Goodall noticed other human traits in chimpanzees like affection and grief. But it was her observations of the darker side of chimpanzee life that would be most controversial. Goodall discovered chimps with violent behaviour patterns. Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words 1/3 Human, All Too Human, BBC 2011
PETA’s position on violence is very wishy-washy. Ray Greek, former PETA supporter & spokesperson
People love violence. They’ll slow down at a car wreck to check for bodies. Million Dollar Baby 2004 starring Hilary Swank & Clint Eastwood & Morgan Freeman & Jay Baruchel & Mike Colter & Lucia Rijker & Brian F O'Byrne & Anthony Machie & Margo Martindale & Riki Lindhome et al, director Clint Eatwood
Violence, the Buddha taught, always leads to more violence. Dave Grubin, The Buddha II, PBS 2010
For all the tribulations in our lives, for all the troubles that remain in the world, the decline of violence is an accomplishment that we can savour – and an impetus to cherish the forces of civilization and enlightenment that made it possible. Steven Pinker
Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control. Steven Pinker
People have long assumed that violence is necessary for political change. Rulers never cede power voluntarily, the argument goes, so progressives have no choice but to contemplate the use of force to bring about a better world, mindful of the trade-off between a small amount of violence now and acceptance of an unjust status quo indefinitely. Steven Pinker
Keep violence in the mind
Where it belongs. Brian Aldiss, Barefoot in the Gead, ‘Charteris’
I would suggest that barbarism be considered as a permanent and universal human characteristic which becomes more or less pronounced according to the play of circumstances. Simone Weil
Poverty is the worst form of violence. Mahatma Gandhi
Truth is never illustrated through the use of violence. Mahatma Gandhi
I cannot teach you violence as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before anyone even at the cost of your lives. Mahatma Gandhi
Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary. Mahatma Gandhi
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. Mahatma Gandhi
The only thing that’s been a worse flop than the organisation of non-violence has been the organisation of violence. Joan Baez, American singer & songwriter
I was beaten up by Quakers. Sleeper 1973 starring Woody Allen & Diane Keaton & John Beck & Marya Small & Susan Miller & Mary Gregory & Don Keefer & Peter Hobbs & John McLiam & Bartlett Robinson & Chris Forbes & Brian Avery et al, director Woody Allen
Between Six and Seven – Happy Hour. Two kneecaps for the price of one. Rab C Nesbitt s2e8: Heat, ex-cellmate to Rab, BBC 1999
There’s nothing like a wee spot of violent slapstick for making you feel even with life. Rab C Nesbitt s10e4: Fight, Rab, BBC 2011
The State is a relation of men dominating men, a relation supported by means of legitimate (i.e. considered to be legitimate) violence. Max Weber
Nonviolence is the greatest religion. Mahavira
Could he or any one of us ever be driven to commit a dreadful crime? Horizon: How Violent Are You? BBC 2009
Dopamine is released when we fight. ibid.
Physical injury is not the only way to trigger a breakdown in the pre-frontal cortex. Depression, alcohol abuse, drugs and even the natural ageing process can all injure our violence controls. ibid.
Xan Meo went to Hollywood. And, moments later, with urgent speed, and accompanied by choric howls of electrified distress, Xan Meo went to hospital. Male violence did it. Martin Amis, Yellow Dog p1
Nobody disputes one phenomenon disclosed by the crime statistics – the exceptionally high level of violent crime that occurs in the United States as compared with other industrialized countries, including Britain (though not compared with some third world countries). There are more reported murders each year in Detroit, with a population of just over one-and-a-half million, than in the whole of the United Kingdom, which has a population of just over fifty-eight million people. Viewed in this context, the United States is a culture in which crimes of violence flourish. Why should this be? The answer is sometimes given as the widespread availability of hand-guns and other firearms. This is surely relevant, but cannot on its own be the full answer. Switzerland has very low rates of violent crime, yet firearms are easily accessible. All males keep weapons, including rifles, revolvers, automatic weapons, plus ammunition. Anthony Giddens, Sociology, 1997
There’s no way to be committed to non-violence in the middle of the most violent society that history has ever created. Green & Siegel, The Weather Underground 2002, news broadcast
We felt that doing nothing in a period of repressive violence is itself a form of violence. That’s really the part that I think is the hardest for people to understand. If you sit in your house, live your white life and go to your white job, and allow the country that you live in to murder people and to commit genocide, and you sit there and you don’t do anything about it, that’s violence. ibid.
December 1969: The month Brad Hampton was killed was a moment of intense violence and despair in America. ibid.
It is useless to talk to those who do violence to their own nature, and it is useless to do anything with those who throw themselves away. To speak what is against propriety and righteousness is to do violence to oneself. To say that one cannot abide by humanity and follow righteousness is to throw oneself away. Meng-Tzu, The Book of Mencius
The United States is ‘the most violent and self-destructive nation on earth’, a congressional report said Tuesday.
.
‘In 1990 the United States led the world with its murder, rape and robbery rates’, the report said. ‘When viewed from the national perspective, these crime rates are sobering. When viewed from the international perspective, they are truly embarrassing’.
The report noted that the murder rate in the United States was more than twice that of Northern Ireland, which is torn by civil war; four times that of Italy; nine times England’s and 11 times Japan’s. Violence against women in America was even more pervasive, the committee said. The rape rate in the United States was eight times higher than in France, 15 times higher than in England, 23 times higher than in Italy and 26 times higher than in Japan ...
Based on raw FBI data and preliminary statistics for last year, based its comparisons on Justice Department statistics for industrialized nations. Crime reporting standards vary in those countries, and crime rates for less-developed Third World nations generally are either unavailable or unreliable. But the report made clear that violence in the United States has no equal among the world's developed nations. Nor did 1990 have a modern equal for violence in America. Tim Weiner, San Jose Mercury News 1991
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Genesis 6:11
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him. Psalms 140:1&11
Violence shall no more be heard in the land. Isaiah 60:18
For I know that violence must increase on the earth,
And a great chastisement be executed on the earth,
And all unrighteousness come to an end. Enoch: Epistle 91:5
All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do. Leo Tolstoy
Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us. Leo Tolstoy