READ List of Famous Pacifists

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List of famous pacifists, with photos, bios, and other information when available. Who are the top pacifists in the world? This includes the most prominent pacifists, living and dead, both in America and abroad. This list of notable pacifists is ordered by their level of prominence, and can be sorted for various bits of information, such as where these historic pacifists were born and what their nationality is. The people on this list are from different countries, but what they all have in common is that they're all renowned pacifists.

List below includes John Lennon, Albert Einstein, and more people. Featuring pacifists of all different religions and of history, this list has it all.

From reputable, prominent, and well known pacifists to the lesser known pacifists of today, these are some of the best professionals in the pacifist field. If you want to answer the questions, "Who are the most famous pacifists ever?" and "What are the names of famous pacifists?" then you're in the right place.

1

Albert Einstein Died at 76 (1879-1955) Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. Einstein's work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the ...more

2

John Lennon Died at 40 (1940-1980) John Winston Ono Lennon MBE was an English singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a co-founder of the band the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of ...more

3

Mahatma Gandhi Died at 79 (1869-1948) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the preeminent leader of Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and ...more

4

Oscar Wilde Died at 46 (1854-1900) Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish author, playwright and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the ...more

5

Martin Luther King, Jr. Died at 39 (1929-1968) Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr., January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for ...more

6

Helen Keller Died at 88 (1880-1968) Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Anne ...more

7

Tank Man A man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 by force, became known as the Tank Man ...more

8

Jeannette Rankin Died at 93 (1880-1973) Jeannette Pickering Rankin was the first woman elected to the United States Congress, in 1916 and again in 1940, from the state of Montana. After winning her House seat in 1916 she said, "I ...more

9

Aldous Huxley Died at 69 (1894-1963) Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer, philosopher and a prominent member of the Huxley family. He was best known for his novels including Brave New World, set in a dystopian London, and ...more

10

Yoko Ono age 85 Yoko Ono, is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, and peace activist. She is the widow and second wife of John Lennon and is also known for her work in avant-garde art, music, and filmmaking. ...more

11

Leo Tolstoy Died at 82 (1828-1910) Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, commonly referred to as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright and philosopher who primarily wrote novels and short ...more

12

James Lawson age 89 James Morris Lawson, Jr. is an American activist and university professor. He was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the American Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, ...more

13

Nhat Hanh age 91 Thích Nhất Hạnh is a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist. He lives in the Plum Village Monastery in the Dordogne region in the South of France, ...more

14

James Bevel Died at 72 (1936-2008) James Luther Bevel was a leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement who, as the Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ...more

15

Vera Brittain Died at 77 (1893-1970) Vera Mary Brittain was an English writer and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth recounted her experiences during the First World War and the beginning of her journey ...more

16

Aung San Suu Kyi age 72 Aung San Suu Kyi AC is a Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy in Burma. In the 1990 general election, the NLD won 59% of the national votes and 81% ...more

17

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama age 82 The 14th Dalai Lama is the current Dalai Lama, as well as the longest-lived incumbent. Dalai Lamas are amongst the head monks of the Gelug school, the newest of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. ...more

18

William Penn Died at 74 (1644-1718) William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of ...more

19

Joan Baez age 77 Joan Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician, and activist whose contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest or social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 55 ...more

20

Anna Politkovskaya Died at 48 (1958-2006) Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, writer, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Second Chechen War and President of Russia Vladimir Putin. Politkovskaya ...more

21

Jaime Garzón Died at 39 (1960-1999) Jaime Hernando Garzón Forero was a Colombian journalist, a comedian, lawyer, peace activist and political satirist. He was popular on Colombian television during the 1990s for his ...more

22

Kurt Eisner Died at 52 (1867-1919) Kurt Eisner was a German politician and journalist. As a socialist journalist and statesman, he organized the Socialist Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria in November ...more

23

Selma Lagerlöf Died at 82 (1858-1940) Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and most widely known for her children's book Nils Holgerssons ...more

24

Martin Buber Died at 87 (1878-1965) Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and ...more

25

Nana Mouskouri age 83 Nana Mouskouri, born Iōánna Moúschouri on October 13, 1934, in Chania, Crete, Greece, is a Greek singer. She was known as "Nána" to her friends and family as a ...more

