Violence / Non-Violence

I came across this quote on the subject of violence and non-violence, I’d never thought of it like this before being focussed more on the physical side, I thought I’d share this quote as I found it very insightful.

“What is violence and what is non-violence? We can’t make a clear
demarcation between violence and non-violence on a superficial basis, since
it is related with motivation. Out of sincere motivation, certain
verbal actions, as well as physical actions, may look more wrathful, more
violent, harsher, but in essence, because these activities come out of a
sincere motivation of compassion, or sense of caring, they are
essentially non-violent. On the other hand, with negative motivation, try to
cheat, trying to exploit, trying to deceive, and using nice
words-although with a big artificial smile and with a gift- might look like a
friendly gesture, but because of the motivation, it is the worst kind of
violence. So I feel that in certain cases violence can be said to be a
manifestation or expression of compassion. Nevertheless, non-violence is
the basic expression of compassion, therefore, the concepts of
non-violence and compassion are very, very close.”
– His Holiness the Dalai Lama