A.J. Muste Quotes

#1. We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life.

A.J. Muste

#2. Paradoxically, life is worth living for those who have something for which they will gladly give up life.

A.J. Muste

#3. The survival of democracy depends on the renunciation of violence and the development of nonviolent means to combat evil and advance the good.

A.J. Muste

#4. In a world built on violence, one must be a revolutionary before one can be a pacifist.

A.J. Muste

#5. In the defense of civil liberties there can be no exceptions, or there will soon be many.

A.J. Muste

#6. Violence begets violence by whomever used. War is a dirty business and entails the use of degrading means, whoever wages it.

A.J. Muste

#7. Joy and growth come from following our deepest impulses, however foolish they may seem to some, or dangerous, and even though the apparent outcome may be defeat.

A.J. Muste

#8. If I can't love Hitler, I can't love at all.

A.J. Muste

#9. No Big Power in all history ever thought of itself as an aggressor. That is still true today.

A.J. Muste

#10. Educational enterprises do not for any length of time remain immune from the struggle of interests for power which is the dominant feature of social life under a class system.

A.J. Muste

#11. The problem after a war is with the victor. He thinks he has just proved that war and violence pay. Who will now teach him a lesson?

A.J. Muste