26

Robert Baker Aitken Died at 93 (1917-2010) Robert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Rōshi was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1959 together with his wife. Aitken received Dharma ...more

27

Bianca Jagger age 72 Bianca Jagger is a Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a former actress. Jagger currently serves as a Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador, Founder and Chair of the Bianca ...more

28

Daisaku Ikeda age 90 Daisaku Ikeda is the spiritual leader and former president of the Nichiren Buddhist Soka Gakkai, the largest of Japan's new religious movements, and also one of the most controversial. Ikeda is ...more

29

Olive Schreiner Died at 65 (1855-1920) Olive Schreiner was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm which has been highly acclaimed since ...more

30

Raicho Hiratsuka Died at 85 (1886-1971) Raichō Hiratsuka was a writer, journalist, political activist, anarchist and pioneering Japanese feminist.

31

Johan Galtung age 87 Johan Galtung is a Norwegian sociologist, mathematician and the principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies. He co-founded the Peace Research Institute Oslo in 1959, ...more

32

Roger Nash Baldwin Died at 97 (1884-1981) Roger Nash Baldwin was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union. He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950. Many of the ACLU's original landmark cases took place ...more

33

Dirk Willems Dirk Willems was a Dutch martyred Anabaptist who is most famous for escaping from prison, turning around to rescue his pursuer—who had fallen through thin ice while chasing Willems—to then be ...more

34

Bertha von Suttner Died at 71 (1843-1914) Bertha Felicitas Sophie Freifrau von Suttner was an Austrian pacifist and novelist. In 1905 she was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, thus being the second female Nobel ...more

35

Joseph Beuys Died at 65 (1921-1986) Joseph Beuys was a German Fluxus, happening and performance artist as well as a sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art. His extensive work is grounded ...more

36

Hannes Alfvén Died at 87 (1908-1995) Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics. He described the ...more

37

Sulak Sivaraksa age 85 Sulak Sivaraksa is the founder and director of the Thai NGO “Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation”, named after two authorities on Thai culture, Sathirakoses and Nagapradeepa. Besides being the ...more

38

James White Died at 71 (1928-1999) James White was a Northern Irish author of science fiction novellas, short stories and novels. He was born in Belfast and returned there after spending his early years in Canada. After a few ...more

39

George Ohsawa Died at 73 (1893-1966) George Ohsawa, born Yukikazu Sakurazawa, was the founder of the Macrobiotic diet and philosophy. When living in Europe he went by the pen names of Musagendo Sakurazawa, Nyoiti Sakurazawa, and ...more

40

Inazō Nitobe Died at 71 (1862-1933) Nitobe Inazō was a Japanese agricultural economist, author, educator, diplomat, politician, and Christian during the pre-World War II period.

41

Alfred Hermann Fried Died at 57 (1864-1921) Alfred Hermann Fried was an Austrian Jewish pacifist, publicist, journalist, co-founder of the German peace movement, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1911.

42

Boudewijn de Groot age 73 Boudewijn de Groot is a famous Dutch singer/songwriter. He is known for the songs "Welterusten Meneer de President", "Het Land van Maas en Waal ", "Jimmy " and ...more

43

Amal Hijazi age 41 Amal Hijazi is a Lebanese singer and pop icon. She is one of the most active Lebanese singers and has given a number of concerts throughout the world and has made countless TV appearances. After ...more

44

Toyohiko Kagawa Died at 72 (1888-1960) Toyohiko Kagawa was a Japanese Christian pacifist, Christian reformer, and labour activist. Kagawa wrote, spoke, and worked at length on ways to employ Christian principles in the ordering of ...more

45

Carl von Ossietzky Died at 49 (1889-1938) Carl von Ossietzky was a German pacifist and the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing the clandestine German re-armament. He was convicted of high treason and ...more

46

Masaki Kobayashi Died at 80 (1916-1996) Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese film director.

47

Francis Sheehy-Skeffington Died at 38 (1878-1916) Francis Skeffington from Bailieborough, County Cavan, was an Irish suffragist, pacifist and writer. He was a friend and schoolmate of James Joyce, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Tom Kettle, and Conor ...more

48

Georg von Arco Died at 71 (1869-1940) Georg Wilhelm Alexander Hans Graf von Arco was a German physicist, radio pioneer, and one of the joint founders of the "Society for Wireless Telegraphy" which became the Telefunken ...more

49

Makoto Oda Died at 75 (1932-2007) Oda Makoto was a Japanese novelist, peace activist, academic and Time Asian Hero.

