THE PACIFIST MEMORIAL
The Pacifist Memorial honors individuals throughout history who have demonstrated the capacity and willingness to employ nonviolent means to resolve differences and to promote social justice, often at great personal sacrifice.
Pacifists hold that killing is inherently immoral and that disputes must be settled through peaceful means. They strive to avoid hateful thoughts, words, and deeds and refuse to use violence to resolve conflict, believing that it is better to absorb violence than to inflict it.
One central goal of pacifism is to bring an end to war, to the manufacture and distribution of the weapons of war, and to promote ways of resolving differences that prevent war. Many pacifists have been conscientious objectors who refuse to participate in war and the institutions that promote war. Increasingly, many embrace a vegan lifestyle which is considered the most compassionate form of pacifism.
Many of the pacifists honored here represent the highest ethical traditions of the world religions. Others derive their pacifism from secular humanist traditions of nonviolence and peacemaking.
May the examples of the lives of the pacifists honored here inspire us to increase our efforts to promote peaceful conflict resolution within our families, our communities and among nations.
Visit the Pacifist Memorial and learn about extraordinary peacemakers and the values they lived by, and through which, they changed the world.
