VinothChandar / Foter / CC BY

A nonviolent revolution is not a program for the seizure of power. It is a program for the transformation of relationships ending in a peaceful transfer of power.
MOHANDAS K. GANDHI, 1942, Gandhi on Non-Violence, 1, ed. Thomas Merton, 1964

A nonviolent system of government is clearly an impossibility so long as the wide gulf between the rich and the hungry millions persists…. A violent and bloody revolution is a certainty one day unless there is a voluntary abdication of riches and the power that riches give, and a sharing of them for the common good.
MOHANDAS K. GANDHI, Constructive Program: Its Meaning and Place, 13, 1945

The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., Stride Toward Freedom, 11, 1958

The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of the beloved community.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., Stride Toward Freedom, 11, 1958

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: (1) collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, (2) negotiation, (3) self-purification, and (4) direct action.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” 16 April 1963

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., Nobel Peace Prize acceptance address, Oslo, 11 December 1964