Peace is never long preserved by weight of metal or by an armament race.

Presenting his proposal for international control of atomic energy, Baruch argues that nations need guarantees of safety before giving up weapons. He then sets out the passage on peace, agreement and sanctions, before distinguishing the ethical problem from the technical achievement of atomic science. The speech proceeds to specific powers of an international authority.

An arms race cannot secure a lasting peace. Cooperation needs both mutual agreement and enforceable consequences for breaking it.

The first sentence alone can sound like a rejection of all enforcement or a promise that goodwill is enough. The next sentence explicitly calls for sanctions, and the speech proposes inspections, controls and penalties.

Power, Society, Politics, War

• We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics.
• We are here to make a choice between the quick and the dead.
• We must elect World Peace or World Destruction.
• Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth. (paraphrase) Aristotle
• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King Jr.

• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bernard_Baruch

Bernard Baruch, Address to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (the Baruch Plan) (1946), Address to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, 14 June 1946; paragraph after “Let this be anchored in our minds” and before the discussion of ethics and physics. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/peace-is-never-long-preserved-by-weight-of-metal/ (27 October 2026).

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