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Firing off 1,000 or 500 or 2,000 nuclear warheads on a few minutes' consideration has always struck me as an absurd way to go to war.

Nuclear accidents anywhere can affect people everywhere.

The crucial thing is to arouse the awareness that as a matter of human conscience we can never permit the people of any country to fall victim to nuclear weapons, and for each individual to express their refusal to continue living in the shadow of the threat they pose.

Hopefully, nations will refuse to accept a situation in which nuclear accidents actually do occur, and, if at all possible, they will do something to correct a system which makes them likely.

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

For while the threat of nuclear holocaust has been significantly reduced, the world remains a very unsettled and dangerous place.

Some think the worst horrors of war might be avoided by an international agreement not to use atomic bombs. This is a vain hope.

I have to bring to your notice a terrifying reality: with the development of nuclear weapons Man has acquired, for the first time in history, the technical means to destroy the whole of civilization in a single act.

Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.

Responsible statesmen have only one choice - to do everything possible to prevent a nuclear catastrophe. Any other position is short-sighted; more so, it is suicidal.