50

Sydney Silverman Died at 73 (1895-1968) Samuel Sydney Silverman was a British Labour politician and vocal opponent of capital punishment.

1 Albert Einstein Died at 76 (1879-1955) Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. Einstein's work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the ...more

2 John Lennon Died at 40 (1940-1980) John Winston Ono Lennon MBE was an English singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a co-founder of the band the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of ...more

3 Mahatma Gandhi Died at 79 (1869-1948) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the preeminent leader of Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and ...more

4 Oscar Wilde Died at 46 (1854-1900) Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish author, playwright and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the ...more

5 Martin Luther King, Jr. Died at 39 (1929-1968) Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr., January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for ...more

6 Helen Keller Died at 88 (1880-1968) Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Anne ...more

7 Tank Man A man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 by force, became known as the Tank Man ...more

8 Jeannette Rankin Died at 93 (1880-1973) Jeannette Pickering Rankin was the first woman elected to the United States Congress, in 1916 and again in 1940, from the state of Montana. After winning her House seat in 1916 she said, "I ...more

9 Aldous Huxley Died at 69 (1894-1963) Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer, philosopher and a prominent member of the Huxley family. He was best known for his novels including Brave New World, set in a dystopian London, and ...more

10 Yoko Ono age 85 Yoko Ono, is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, and peace activist. She is the widow and second wife of John Lennon and is also known for her work in avant-garde art, music, and filmmaking. ...more

11 Leo Tolstoy Died at 82 (1828-1910) Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, commonly referred to as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright and philosopher who primarily wrote novels and short ...more

12 James Lawson age 89 James Morris Lawson, Jr. is an American activist and university professor. He was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the American Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, ...more

13 Nhat Hanh age 91 Thích Nhất Hạnh is a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist. He lives in the Plum Village Monastery in the Dordogne region in the South of France, ...more

14 James Bevel Died at 72 (1936-2008) James Luther Bevel was a leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement who, as the Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ...more

15 Vera Brittain Died at 77 (1893-1970) Vera Mary Brittain was an English writer and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth recounted her experiences during the First World War and the beginning of her journey ...more

16 Aung San Suu Kyi age 72 Aung San Suu Kyi AC is a Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy in Burma. In the 1990 general election, the NLD won 59% of the national votes and 81% ...more

17 Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama age 82 The 14th Dalai Lama is the current Dalai Lama, as well as the longest-lived incumbent. Dalai Lamas are amongst the head monks of the Gelug school, the newest of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. ...more

18 William Penn Died at 74 (1644-1718) William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of ...more

19 Joan Baez age 77 Joan Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician, and activist whose contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest or social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 55 ...more

20 Anna Politkovskaya Died at 48 (1958-2006) Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, writer, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Second Chechen War and President of Russia Vladimir Putin. Politkovskaya ...more

21 Jaime Garzón Died at 39 (1960-1999) Jaime Hernando Garzón Forero was a Colombian journalist, a comedian, lawyer, peace activist and political satirist. He was popular on Colombian television during the 1990s for his ...more

22 Kurt Eisner Died at 52 (1867-1919) Kurt Eisner was a German politician and journalist. As a socialist journalist and statesman, he organized the Socialist Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria in November ...more

23 Selma Lagerlöf Died at 82 (1858-1940) Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and most widely known for her children's book Nils Holgerssons ...more

24 Martin Buber Died at 87 (1878-1965) Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and ...more

25 Nana Mouskouri age 83 Nana Mouskouri, born Iōánna Moúschouri on October 13, 1934, in Chania, Crete, Greece, is a Greek singer. She was known as "Nána" to her friends and family as a ...more

26 Robert Baker Aitken Died at 93 (1917-2010) Robert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Rōshi was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1959 together with his wife. Aitken received Dharma ...more

27 Bianca Jagger age 72 Bianca Jagger is a Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a former actress. Jagger currently serves as a Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador, Founder and Chair of the Bianca ...more

28 Daisaku Ikeda age 90 Daisaku Ikeda is the spiritual leader and former president of the Nichiren Buddhist Soka Gakkai, the largest of Japan's new religious movements, and also one of the most controversial. Ikeda is ...more

29 Olive Schreiner Died at 65 (1855-1920) Olive Schreiner was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm which has been highly acclaimed since ...more

30 Raicho Hiratsuka Died at 85 (1886-1971) Raichō Hiratsuka was a writer, journalist, political activist, anarchist and pioneering Japanese feminist.

