Mark Pine

Selected quotations from the Nobel Prize acceptance speech of President Barack Obama:

Martin Luther King said in this same ceremony years ago: “Violence never brings permanent peace….” … As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life’s work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence.
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I face the world as it is… Evil does exist in the world. A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies.
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The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.
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We must direct our effort to the task that President Kennedy called for long ago. “Let us focus,” he said, “on a more practical, more attainable peace, based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions.”
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I believe that all nations — strong and weak alike — must adhere to standards that govern the use of force.
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I believe that force can be justified on humanitarian grounds.
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The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it.
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Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct. … I believe that the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war.
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I believe that we must develop alternatives to violence that are tough enough to change behavior…. Those regimes that break the rules must be held accountable. Sanctions must exact a real price. Intransigence must be met with increased pressure — and such pressure exists only when the world stands together as one.
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In the middle of the last century, nations agreed to be bound by a treaty whose bargain is clear: All will have access to peaceful nuclear power; those without nuclear weapons will forsake them; and those with nuclear weapons will work toward disarmament. I am committed to upholding this treaty.
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Only a just peace based upon the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting.
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I believe that peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please, choose their own leaders or assemble without fear.
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A just peace includes not only civil and political rights — it must encompass economic security and opportunity. For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want.
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Agreements among nations. Strong institutions. Support for human rights. Investments in development. All of these are vital. … And yet, I do not believe that we will have the will, or the staying power, to complete this work without something more — and that is the continued expansion of our moral imagination.
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No Holy War can ever be a just war. … for the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Adhering to this law of love has always been the core struggle of human nature.
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The nonviolence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached — their faith in human progress — must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey.
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We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of deprivation, and still strive for dignity. We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that — for that is the story of human progress; that is the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.