Who said “All that a pacifist can undertake -- but it is a very great deal -- is to refuse to…”?

Verified

Vera Brittain. A published source records them saying or writing it.

Source"What Can We Do In Wartime?", in Forward (Scotland, September 9, 1939)

Evidence: Wikiquote · How we check

Source checked · Something wrong? Report a correction

Authors A–Z
“All that a pacifist can undertake -- but it is a very great deal -- is to refuse to kill, injure or otherwise cause suffering to another human creature, and untiringly to order his life by the rule of love though others may be captured by hate.”
— Vera Brittain
Verified"What Can We Do In Wartime?", in Forward (Scotland, September 9, 1939) · evidencePeace

Cite this quote

For academic work, cite the original where you can: "What Can We Do In Wartime?", in Forward (Scotland, September 9, 1939).

APA

Brittain, V. (n.d.). All that a pacifist can undertake -- but it is a very great deal -- is to refuse to kill, injure or otherwise cause suffering to another human creature, and untiringly to order his life by the rule of love though others may be captured by hate. [Quotation]. Famous Quotations Network. Retrieved October 24, 2026, from https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/16177-all-that-a-pacifist-can-undertake-but-it/

MLA

Brittain, Vera. “All that a pacifist can undertake -- but it is a very great deal -- is to refuse to kill, injure or otherwise cause suffering to another human creature, and untiringly to order his life by the rule of love though others may be captured by hate.” Famous Quotations Network, https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/16177-all-that-a-pacifist-can-undertake-but-it/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Brittain, Vera. “All that a pacifist can undertake -- but it is a very great deal -- is to refuse to kill, injure or otherwise cause suffering to another human creature, and untiringly to order his life by the rule of love though others may be captured by hate.” Famous Quotations Network. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/16177-all-that-a-pacifist-can-undertake-but-it/.

Related quotes

More quotes by Vera Brittain

“Meek wifehood is no part of my profession; I am your friend, but never your possession.”
Verified"Married Love", Poems of the War and After (1934) · evidenceDetails & citeWives
“There is an abiding beauty which may be appreciated by those who will see things as they are and who will ask for no reward except to see.”
Truth
“I know one husband and wife who, whatever the official reasons given to the court for the break up of their marriage, were really divorced because the husband believed that nobody ought to read while he was talking and the wife that nobody ought to talk while she was reading.”
Divorce
“At no previous period has mankind been faced by a half-century which so paradoxically united violence and progress. Its greater and lesser wars and long series of major assassinations have been strangely combined with the liberation of more societies and individuals than ever before in history, and by the transformation of millions of second-class citizens -- women, workers and the members of subject races -- to a stage at which first-rate achievement is no longer inhibited even if opportunities are not yet complete.”
Twentieth Century
All 6 Vera Brittain quotes →