“Let There Be Peace on Earth and Let It Begin with Me…”  I am reminded of this song I first heard in Vancouver’s once-established Centre for Spiritual Living, (CSL). Let There Be Peace on Earth 

At this special time of year, I hope we can all pray in whatever religion, or to nature, or in spirit, or whatever we believe in, and come together for Peace.

I am praying it starts with oneself as a person, peace of mind, and well-being, that it extends in our homes and families within personal relationships, towards children, among siblings, towards parents, and beyond to communities, workplaces, amongst races, and the human race, even beyond to all sentient beings and nature.

It is especially important with what is going on in the world right now.

Being of Ukrainian descent I have found Putin’s invasion and war on the Ukraine appalling and tragic. On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014. The invasion was the largest attack on a European country since World War II estimated to have caused tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of military casualties.  About 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II. Extensive environmental damage caused by the war, widely described as an ecocide, contributed to food crises worldwide.

Then Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented assault on Israel from the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages. The Israeli military responded with air strikes on Gaza and launched a ground offensive. More than 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run government. It has overtaken the news.

What can we do to contribute to peace in the world? I took to searching for some quotes on Peace, I hope the following quotes will help you find peace for yourself, for peace of mind and to move beyond to contribute to inspiring peace in your homes, workplaces, communities, and the world. Above all I wish you peace and peace in the world:

1. 1. He who is truly at peace thinks evil of no one. (Thomas à Kempis, German-Dutch canon, 1380-1471)
   2. If you want to live in peace with yourself, you have to accept yourself as you are. (Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf, Swedish writer and children’s author, 1858 – 1940)
   3. Nobody can bring you peace but yourself. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, 1803-1882)
   4. If you are depressed you are living in the past, if you are anxious you are living in the future, if you are at peace, you are living in the present. (Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher, 365 B.C.-290 B.C.)
   5. He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe. (Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 121-180)
   6. Acceptance of others, their looks, their behaviors, their beliefs, brings you an inner peace and tranquility – instead of anger and resentment. (Unknown)
   7. For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, 1803-1882)
   8. Peace at home, peace in the world. (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founding father of the Republic of Turkey, 1881-1931)
   9. Blessed are the peacemakers on earth. (William Shakespeare, English playwright, 1564-1616)
   10. In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons. (Herodotus, Greek historian, c. 485 – c. 425 BC)
   11. Imagine it’s war, and no one remembers the end of this saying: Imagine it’s war, and everyone dies. (Unknown)
   12. Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, 1803-1882)
   13. Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war. (Otto von Bismarck, German politician, 1815-1898)
   14. Peace comes by understanding, not by agreement. (from Arabia)
   15. A human being is capable of anything, why not to live in peace? (Unknown)
   16. It is better to win the peace and to lose the war (Bob Marley)
   17. When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. (Jimi Hendrix)

Let There Be Peace on Earth and Let It Begin with Me…

Please share and add your favorite quotes.