As President Bush continues in this Christmas season to press for continued war, it is perhaps an instructive if rueful exercise to see what others, including U.S. presidents, have had to say not about war but about peace, which is far more elusive.

Herewith some comments on peace through history, compiled from various sources.

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it." -- Thomas Jefferson

"The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend." -- Abraham Lincoln

"I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war." -- Cicero

"More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars -- yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments."

-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"In peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, and fathers bury sons." -- Herodotus

"Our chiefs are killed … The little children are freezing to death. My people … have no blankets, no food … My heart is sick and sad … I will fight no more forever." -- Chief Joseph

"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind … War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." -- John F. Kennedy

"War is as outmoded as cannibalism, chattel slavery, blood-feuds, and dueling, an insult to God and humanity … a daily Crucifixion of Christ." -- Muriel Lester

"There was never a good war or a bad peace." -- Benjamin Franklin

"If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought, and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore him at our own risk." -- Martin Luther King Jr.

"The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world and taught us: 'That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God's creatures. Belief in God is to love one's fellow men.'" -- Abdul Ghaffar Khan

"There is only one radical means of sanctifying human lives: The one radical solution is a real peace." -- Yitzhak Rabin

"Peace for us is both a value and interest as well. It is an ultimate human value which allows human beings to develop their humanity in freedom regardless of regional, ideological and national constraints." -- Yasser Arafat

"Peace is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it." -- Thomas Merton

"There are no warlike people, just warlike leaders." -- Ralph Bunche

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." -- Hermann Goering

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount." -- Omar N. Bradley

"Either war is obsolete or men are." -- R. Buckminster Fuller

"We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace." -- William E. Gladstone

"Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one." -- John Lennon

Contact staff writer John Van Doorn at (760)739-6647 or jvandoorn@nctimes.com.