Garry Davis Quotes

Killing is murder; plundering is thievery; destroying another's property is criminal. Yet for the soldier killing is essential, plundering is standard practice, destroying property is "winning the battle."

All through history, the philosophers, Dante, Manius and Socrates, they called themselves world citizens. ...[I]t's one of the oldest ideas ...and we're the privileged ones who will decide whether the human race will go on... whether all those... prophets... seers... philosophers and poets... were justified. We here... in this day, in this age... decide whether the human race will continue and all the future people will be born.

Why am I killing people in their homes... schools and factories..? Why wasn't I arrested for killing people? Whey weren't they?

I have traveled with this document to India. I've traveled back from India... with... number 000001.

[M]odern man—as man of ages past—doesn't know himself. He... has lost confidence in his own, innate capacity. He restricts himself. ...Man's deadliest, self-imposed, restrictive device is nationalism.

As citizens of United World Government we threaten no one... we fear no one... we do not contribute voluntarily to the maintenance of national armaments... we accept responsibilities to the world community, abide by its tenants of order based on morality and common sense, and modify our national and communal allegiance accordingly.

[W]e have opened roll books. Our names and the names of those who stand with us are inscribed thereon. ...[W]e are issuing passports to identify each citizen who stands with us.

We registered 750,000 people practically overnight. We set up the International Registry of World Citizens. We started issuing documents based upon world citizenship. ...This passport is one of the most important key documents in the world because it represents one world, no frontiers, freedom of travel and humanity.

Til now the common social contract which links you dialectically to Mankind has not been precisely formulated. ...[w] have declared existent a government which transcends the nation-state.

[T]he H-bomb exists because... we only consider ourselves as belonging to a part of the whole... So the H-Bomb is a mere reflection of our ignorance...

Henry Noel... had renounced his United States citizenship in July 1947 and had begun working... in... Germany, rebuilding a bombed-out church. ...It was an affirmation of the fundamental sovereignty of the individual upon which all government rests. Henry Noel... was now on humanity's side.

On September 11, 1948 I went to the United Nations General Assembly meeting, which was in Paris. ...[T]hey declared that piece of France international territory. ...[T]hat was the same day that the French government said [to me] to get out. ...I knew that once I got on that territory I couldn't get off. ...I told the U.N. General Assembly ..."I'm your first citizen" and the U.N said... "We don't have citizens. We only have states." I said "Yeah, but... I'm a world citizen and this is international territory."

[T]he United Nations... represents nations and national interests, not you. ...[I]t can't "make" peace, but can only "maintain" it once made.... So who is going to "make" peace? The same one who "make" war... YOU and US.

[T]he H-Bomb does not distinguish Americans from Russians, sinners from saints, Communists from Capitalists or White from Black. ...Even our children can claim the monster. ...Do you see that you do have a responsibility as a global person?

In France but not of France? Not only did "international territory" provide the perfect asylum for me, but my camping out at the U.N. would dramatize the need for world law. Naturally, I would need for "international law" to govern me on "international territory", but there would be none.
Perhaps in this way I could focus attention on the inadequacy of the U.N., suggesting that if it could not provide for one lone human being, it would not be able to provide for the whole of mankind. It was a desperate... but... beautiful argument for world government.