The Words of Peace: Selections from the Speeches of the Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize

Selected and edited by Irwin Abrams; foreword by President Jimmy Carter
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“In our private and individual lives, all of us have a need to seek for heroes. In our own personal ambitions and life—analysis of what opportunities present themselves to us, the talents that we have, the unpredictable future—we need those on whom we can depend as a pattern. How can we live an exemplary existence? The measurement of that, the pattern for it, the guide for our own lives, comes from our heroes. How can we justify our dreams? How can we confirm our beliefs? How can we prove to ourselves that what we have been taught as children is true? How can we alleviate our doubts? How can we, in our own often naturally dormant lives, be inspired to action, sometimes even at the sacrifice of our own immediate well-being? We derive those inspirations from heroes.” These are my considered thoughts about heroes, presented in a speech in 1986. The Nobel Peace Prize was established to honor the heroes of peace, and this small book presents a collection of well-chosen excerpts from their addresses at Oslo, drawn both from acceptance speeches and from the lectures which each prize winner is expected to deliver.
(Excerpt from the Foreword by Jimmy Carter, US ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate)