We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fighting
with outward weapons for any end or under any pretense whatsoever,
this is our testimony to the whole world...
...The Spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable,
so as once to command us from a thing of evil
and again to move us into it,
and we certainly know and testify to the world
that the Spirit of Christ which leads us into all truth
will never move us to fight and war
against any man with outward weapons,
neither for the Kingdom of Christ
nor for the kingdoms of this world...
therefore we cannot learn war any more
from a Statement by the Quakers to King Charles II (1660)
I told them I knew from when all wars arose...and that I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars; and that I was come into the covenant of peace which was before all wars and strife.
George Fox, founder of The Religious Society of Friends (1650)
