Quotes
ON TAKING ACTION
“A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.”
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead
"What powerholders really fear is resilient, nonviolent, mass rebellion—which exposes as a lie their aura of invincibility while simultaneously removing any excuses for violent crackdowns."
Erica Chenoweth
"What You Can Do, or Dream You Can, Begin It; Boldness Has Genius, Power, and Magic in It"
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“We will not solve the climate crisis with the same people and thinking that caused it.”
Clover Hogan
“We learn to fear our own potential, and fall victim to thoughts like: “I’m just one in 7.6 billion. What can I do really?” But to solve our beautiful, bright planet’s dark problems, we must refuse to be ruled by fear.”
Clover Hogan
"We, the generation that faces the next century, can add the solemn injunction 'If we don't do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable.'"
Petra Kelly
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."
Abraham Lincoln
"I knew someone had to take the first step, and I made up my mind not to move.”
Rosa Parks
“Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”
Michael Jordan
"The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."
Plato
"Thinking will not overcome fear but action will."
W. Clement Stone
"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction."
John F. Kennedy
"Action is the foundational key to all success."
Pablo Picasso
"Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world."
Joel A. Barker
"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."
Thomas Jefferson
"Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often."
Mark Twain
'You must take action now that will move you toward your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life."
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
"Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics."
Jane Addams
"It is easy to sit up and take notice. What is difficult is getting up and taking action."
Honore de Balzac
"Concern should drive us into action, not into depression."
Pythagoras
"Action is the antidote to despair."
Joan Baez
"The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
World United generated quotes:
When you are left with only one choice for survival, it doesn't matter what the odds against it are.
When threats become existential in nature, we need to get radical with solutions.
It’s only impossible if everyone agrees.
Our world is the Titanic, our complacency, the iceberg.
All progress in history has been initiated by people who didn’t understand that it wasn’t possible …or knew it was impossible but did it anyway.
Once you’ve tried everything else, try the impossible.
People fear radical change, but it’s the status quo that's the monster under your bed.
The status quo very much resembles a speeding train and a cliff.
Consider that, given the circumstance, the status quo may be far more dangerous than radical change.
When things stop working completely, get radical.
When systems stop working, the status quo is the radically dangerous idea.
The risk may appear to be in radical change, but alas, it is found smoldering and well camouflaged deep within the status quo.
The most dangerous thought is that somebody else will do it.
"Any fear of a world government ought to be tempered by an absolute terror of the status quo, featuring the three horsemen of existential dread: nuclear war, planetary destruction, and a new species of superhuman intelligence."
World United
ON WAR & PEACE
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."
Albert Einstein, 1946
"Law is, essentially, an order for the promotion of peace. Its purpose is to assure the peaceful living together of a group of individuals in such a way that they settle their inevitable conflicts in a peaceful manner; that is, without the use of force, in conformity with an order valid for all. This order is the law."
Hans Kelsen
"When Kansas and Colorado have a quarrel over the water in the Arkansas River, they don't call out the National Guard in each state and go to war over it. They bring suit in the Supreme Court of
the United States and abide by the decision. There isn't a reason in the world why we cannot do that internationally. "
Harry Truman
"Is the world a community of peoples or a collection of sovereign states?"
Dieter Heinrich
"We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
Martin Luther King Jr.
"It is not enough to say 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but the positive affirmation of peace."
Martin Luther King Jr.
"We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but the positive affirmation of peace."
Martin Luther King Jr.
"True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."
Martin Luther King Jr.
"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."
Bertrand Russell
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
Albert Einstein
"If we don't end war, war will end us."
H. G. Wells
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”
Jimi Hendrix
“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one.” —John Lennon
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” —Mahatma Gandhi
“Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”
Ronald Reagan
"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die."
Jean-Paul Sartre
"The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own."
Aldous Huxley
"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."
George McGovern
"War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."
Thomas Mann
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."
Voltaire
"War remains the decisive human failure."
John Kenneth Galbraith
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind."
John F. Kennedy
"Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder."
Percy Bysshe Shelley
"The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations."
David Friedman
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."
Albert Einstein
"My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth."
George Washington
"A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets."
Ludwig von Mises
"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime."
