefferson Davis

If the tradition which claims that war may be justified does not also admit that it could be unjustified, the affirmation is not morally serious. A Christian who prepares the case for a justified war without being equally prepared for hte negative case has not soberly weighted the prima facie presumption that any violence is wrong until the case for an exception has been made.

John Howard

Nonviolence becomes meaningless if violence is permitted for self-defence.

Mahatma Gandhi

I personally am not a total pacifist. I do believe there is such a thing as a just war. I believe, for instance, the effort to destroy the Nazi regime militarily was justified military action.

Marianne Williamson

Society itself is an accident to the spirit, and if society in any of its forms is to be justified morally it must be justified at the bar of the individual conscience.

George Santayana

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

Albert Einstein

I think violence can never be justified. At the same time, nobody’s culture or beliefs should be insulted, that’s not something I can accept either. But I cannot justify or accept any violence at all.

Abbas Kiarostami

I am personally not advocating violence. I am simply saying that it is a morally acceptable tactic and it may be useful in the struggle for animal liberation. I don't know.

Jerry Vlasak

I am committed to the principle that violence is never justified as a means of ameliorating a grievance.

Justin Sane

You cannot properly bring up children when you are 69 or 70 and they are 12 and at the height of their madness. You can physically do it, but I don't think it's morally justified.

Felix Dennis

I think violence can never be justified.

Abbas Kiarostami

My own view on capital punishment is that it is morally justified, but that the government is often so inept and corrupt that innocent people might die as a result. Thus, I personally oppose capital punishment.