Peace Quotes

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Peace means many different things to different people. These peace quotes will help you find what it means to you.

In the past, peace meant a time without wars, fighting, or the threat of violence. Today, peace is used to refer to a state of harmony, quiet, or calm with no hostility.

When we talk about inner peace, we are talking about our ability to find a kind of tranquility that can change the way we see the world and interact with others.

Being mentally and spiritually at peace means that you truly know yourself and what you are capable of, and you do not waste your time or energy on things that are unimportant or meaningless.

We’ve collected the best peace quotes in one place, so you whether you’re seeking inner peace or reacting to current events, you’ll always find the right one to inspire you.

Quotes about Peace

Mother Teresa peace quote "Peace begins with a smile"Pin
“Peace begins with a smile.” – Mother Teresa

Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous.

George Bernard Shaw

The day I understood everything, was the day I stopped trying to figure everything out. The day I knew peace was the day I let everything go.

C. Joybell C.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

Jimi Hendrix

If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.

John Lennon
Gandhi quote "The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace" Pin
“The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Being relaxed, at peace with yourself, confident, emotionally neutral loose, and free-floating — these are the keys to successful performance in almost everything.

Wayne Dyer

When you do the right thing, you get the feeling of peace and serenity associated with it. Do it again and again.

Roy T. Bennett

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.

Nelson Mandela

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Elie Wiesel peace quote "peace is our gift to each other"Pin
“Mankind must remember that peace is not God’s gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other.” – Elie Wiesel

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.

St Francis of Assisi

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

Baruch Spinoza

We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.

Thomas Merton
DH Lawrence peace quote "People always make war when they say they love peace" Pin
“People always make war when they say they love peace.” – D.H. Lawrence

Peace brings with it so many positive emotions that it is worth aiming for in all circumstances.

Estella Eliot

Everywhere I have sought peace and not found it, except in a corner with a book.

Thomas a Kempis

Peace comes from being able to contribute the best that we have, and all that we are, toward creating a world that supports everyone. But it is also securing the space for others to contribute the best that they have and all that they are.

Hafsat Abiola

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.

St. Francis de Sales
"There is always a certain peace in being what one is, in being that completely" Pin
“There is always a certain peace in being what one is, in being that completely.” – Ugo Betti

Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.

John Wooden

I think it’s naive to pray for world peace if we’re not going to change the form in which we live

Godfrey Reggio

You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

Malcolm X

Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.

Ezra Taft Benson
"The quest for peace begins in the home, in the school and in the workplace"Pin
“The quest for peace begins in the home, in the school and in the workplace.” – Silvia Cartwright

Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.

Martin Luther

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.

John F. Kennedy

World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.

Dalai Lama

Peace is not something you wish for, it is something you make, something you are, something you do, and something you give away.

Robert Fulghum
Michael Cunningham peace quote "You cannot find peace by avoiding life"Pin
“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” – Michael Cunningham

Many people think excitement is happiness…. But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.

George Carlin

Learning to distance yourself from all the negativity is one of the greatest lessons to achieve inner peace.

Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.

Eckhart Tolle
"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace"Pin
“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.” – John Lennon

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

Albert Einstein

Peace is the only battle worth waging.

Albert Camus

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.

Albert Schweitzer

Peace can become a lens through which you see the world. Be it. Live it. Radiate it out. Peace is an inside job.

Wayne Dyer
Siddhārtha Gautama quote "Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without"Pin
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” – Siddhārtha Gautama

Don’t search for anything except peace. Try to calm the mind. Everything else will come on its own.

Baba Hari Das

There is “what is” only when there is no comparison at all, and to live with what is, is to be peaceful.

Bruce Lee

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.

Dale Carnegie

No person, no place, and no thing has any power over us, for ‘we’ are the only thinkers in our mind. When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives.

Louise Hay
Laini Taylor peace quote "Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace is accord. Harmony"Pin
“Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace is accord. Harmony.” – Laini Taylor

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Forgiveness equals inner peace – more peaceful people equals more world peace.

Richard Branson

Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

Ronald Reagan

Don’t hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.

Epictetus
Lewis Howes peace quote "Stress is a choice. So is inner peace"Pin
“Stress is a choice. So is inner peace.” – Lewis Howes

When you make peace with yourself, you make peace with the world.

Maha Ghosananda

They call it “peace of mind” but maybe it should be called “peace from mind”.

Navil Ravikant

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.

Black Elk
"It is my conviction that there is no way to peace - peace is the way"Pin
“It is my conviction that there is no way to peace – peace is the way.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.

Robert J. Sawyer

Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst.

Lin Yutang

We don’t realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace.