Ernest Hemingway
"What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party."
Henry David Thoreau
Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."
George Orwell
"It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
Albert Einstein
"Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country."
Bertrand Russell
"If men do not now succeed in abolishing war, civilization and mankind are doomed."
Ludwig von Mises
"The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one."
Albert Einstein
"War is inevitable only if we accept it as, and thereby allow it to be, inevitable."
World United
"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a war against terrorism."
Noam Chomsky
"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst."
Aristotle
"The absence of law among nation-states renders us unable to prevent war. We might as well say that it caused it."
World United
Miscellaneous
"There is no solution for civilization or even the human race, other than the creation of world government."
Albert Einstein
"Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
Albert Einstein
"Often in evolutionary processes a species must adapt to new conditions in order to survive. Today the atomic bomb has altered profoundly the nature of the world as we know it, and the human race consequently finds itself in a new habitat to which it must adapt its thinking.
Albert Einstein
"Our world faces a crisis as yet unperceived by those possessing power to make great decisions for good or evil. The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. We scientists who released this immense power have an overwhelming responsibility in this world life-and-death struggle to harness the atom for the benefit of mankind and not for humanity’s destruction. … We need two hundred thousand dollars at once for a nation-wide campaign to let people know that a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels. This appeal is sent to you only after long consideration of the immense crisis we face. … We ask your help at this fateful moment as a sign that we scientists do not stand alone."
Albert EinsteinIn 'Atomic Education Urged by Einstein', New York Times (25 May 1946), 13. Extract from a telegram (24 May 1946) to “several hundred prominent Americans”, signed by Albert Einstein as Chairman, with other members, of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists. It was also signed by the Federation of American Scientists.
"In my opinion there is no other salvation for civilization and even for the human race than the creation of a world government with security on the basis of law. As long as there are sovereign states with their separate armaments and armament secrets, new world wars cannot be avoided."
Albert Einstein
"The United States is the most powerful technically advanced country in the world to-day. Its influence on the shaping of international relations is absolutely incalculable. But America is a large country and its people have so far not shown much interest in great international problems, among which the problem of disarmament occupies first place today. This must be changed, if only in the essential interests of the Americans. The last war has shown that there are no longer any barriers between the continents and that the destinies of all countries are closely interwoven. The people of this country must realize that they have a great responsibility in the sphere of international politics. The part of passive spectator is unworthy of this country and is bound in the end to lead to disaster all round."
Albert Einstein
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."
Albert Einstein
"I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research."
Albert EinsteinCosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931)
"In light of new knowledge ... an eventual world state is not just desirable in the name of brotherhood, it is necessary for survival ... Today we must abandon competition and secure cooperation. This must be the central fact in all our considerations of international affairs; otherwise we face certain disaster. Past thinking and methods did not prevent world wars. Future thinking must prevent wars."
Albert Einstein
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."
Albert Einstein
“A super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren't aligned with ours, we're in trouble.”
Stephen Hawking
“It is only the way it is until we discover the new way it is and then that is the way it is until we discover the new way it is and so it goes until the world is no longer flat, electricity lights the night and shoes no longer are tied with ribbons. You see."
Bella from the film “Poor Things”
"Every revolution seems impossible at the beginning, and after it happens, it was inevitable."
Bill Ayers
“I’d say it’s about as impossible as manned flight, or most revolutions; not at all.”
World United
“We have to do the impossible; it’s not like we have a choice.”
World United
“If World Federation is impossible, then so is the continued existence of Homo Sapiens.”
World United
"Yearning for the seemingly impossible is the path to human progress."
Bryant H. McGill
"Change always seems impossible until it's inevitable."
Sarah McBride
"We, the generation that faces the next century, can add the solemn injunction 'If we don't do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable."
Petra Kelly
"Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: 1- It's completely impossible. 2- It's possible, but it's not worth doing. 3- I said it was a good idea all along."
Arthur C. Clarke
"All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right about face which turns us from failure to success."
Dorothea Brande
"We must make the United Nations continue to work, and to be a going concern, to see that difficulties between nations may be settled just as we settle difficulties between States here in the United States. When Kansas and Colorado fall out over the waters in the Arkansas River, they don't go to war over it; they go to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the matter is settled in a just and honorable way. There is not a difficulty in the whole world that cannot be settled in exactly the same way in a world court."
