Scilla Elworthy

“If fear grows fat on the energy you feed it, you have to talk it down.”

“Wherever there is injustice, there is anger, and anger is like gasoline - if you spray it around and somebody lights a matchstick, you have an inferno. But anger inside an engine is powerful: it can drive us forward and can get us through dreadful moments and give us power. I learnt this with my discussions with nuclear policy makers.”

“Nelson Mandela went to jail believing in violence, and 27 years later he and his colleagues had slowly and carefully honed the skills, the incredible skills, that they needed to turn one of the most vicious governments the world has known into a democracy. And they did it in a total devotion to non-violence.”

“I flew aeroplanes, parachuted, walked on my own across the Himalayas - you name it; if it was dangerous, I did it.”

“To discover your mission and put it into action - instead of worrying on the sidelines - is to find peace of mind and a heart full of love.”

“This question: 'How do I deal with a bully without becoming a thug in return?' has been with me ever since I was a child.”

“I have a little mantra: 'My fear grows fat on the energy I feed it. And if it grows very big, it probably happens.'”

“Your 'hara' is here, where your uterus is if you're a woman, where the tummy sticks out if you're a man, the centre of gravity of the human body. It is the synthesis of our intellect, body and spirit, and by developing our consciousness of it, we can become incredibly rooted.”

“Consistently rated the most peaceable of all countries in the world by the Global Peace Index, Iceland has reduced its military expenditure to zero, has no armed forces, and has reduced the inequality gap between rich and poor.”

“Like many traditional feminists, I became one of the boys, only better. For a while it gave me a buzz to win at their game, but ultimately, that kind of power just goes nowhere. Traditional feminism excludes men and so perpetuates conflict. I am not interested in warring about power.”