War & Peace Quote by Mahatma Gandhi

Peace, Gandhi argues, is not a treaty; it is a habit built early enough to feel like common sense. The line’s power comes from its blunt pivot: “real peace” requires a “real war against war.” He steals the enemy’s language to expose its futility. If war is perpetuated through training, myths, and discipline, then peace has to be taught with the same seriousness and stamina. The provocation is deliberate: you don’t get to romanticize nonviolence as a soft alternative. Gandhi frames it as a campaign with objectives, strategy, and sacrifice.

The subtext is an indictment of adult society. When he says we must “begin with the children,” he’s quietly conceding that grown-ups are already compromised by nationalism, revenge, and the social rewards that come with aggression. Adults inherit a world and call it “human nature”; Gandhi calls it conditioning. Children become the contested territory where the future’s instincts are shaped: how conflict is narrated at home, what schools praise, whose suffering is considered normal, what “courage” looks like. He implies that militarism isn’t only in armies; it’s in textbooks, playgrounds, and dinner-table jokes.

Historically, this sits inside Gandhi’s broader project of nonviolent mass politics under empire, where the state depends on obedient subjects and disciplined resentment. Targeting childhood is both moral and tactical: create citizens who can resist injustice without reproducing its violence. It’s a long game, and Gandhi is insisting we stop pretending shortcuts exist.