Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.

Quiet is not the same as peace. A household or a country can be free of open conflict while everything underneath stays unresolved, held down by fear or exhaustion rather than by anything anyone chose. Real peace is active, made of restraint, honesty and a willingness to stay inside difficulty without escalating, which is why it takes a strength of its own.

Look at a relationship where nothing is being said. Ask whether that silence is settled or only suppressed. Then do the harder thing: raise it calmly, with no weapon in the sentence, and stay in the room for the answer.