Elizabeth Gilbert

The answer lies within ourselves. If we can’t find peace and happiness there, it’s not going to come from the outside.

Tenzin Palmo
Van Gough peace quote "There is peace even in the storm"Pin
“There is peace even in the storm.” – Vincent Van Gogh

Inner peace doesn’t come from getting what we want, but from remembering who we are.

Marianne Williamson

It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.

Aristotle

Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until we end hatred and division.

John Lewis

Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.

Dalai Lama
Paolo Coelho quote "Make peace with your past so it won’t destroy your present" Pin
“Make peace with your past so it won’t destroy your present.” – Paulo Coelho

There is no ‘way to peace,’ there is only ‘peace.’

Mahatma Gandhi

Sometimes you can find peace of mind by transferring yourself to different situations. They’re just reminders to stay calm.

Yves Behar

You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory.

J. Donald Walters

Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.

Thich Nhat Hanh
Emerson quote "Nobody can bring you peace but yourself"Pin
“Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.

Buddha

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.

Pope Francis

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.

Thich Nhat Hanh
Cicero peace quote "Peace is liberty in tranquility"Pin
“Peace is liberty in tranquility.” – Marcus Tulius Cicero

The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.

Queen Elizabeth II

If there is not the war, you don’t get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don’t get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name.

Theodore Roosevelt
Mason Cooley quote "The only peace is being out of earshot"Pin
“The only peace is being out of earshot.” – Mason Cooley

When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.

Muhammad Ali

We should live, act, and say nothing to the injury of anyone. It is not only best as a matter of principle, but it is the path to peace and honor.

Robert E. Lee

If you are depressed you are living in the past if you are anxious you are living in the future, if you are at peace, you are living in the present.

Lao Tzu

The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence.

Norman Vincent Peale
"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace"Pin
“Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” – Amelia Earhart

True peace is not merely the absence of war, it is the presence of justice.

Jane Addams

Do not be afraid to take a chance on peace, to teach peace, to live peace…Peace will be the last word of history.

Pope John Paul II

Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways.

Dalai Lama

Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.

Maria Montessori
Peace quote "Go in the direction of where your peace is coming from"Pin
“Go in the direction of where your peace is coming from.” – C. Joybell C.

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.

Thomas Merton

I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird

Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that’s where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.

Desmond Tutu

Peace is its own reward.

Mahatma Gandhi
JFK quote "It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war"Pin
“It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.” – John F. Kennedy

I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.

Thomas Paine

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.

Thomas Jefferson

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.

Benjamin Franklin

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

Helen Keller
Reagan peace quote "A people free to choose will always choose peace" Pin
“A people free to choose will always choose peace.” – Ronald Reagan

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

St. Francis of Assisi

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.

Robert A. Heinlein

Be a peacemaker in everyday life. Display peace in everything you do. Be peace. Live in peace.

Buddhist Proverb
"We make war that we may live in peace"Pin
“We make war that we may live in peace.” – Aristotle

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations… entangling alliances with none.

Thomas Jefferson

Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.

Buddha

We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.

Mother Teresa

If you want peace, stop fighting. If you want peace of mind, stop fighting with your thoughts.

Peter McWilliams
Sri Chinmoy peace quote "Peace begins when expectation ends"Pin
“Peace begins when expectation ends.” – Sri Chinmoy

Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done.

Mark Twain

Peace doesn’t require two people; it requires only one. It has to be you. The problem begins and ends there.

Katie Byron

Let the peace of this day be here tomorrow when I wake up.

Thomas Pynchon

Peace is such hard work. Harder than war. It takes way more effort to forgive than to kill.

Rae Carson
Walt Whitman peace quote "Peace is always beautiful"Pin
“Peace is always beautiful.” – Walt Whitman

“You have peace,” the old woman said, “when you make it with yourself.”

Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

People always make war when they say they love peace.

Charlie Chaplin

It is madness for sheep to talk peace with a wolf.

Thomas Fuller

The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace.

Carlos Santana
"If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having"Pin
“If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.” – Henry Miller

What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.

Pema Chödrön

Yes, we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war.

John Holmes

Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism.

Dorothy Thompson
Maria Schell quote "Peace is when time doesn't matter as it passes by"Pin
“Peace is when time doesn’t matter as it passes by.” – Maria Schell

We hope you’ve enjoyed this collection of peace quotes. If your favorite quote about peace is missing, share it with our community in the comments below!

Quincy Seale

Quincy is KIM's editor, and has collected and shared inspiring quotes and stories since 2005. Quincy holds an MBA from the University of Dundee and an MSc from the University of Edinburgh, and lives in San Antonio with his wife Natalie, son Alex, and his dog Oban.

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