Put positively, nonviolence is the affirmation of an alternative view of force. It is a clearsighted power, which uses means proportionate to the goal it sets itself. It is the power of reason and truth, the power of morality and the human spirit. It is what in Brazil is called principled firmness and in the Philippines the power of the weak, the power of the soul. Nonviolence is not mere passivity or an internal disposition, but a constant way of acting which names acts of violence for what they are, as Pope John Paul 11 consistently did before, during, and after the Gulf War.
Nonviolence refuses to cooperate with evil and injustice.
Nonviolent reaction to acts of violence is reaching out in goodwill towards the perpetrators of violence together with a willingness to suffer ourselves rather than make others the victims of violence in retaliation. Thus, nonviolence is a series of acts of choosing life rather than injury or death - whether physical, psychological, social or cultural. Habitual nonviolent will of the people to resist an armed intervention from outside prevented such an intervention from happening. Starting from examples such as these, it remains for us to analyze the means adopted, in conditions which allowed them to succeed, and the possibility of improving them and extending their influence. What happened relatively spontaneously must now become the product of careful preparation.