But only art and music have the power to bring peace.

Hear the voice of Yoko Ono, artist, dreamer, and messenger of hope, who declared: “But only art and music have the power to bring peace.” In these words lies a truth ancient as the first song ever sung and the first image ever painted upon the cave wall. For politics may draft treaties, and swords may enforce silence, but only the deep language of beauty can reach the hidden chambers of the human soul. Laws bind the body, but art and music bind the heart. And where the heart is bound in harmony, there peace is born.

The ancients knew this well. Long before empires, men gathered around fires, beating drums, lifting voices, and carving images into stone. These acts were not done for survival alone but for communion—for the weaving together of spirit and community. Wars were fought with iron, yet unity was forged with song. Thus Ono reminds us: it is not by domination, but by harmony, that true peace is sustained.

Consider the story of Beethoven. He lived in a Europe torn by revolution and war, empires rising and falling, kings clashing with the will of the people. Yet in the midst of such chaos, he wrote his Ninth Symphony, with its immortal Ode to Joy. When the world around him was filled with division, he poured into sound a vision of human brotherhood, voices rising together to proclaim unity. Long after cannons grew silent and rulers were forgotten, his music endured, carrying the dream of peace across generations. Even today, the Ode to Joy stands as an anthem for nations seeking unity, proof that melody often outlives the sword.

Ono’s words also carry the echo of her own time. Together with John Lennon, she raised the banner of art and music against the Vietnam War. Through songs like Imagine, they challenged the world to dream of a life beyond borders, beyond conflict, beyond greed. It was not speeches alone nor protests alone that touched millions, but the poetry of song, the vision of art, the language that crossed nations without translation. Their message showed that the heart can be moved more by a single lyric than by a thousand arguments.

Yet some may say, “Are not treaties and armies the true bringers of peace?” To this the sages would answer: such peace is but the stillness of exhaustion, the quiet of fear. It does not last, for it is built on force. True peace must be cultivated within, and only art and music have the power to soften hearts, to open eyes, to heal wounds that reason and might cannot touch. For when people sing together, when they are moved to tears by a painting, when they stand in awe before beauty, they cannot easily raise their hands to harm.

The lesson is plain: if you wish to be a builder of peace, do not neglect the brush, the pen, the instrument, or the voice. These are weapons not of war, but of healing. Each song sung in kindness, each work of art born of love, each creative act that reminds humanity of its shared soul is a stone laid in the foundation of a peaceful world. Art and music reach where swords cannot, shaping not laws but hearts.

So, children of tomorrow, carry this teaching with you. Create, and let your creations be offerings of harmony. Sing, and let your songs be prayers for unity. Listen, and let yourself be moved until compassion overflows. For as Ono said, only art and music have the power to bring peace. When politics fail and wars rage, it is beauty that whispers across the ages: we are one, and we are meant to live together in harmony.