"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other"
About this Quote
The subtext is pointed: conflict isn’t just the product of bad actors “out there,” but of a shared amnesia that makes other people feel unreal. Belonging, in this framing, isn’t sentimental unity; it’s obligation. The phrase “we belong to each other” compresses a theology of radical interdependence into a sentence that can travel secularly. It nudges the listener to accept that ignoring suffering isn’t neutrality; it’s participation in the conditions that produce unrest.
Context matters. Mother Teresa spoke from the vantage point of postwar idealism colliding with late-20th-century inequality, urban abandonment, and media-spectacle charity. Her rhetoric bypasses ideological sorting by aiming at conscience. She doesn’t argue; she reminds. That’s the rhetorical trick: if peace is the natural state of remembered kinship, then violence and indifference become a kind of forgetfulness - and forgetfulness is something each person can reverse, starting now, without waiting for institutions to catch up.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Teresa, Mother. (2026, January 17). If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-have-no-peace-it-is-because-we-have-24926/
Chicago Style
Teresa, Mother. "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-have-no-peace-it-is-because-we-have-24926/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-have-no-peace-it-is-because-we-have-24926/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.









