10 Quotes for Peace in Times of Tragedy, and Who Really Said Them

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10 Uplifting Quotes That Inspire Peace During Times of Tragedy

When news of a mass killing breaks, many people look for words that hold grief and hope at the same time. The ten lines gathered here, from Martin Luther King Jr., Elie Wiesel, Albert Schweitzer, the Dalai Lama, John Lennon, Bob Marley and others, all point in the same direction: hatred is answered by love, despair by human contact, and lasting peace by work done in calm times. Below you will find each one, where it comes from, and whether the attribution holds up.

The list was first put together in June 2016, in the days after the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Several of the lines circulate online with doubtful credits, so we have marked those clearly. A beautiful sentence does not need a famous name to be worth reading, but readers deserve to know who really said it.

Why these words were gathered: Orlando, June 2016

In the early hours of 12 June 2016, a gunman opened fire inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando that was hosting its weekly Latin Night. Forty-nine people were killed and dozens more were wounded before police shot the attacker after a standoff of about three hours. Most of the victims were young, and more than nine in ten were Hispanic.

At the time it was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in United States history, a grim record that was overtaken by the Las Vegas attack in October 2017. It was also the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil since 11 September 2001. For LGBTQ people around the world, a place built as a refuge had become a scene of horror, and the grief was felt far beyond Florida.

Moments like this leave many people swinging between anger, fear and numbness. The quotes below do not explain or excuse violence. They offer a direction to turn in: towards the people we love, towards those who are hurting, and towards the slow work of making the next tragedy less likely.

Love against hate: King, Wiesel and Schweitzer

1. Martin Luther King Jr. on light and darkness

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

This is one of King's most quoted passages, and it is genuinely his. It appears in his sermon "Loving Your Enemies", published in the 1963 collection Strength to Love, and he returned to the idea in later speeches and writing. King did not mean that love is soft. For him it was a discipline: refusing to let an attacker's hatred become your own, while still resisting injustice with every non-violent means available.

2. Elie Wiesel on where hope comes from

"Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings."

Wiesel survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald as a teenager and spent his life writing about memory and moral responsibility. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. This sentence is widely credited to him, but it does not appear in his Nobel acceptance speech or his Nobel lecture, and we could not trace the original publication, so treat the exact wording as attributed. The thought matches his work closely: the cruelty he witnessed was done by people, and what pulled survivors back towards life was other people.

3. Albert Schweitzer on the circle of compassion

Schweitzer, the doctor, theologian and organist who ran a hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon, argued that true peace requires a person to widen their compassion to every living creature, not only to their own kind. The line comes from his 1923 work on the philosophy of civilisation, translated into English as Philosophy of Civilisation, and it sums up his ethic of "reverence for life". He received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1952.

Songs of peace: Lennon, Marley and a line credited to Hendrix

4. John Lennon, "Imagine"

The fourth entry is the closing chorus of "Imagine" (1971), in which Lennon admits he may be called a dreamer, says he is not alone, and hopes the listener will join until the world lives as one. The song has been sung at memorials and vigils for decades. Its power lies in the invitation: peace is presented as something people choose together, not something handed down.

5. Bob Marley, "Zion Train"

The Marley line warns against winning the whole world at the cost of your soul and says wisdom is worth more than silver or gold. It is a lyric from "Zion Train", a track on the 1980 album Uprising, the last studio album released in Marley's lifetime. The first half echoes a saying of Jesus in the Gospels (Mark 8:36), which Marley, a devout Rastafarian, knew well.

6. A line credited to Jimi Hendrix

The line in the image at the top of this page, about peace arriving once the power of love beats the love of power, is almost always credited to Jimi Hendrix. No interview, lyric or recording containing it has been documented, and similar wordplay was used by other writers long before him. It is safest to describe it as often attributed to Hendrix.

Peace that starts inside: the Dalai Lama and Van Gogh

7. The Dalai Lama on inner peace

"World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not the absence of violence. Peace is the manifestation of human compassion."

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, has returned to this theme in talks for decades, and the line circulates in several slightly different versions. His argument is practical: a person consumed by fear or anger will struggle to make peace with anyone else, so the training of the mind is a first step, not a retreat from the world.

8. Vincent van Gogh on peace in the storm

A short sentence saying that there is peace even in the storm is often attributed to Van Gogh. It fits the tone of his letters to his brother Theo, which are full of storms both real and inner, but the exact wording is hard to pin down, so read it as attributed. Either way, it is a fitting reminder that calm does not require the trouble around us to vanish first.

Lines with uncertain sources: Emerson and Aristotle

9. "Ralph Waldo Emerson" on understanding

The line contrasting violence with understanding, claiming that peace comes only through the second, is commonly credited to Emerson. It does not appear in his known essays, and a very similar sentence about force and understanding is usually credited to Albert Einstein instead. The idea is sound; the credit is unconfirmed.

10. "Aristotle" on organising the peace

The saying that winning a war matters less than organising the peace that follows has no known source in Aristotle's surviving works. Its modern phrasing sounds much more like twentieth-century commentary on the world wars. It is a useful idea, especially for anyone thinking about how societies recover from violence, but it should be shared as often attributed to Aristotle.

How to use these quotes after a tragedy

A quote on its own changes nothing. What it can do is remind us of a choice. A few ways to turn these words into something real:

  • Check on people. After an attack aimed at a particular community, a short message to friends who belong to it often means more than any public post.
  • Limit the replay. Constant exposure to graphic coverage can raise anxiety. It is fine to step away from the news once you know what you need to know.
  • Help in concrete ways. Victims' funds, blood donation drives and local support groups usually appear within days of a tragedy. Check that any fundraiser is run by a recognised organisation.
  • Share carefully. When you post a quote, give the right name or mark it as attributed. Accuracy is a small form of respect.
  • Ask for support. If grief, fear or sleeplessness lasts for weeks, talk to a doctor or a mental-health professional. Many countries also have free crisis lines.

A video for quieter moments

If you would rather listen than read, the short video below gathers more reflections on finding peace during chaotic times.

Whatever words you choose, the common thread in this list is that peace is built by people, one decision at a time, and that it is never too late to begin.

Sources: Wikipedia: Pulse nightclub shooting; Wikipedia: Strength to Love; Nobel Prize: Elie Wiesel acceptance speech, 1986; Nobel Prize: Elie Wiesel Nobel lecture, 1986; Wikiquote: Albert Schweitzer; Wikipedia: Uprising (Bob Marley and the Wailers album). Quote list first compiled by mindbodygreen, via Expanded Consciousness.

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