These inspiring quotes about peace–by people as diverse as Buddha and Black Elk–are perfect for sharing with family and friends. You can print them out to tuck inside a sticking or include in a greeting card, or just forward them to your list.

Simply reading these quotes can bring a measure of serenity to your own heart. That is the first step to being the peace we want to see in the world. Read them here:

There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they grow up in peace.
–Kofi Annan

Peace is the marriage of the people and the planet, with all attendant vows.
–Anonymous

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
–Black Elk

Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.
–Buddha

Peace is the only battle worth waging.
–Albert Camus

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.
–Winston Churchill

I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.
–Cicero

Human Beings, indeed all sentient beings, have the right to pursue happiness and live in peace and freedom.
–The XIVth Dalai Lama

Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.
–The XIVth Dalai Lama

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

There was never a good war or a bad peace.
–Ben Franklin

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
–Mohandas K. Gandhi

We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.
–William Gladstone

Peace is every step.
–Thich Nhat Hahn

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.
–Thich Nhat Hanh

Nothing is more precious than peace. Peace is the most basic starting point for the advancement of humankind.
–Daisaku Ikeda

Peace is the respect for the rights of others.
–Benito Juarez

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
–Lyndon B. Johnson

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind…War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
–John F. Kennedy

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.
–John F. Kennedy

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.
–Abraham Lincoln

You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
–Malcolm X

Peace may sound simple - one beautiful word - but it requires everything we have, every quality, every strength, every dream, every high ideal.
–Yehudi Menuhin

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
–John Muir

Dream always of a peaceful, warless, disarmed world.
–Robert Muller

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.
–A.J. Muste

If you want peace, work for justice.
–Pope Paul VI

This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love.
– Peace Pilgrim

If you wish to be brothers, let the arms fall from your hands. One cannot love while holding offensive arms.
–Pope Pius VI

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.
–Eleanor Roosevelt

Peace, like charity, begins at home.
–Franklin D. Roosevelt

More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars — yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.
–Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. Only when this really happens - when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men’s hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing.
–Albert Schweitzer

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
–Baruch Spinoza

All works of love are works of peace.
–Mother Teresa

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
–Mother Teresa

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.
–George Washington

Peace is our gift to each other.

–Elie Wiesel

There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized peace.
–Woodrow Wilson