War is not the quintessential emergency in which man has to prove himself, as my generation learned at its school desks in the days of the Kaiser rather, peace is the emergency in which we all have to prove ourselves. – Gustav Heinemann
Beyond peace, there is no longer any existence possible. – Gustav Heinemann
Trust cannot be commanded and yet it is also correct that the only one who earns trust is the one who is prepared to grant trust. – Gustav Heinemann
The first thing I see is the obligation to serve peace. – Gustav Heinemann
Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things. – T.S. Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent, 1919