Peace

Guantánamo has created more terrorists than have ever passed through. It is the major recruiting tool used… it inhibits the United States' ability to talk about human rights on a global scale… when you have the UN calling-up the United States on their human rights abuses at Guantánamo it makes it very difficult for the United States to then go to other places in the world and demand that they apply human rights.

The countries where people are happiest are ones which are much more domestically oriented and not seeking world-power.

Economist known for the Easterlin Paradox on income and happiness

We are talking about three million people who, in effect, are the property of another person and in many cases could be killed, by their owner, with immunity.

More girls have been killed in the past fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the battles of the twentieth century. More girls are killed in this routine 'gendercide' in any one decade, than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century.

As war ravaged Liberia, I realized it is women who bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts. We began organizing Christian and Muslim women to demonstrate together, launching protests and a sex strike to help oust Charles Taylor.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner & Liberian Peace Activist & Women's Rights Leader

Portugal is generally perceived as a symbol of tolerance, openness to the world and ability to interact with and serve as a bridge to different societies, cultures and religions.

Prime Minister of Portugal (2015-2024)

Ridicule, mockery and humour are some of the best tools of the powerless, they are weapons of the weak! Finding ways to intervene with levity and humour can build strength and sustain a movement. Humour is one of the most powerful weapons of non-violent resistance.

There is a strong possibility that the relationship between humans and their environment would be so fundamentally changed that hundreds of millions of people, perhaps billions, would have to move. History tells us that this carries serious risks of severe and extended conflict.

Economist & Author of Stern Review on Climate Change Economics

This realization that everywhere you look is home and everywhere you look there is something new and beautiful and wonderful to discover. It is a real lesson in Earthling and Earth appreciation.

NASA Astronaut & ISS Expedition Crew Member

I flew home with this profound sense of the simultaneity of human suffering; I've never been able to get over that sense that even as I'm talking to you right now, there are people who are living unbearable lives.

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

No nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.

Educational reformer who revolutionized medical education standards in America

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

Supreme Commander of Allied Forces & 34th U.S. President

Forgetfulness of the past and the consequences such forgetfulness potentially produces. Extreme nationalism prevents nations from cooperating with other nations.

I still believe that nuclear is the greatest risk we face as a society today.

Co-inventor of Public-Key Cryptography & Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange

The American general felt that if we confronted the Russians with a determined show of force, they would probably back down. And you know what? He was probably right; but what does probably mean? If it's 90% then there was a 10% chance he was wrong.

Co-inventor of Public-Key Cryptography & Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange

Only a handful of diplomats and governments are prepared to put the global good before the national interest. Seldom is it the case for any diplomat that they put the global good high up on the agenda; in my career I've seen it very rarely.

UN Human Rights Chief & International Justice Advocate