31 Johan Galtung age 87 Johan Galtung is a Norwegian sociologist, mathematician and the principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies. He co-founded the Peace Research Institute Oslo in 1959, ...more

32 Roger Nash Baldwin Died at 97 (1884-1981) Roger Nash Baldwin was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union. He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950. Many of the ACLU's original landmark cases took place ...more

33 Dirk Willems Dirk Willems was a Dutch martyred Anabaptist who is most famous for escaping from prison, turning around to rescue his pursuer—who had fallen through thin ice while chasing Willems—to then be ...more

34 Bertha von Suttner Died at 71 (1843-1914) Bertha Felicitas Sophie Freifrau von Suttner was an Austrian pacifist and novelist. In 1905 she was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, thus being the second female Nobel ...more

35 Joseph Beuys Died at 65 (1921-1986) Joseph Beuys was a German Fluxus, happening and performance artist as well as a sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art. His extensive work is grounded ...more

36 Hannes Alfvén Died at 87 (1908-1995) Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics. He described the ...more

37 Sulak Sivaraksa age 85 Sulak Sivaraksa is the founder and director of the Thai NGO “Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation”, named after two authorities on Thai culture, Sathirakoses and Nagapradeepa. Besides being the ...more

38 James White Died at 71 (1928-1999) James White was a Northern Irish author of science fiction novellas, short stories and novels. He was born in Belfast and returned there after spending his early years in Canada. After a few ...more

39 George Ohsawa Died at 73 (1893-1966) George Ohsawa, born Yukikazu Sakurazawa, was the founder of the Macrobiotic diet and philosophy. When living in Europe he went by the pen names of Musagendo Sakurazawa, Nyoiti Sakurazawa, and ...more

40 Inazō Nitobe Died at 71 (1862-1933) Nitobe Inazō was a Japanese agricultural economist, author, educator, diplomat, politician, and Christian during the pre-World War II period.

41 Alfred Hermann Fried Died at 57 (1864-1921) Alfred Hermann Fried was an Austrian Jewish pacifist, publicist, journalist, co-founder of the German peace movement, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1911.

42 Boudewijn de Groot age 73 Boudewijn de Groot is a famous Dutch singer/songwriter. He is known for the songs "Welterusten Meneer de President", "Het Land van Maas en Waal ", "Jimmy " and ...more

43 Amal Hijazi age 41 Amal Hijazi is a Lebanese singer and pop icon. She is one of the most active Lebanese singers and has given a number of concerts throughout the world and has made countless TV appearances. After ...more

44 Toyohiko Kagawa Died at 72 (1888-1960) Toyohiko Kagawa was a Japanese Christian pacifist, Christian reformer, and labour activist. Kagawa wrote, spoke, and worked at length on ways to employ Christian principles in the ordering of ...more

45 Carl von Ossietzky Died at 49 (1889-1938) Carl von Ossietzky was a German pacifist and the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing the clandestine German re-armament. He was convicted of high treason and ...more

46 Masaki Kobayashi Died at 80 (1916-1996) Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese film director.

47 Francis Sheehy-Skeffington Died at 38 (1878-1916) Francis Skeffington from Bailieborough, County Cavan, was an Irish suffragist, pacifist and writer. He was a friend and schoolmate of James Joyce, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Tom Kettle, and Conor ...more

48 Georg von Arco Died at 71 (1869-1940) Georg Wilhelm Alexander Hans Graf von Arco was a German physicist, radio pioneer, and one of the joint founders of the "Society for Wireless Telegraphy" which became the Telefunken ...more

49 Makoto Oda Died at 75 (1932-2007) Oda Makoto was a Japanese novelist, peace activist, academic and Time Asian Hero.

50 Sydney Silverman Died at 73 (1895-1968) Samuel Sydney Silverman was a British Labour politician and vocal opponent of capital punishment.