quote · Legacy record
I am not a committed pacifist. I would not hold that it is under all imaginable circumstances wrong to use violence, even though use of violence is in some sense unjust. I believe that one has to estimate relative justices. But the use of violence and the creation of some degree of injustice can only be justified on the basis of the claim and the assessment-which always ought to be undertaken very, very seriously and with a good deal of scepticism that this violence is being exercised because a more just result is going to be achieved.
I am not a committed pacifist. I would not hold that it is under all imaginable circumstances wrong to use violence, even though use of violence is in some sense unjust. I believe that one has to estimate relative justices. But the use of violence and the creation of some degree of injustice can only be justified on the basis of the claim and the assessment-which always ought to be undertaken very, very seriously and with a good deal of scepticism that this violence is being exercised because a more just result is going to be achieved.
Approximate author period: c. 1928 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Noam Chomsky
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1928 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from documented birth year 1928; activity date not established; Wikidata Q9049, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9049 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 77014; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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