Center for Teaching Peace
Washington, D.C. · Founded 1985

Center for
Teaching Peace

“Unless we teach our children peace, someone else will teach them violence.”
Colman McCarthy
Center for Teaching Peace
“Unless we teach our children peace, someone else will teach them violence.” — Colman McCarthy
“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are.” — Robert Fulghum
“Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart.” — Gandhi
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” — Mother Teresa
“Everyone’s a pacifist between wars. It’s like being a vegetarian between meals.” — Colman McCarthy
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” — Gandhi
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” — 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.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“They have the guns, we have the poets. Therefore, we will win.” — Howard Zinn
“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible.” — Daniel Berrigan
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening.” — Rosa Luxemburg
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” — Albert Einstein
“No one is born hating another person. People must learn to hate.” — Nelson Mandela
“War is over, if you want it.” — John Lennon
“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” — Indira Gandhi
“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy.” — Nelson Mandela
“There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” — A.J. Muste
“The only thing that’s been a worse flop than the organization of nonviolence has been the organization of violence.” — Joan Baez
“I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.” — Mother Teresa
“The first casualty when war comes is truth.” — Hiram Johnson
“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” — Gandhi
“If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“Unless we teach our children peace, someone else will teach them violence.” — Colman McCarthy
“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are.” — Robert Fulghum
“Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart.” — Gandhi
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” — Mother Teresa
“Everyone’s a pacifist between wars. It’s like being a vegetarian between meals.” — Colman McCarthy
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” — Gandhi
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” — 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.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“They have the guns, we have the poets. Therefore, we will win.” — Howard Zinn
“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible.” — Daniel Berrigan
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening.” — Rosa Luxemburg
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” — Albert Einstein
“No one is born hating another person. People must learn to hate.” — Nelson Mandela
“War is over, if you want it.” — John Lennon
“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” — Indira Gandhi
“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy.” — Nelson Mandela
“There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” — A.J. Muste
“The only thing that’s been a worse flop than the organization of nonviolence has been the organization of violence.” — Joan Baez
“I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.” — Mother Teresa
“The first casualty when war comes is truth.” — Hiram Johnson
“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” — Gandhi
“If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
The Mission

A life devoted to
the discipline
of peace

Colman McCarthy is a journalist, teacher, and pacifist who spent more than five decades arguing — in newsprint, in classrooms, and in person — that peace is not a dream but a discipline, and that it can be taught.

A Washington Post columnist from 1969 to 1997, McCarthy made a choice that defined his career: he would be a peace correspondent, not a war correspondent. He went to the front lines of peacemaking — bringing to his readers and later his classrooms such figures as Nobel Peace Prize laureates Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Muhammad Yunus, and Mairead Corrigan, along with Sargent Shriver, Joan Baez, Daniel Berrigan, and Dorothy Day.

In 1982, he walked into a D.C. public high school and asked the principal if he could teach a course on alternatives to violence. She said to give it a try. He never asked to be paid. Over the next thirty years, he taught more than 10,000 students across eight schools.

Thirty years of writing,
teaching, and making peace

Everyone’s a pacifist between wars. It’s like being a vegetarian between meals. Colman McCarthy

Books by Colman McCarthy

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