President Harry S. Truman
"We won't have a society if we destroy the environment."
Margaret Mead
"The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share."
Lady Bird Johnson
"We won't save places we don't love; we can't love places we don't know; and we can't know places we haven't learned."
Indigenous Wisdom
"The Earth does not belong to us: we belong to the Earth."
Marlee Matlin
"We won't have peace on the Earth until we make peace with the Earth."
Vandana Shiva
"The environment is where we live, where we work, and where we play."
Wilma Mankiller
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Native American Proverb
"Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land."
Aldo Leopold
"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now."
Chinese Proverb
"The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. If we cannot sustain the environment, we cannot sustain ourselves."
Wangari Maathai
"What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
Albert Einstein
"The Earth does not belong to us: we belong to the Earth."
Marlee Matlin
"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction."
Rachel Carson
"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."
Mahatma Gandhi
"We do not want merely to see beauty... we want something else which can hardly be put into words – to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves."
C.S. Lewis
"Conservation means harmony between men and land."
Stewart Udall
"The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it."
Robert Swan
“I used to think that to be an environmentalist, I’d have to chain myself to trees and ride zodiacs into the path of whaling ships. But I’m a bit too word-nerdy for that. I found my place when I started investigating some of our planet’s most dangerous enemies: Apathy. Pessimism. Green-washing. Tokenism. By educating myself, I overcame my own mindset hurdles, and quickly realised that I wanted to help others do the same.”
“No one is born a leader; you learn to become one through courage and imagination. So like the young people who have not been around long enough to let society clip the wings of their imaginations, I invite you to let your courage take flight.”
“We must discard the belief that we're powerless, and realise that we are infinitely powerful.”
Clover Hogan
Urgency
As necessity is the mother of invention, urgency is the father of action."~Anonymous
How much time do we have?
Impossible to know, but we have some worrying clues.
Scientists warn us that we have only a few years left to halt the worst effects of the climate crisis. Estimates range from "it’s already too late" to as little as five to as much as 20 years - but the urgency is clear.
Violent destructive wars between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas, and others are of particular concern. Moreover, sabre-rattling between nuclear powers has reached a new 40-year high, coupled with a renewed disregard for international treaties on nuclear disarmament. It is, of course, possible that none of these nations will use nuclear weapons, but that is a poor substitute for actual legislation outlawing them. Actual disarmament is an achievable goal, even if it appears completely improbable.
Artificial intelligence may be the most complex and perhaps the most dangerous threat we face. Its exponential growth is sure to wreak havoc on civilization. Our civilizations are built on trust, and AI, with its rather shocking ability to mimic human voice, human writing, human imagery, human likenesses, etc., will test our abilities to recognize that which is real and that which is created by artificial intelligence.
Even the most optimistic projections for any one of these three existential threats demand immediate attention and immediate action.
We have needed to take action on climate change for decades now, and although the reasons for the lack of action are multitude, competition, rather than cooperation, between nation-states is the biggest blockade to serious action. A World Federation with sovereignty over nation-states in these areas would establish nation-by-nation guidelines for percentage reductions in CO2 emissions. These would be legally binding and would have serious penalties associated with them for noncompliance.
War, described as "the greatest failure of humankind," involves state-sanctioned mass murder. It is universally condemned by the citizens of the world, and should obviously be illegal and subject to the same penalties that murder between individuals would engender. A World Federation would enact legislation to make war and the possession of weapons of mass destruction illegal.
Artificial intelligence and other dangerous technologies threaten our very existence. The very real and dangerous scenarios we can imagine are likely only a small percentage of the threats - most of which we cannot even conceive. A global government would establish and enforce regulations on the development of AI. The world, acting in concert, would also need to develop "good" AI to counteract the malicious AI that will inevitably be created by bad actors and pure profit seekers.
We believe a World Federation is the only credible way to resolve these existential issues. These forces are relentless. To hold them at bay, half-measures will never suffice. If we are convinced that this is the only way out, we must refocus our time, energy and resources on this project, above all others.
There is literally no scenario that would suggest any other time than right now for taking action.