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Organized power can be opposed only by organized power. Much as I regret this, there is no other way.

Einstein told this to a pacifist student in 1941. A 62-year-old Einstein had finally come to a pragmatic support of US involvement in World War II.

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I am the same ardent pacifist I was before. But I believe that the tool of refusing military service can be advocated again in Europe only when the military threat from aggressive dictatorships toward democratic countries has ceased to exist.

By 1934, Einstein has eased up on his opposition to required military service ever so slightly. He said this to Rabbi Philip Bernstein, who helped up to 200,000 displaced Jews relocate after World War II.

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I cannot understand the passive response of the whole civilized world to this modern barbarism. Doesn’t the world see that Hitler is aiming for war?

A Viennese reporter quoted Einstein saying this in 1933. If feels eerie now to think that Einstein and certainly others like him foresaw Hitler’s military aggression, yet not enough was being done to stop it.

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War is not a parlor game in which the players obediently stick to the rules. Where life and death are at stake, rules and obligations go by the board. Only the absolute repudiation of all war can be of any use here.

Einstein proclaimed this in a speech to California university students in 1932. Later it was published in the New York Times.

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In two weeks the sheep-like masses can be worked up by the newspapers into such a state of excited fury that the men are prepared to put on uniform and kill and be killed, for the sake of the worthless aims of a few interested parties. Compulsory military service seems to me the most disgraceful symptom of that deficiency in personal dignity from which civilized mankind is suffering today.

This quote is from the book The World As I See It , under the section Society and Personality.

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My pacifism is an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me because the murder of people is disgusting. My attitude is not derived from any intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred.

In 1929 Christian Century published in an interview with Einstein that contained this quote.

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Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. You cannot subjugate a nation forcibly unless you wipe out every man, woman, and child. Unless you wish to use such drastic measures, you must find a way of settling your disputes without resort to arms.

Einstein believed that violence begets more violence, and so it is never a viable long-term solution to problems. This 1931 quote comes from “Notes on Pacifism.”

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I would absolutely refuse any direct or indirect war service and would try to persuade my friends to do the same, regardless of the reasons for the cause of a war.

In 1929, this quote came from Einstein’s contribution to the publication of Die Wahrheit

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No person has the right to call himself a Christian or Jew so long as he is prepared to engage in systematic murder at the command of an authority, or allow himself to be used in any way in the service of war or the preparation for it.

Einstein’s 1928 contribution to “Pax Mundi: Livre d’or de la paix,” an anthology from Switzerland of quotes from notable people on world peace.

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He who cherishes the values of culture cannot fail to be a pacifist.

In 1922, Einstein contributed a piece to a German-language collection that translates to The Peace Movement. He was a devout pacifist until Nazi Germany forced him to admit that military retaliation was needed. Later, he maintained his pacifist status and became an activist for disarmament.

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