Quote #73

Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it. Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak... Non-violence is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win. ... We are convinced that non-violence is more powerful than violence. We are convinced that non-violence supports you if you have a just and moral cause... If you use violence, you have to sell part of yourself for that violence. Then you are no longer a master of your own struggle.

More from Cesar Chavez

  1. Non-violence exacts a very high price from one who practices it. But once you are able to meet that demand then you can do most things.
  2. Non-violence is a very powerful weapon. Most people don't understand the power of non-violence and tend to be amazed by the whole idea. Tho…
  3. My motivation to change these injustices came from my personal life : from watching what my mother and father went through when I was growi…
  4. Non-violence is very weak in the theoretical sense; it cannot defend itself. But it is most powerful in the action situation where people a…
  5. Money is not going to organize the disadvantaged, the powerless, or the poor. We need other weapons. That's why the War on Poverty is such …
  6. Non-violence means people in action. People have to understand that with non-violence goes a hell of a lot of organization.
  7. Many have the idea that organizing people is very difficult, but it isn't. It becomes difficult only at the point where you begin to see ot…
  8. Non-violence really rests on the reservoir that you have to create in yourself of patience; not of being patient with the problems, but bei…

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