Barack Obama on Peace
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“The terms of peace may be negotiated by political leaders, but the fate of peace is up to each of us.”
“But he understood from hard-earned experience that true security comes through making peace with your neighbors.”
“Peace is not merely the absence of visible conflict. Only a just peace based on the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting.”
Speaking to the people of Estonia in 2014, Barack Obama articulated his vision of international relations, emphasizing justice, dignity, and rights over brute force.
“Justice will win — because might does not make right, and the only path to lasting peace is when people know that their dignity will be respected and that their rights will be upheld.”
“Ultimately, peace is just not about politics. It’s about attitudes; about a sense of empathy; about breaking down the divisions that we create for ourselves in our own minds and our own hearts that don’t exist in any objective reality, but that we carry with us generation after generation.”
“The peace we seek in the world begins in human hearts. And it finds its glorious expression when we look beyond any differences in religion or tribe, and rejoice in the beauty of every soul. [...] Do we act with compassion and empathy. [...] we have to guard against any efforts to divide ourselves along sectarian lines or any other lines.”