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Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) is one of the most important personalities ever lived on this planet and one of the very few incorruptible politicians. Gandhi was killed but his achievements and his quotes will never stop inspiring us. If all politicians were like him our world would be so much better. “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.” 
“Where there is love there is life.” “Where love is, there God is also.” “There is force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.” “Love is the strongest force the world possesses and yet it is the humblest imaginable.” “True love is boundless like the ocean and, swelling within one, spreads itself out and, crossing all boundaries and frontiers, envelops the whole world.” “You yourself as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve love and affection.” “Hatred can be overcome only by love. ” “The law of love could be best understood and learned through little children.” “In doing something, do it with love or never do it at all.” “Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents never revenges itself.” “Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.” “Hatred ever kills, love never dies. Such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred.” “To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that one that must be loved is not a friend. There is not merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend. ” “My love simply greater than you always. Your each breath cuts me.” “Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.” “What barrier is there that love cannot break?”
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” “To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.” “Ethically they had arrived at the conclusion that man’s supremacy over lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower, and that there should be mutual aid between the two as between man and man. They had also brought out the truth that man eats not for enjoyment but to live.” “The good man is the friend of all living things.” “My Life is My Message” “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.” “They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me. Then they will have my dead body, but not my obedience.” “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” “I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings.” “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” “Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day: – I shall not fear anyone on Earth. – I shall fear only God. – I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. – I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. – I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.” “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” “Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong.” “Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral.” “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” “A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.” “There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever. ” “The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.” “The future depends on what you do today.” “Seek not greater wealth, but simpler pleasure; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity.” “Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.” “The path is the goal.” “Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.” “Nothing is so aggravating as calmness.” “Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.” “Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.” “Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” “The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful then a thousand heads bowing in prayer.” “To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.” “In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” “I came to the conclusion long ago that all religions were true and that also that all had some error in them, and while I hold by my own religion, I should hold other religions as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we were Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu; but our innermost prayer should be that a Hindu should become a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, and a Christian a better Christian.” “When every hope is gone, ‘when helpers fail and comforts flee,’ I find that help arrives somehow, from I know not where. Supplication, worship, prayer are no superstition; they are acts more real than the acts of eating, drinking, sitting or walking. It is no exaggeration to say that they alone are real, all else is unreal.” “The inner voice is something which cannot be described in words. But sometimes we have a positive feeling that something in us prompts us to do a certain thing. The time when I learnt to recognise this voice was, I may say, the time when I started praying regularly.” “Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.” “All your scholarship would be in vain if at the same time you do not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions.” “There is no such thing as ‘too insane’ unless others turn up dead due to your actions.” “God has no religion.” “If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further.” “God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us.” “There’s no God higher than truth.” “In fact, it is more correct to say that Truth is God, than to say that God is Truth.” “Do not worry in the least about yourself, leave all worry to God,’ – this appears to be the commandment in all religions. “And he who would be friends with God must remain alone, or make the whole world his friend” “But the fact that I had learnt to be tolerant to other religions did not mean that I had any living faith in God.” “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.” “My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet.” “A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness.” “Before God the work of man will be judged by the spirit in which it is done, not by the nature of the work which makes no difference whatsoever.” “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” “Human language can but imperfectly describe God’s ways. I am sensible of the fact that they are indescribable and inscrutable. But if mortal man will dare to describe them, he has no better medium than his own inarticulate speech.” “Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution. That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with a view to hurt.” “There are innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are innumerable.” “I felt that God could be realized only through service. And service for me was the service of India, because it came to me without my seeking, because I had an aptitude for it.” “If I were asked to define the Hindu creed, I should simply say: Search after truth through non-violent means. A man may not believe in God and still call himself a Hindu. Hinduism is a relentless pursuit after truth… Hinduism is the religion of truth. Truth is God. Denial of God we have known. Denial of truth we have not known.” “I become more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of Hussein, the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers and his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle.” “Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals.” “There is no way to peace, peace is the only way” “If we are to reach real peace in the world, we shall have to begin with the children.” “An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.” “You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilisation to pieces, turn the world upside down and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature.” “Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so degrading, so shocking or so brutal as his abuse of the better half of humanity; the female sex.” “It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts.” “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” “To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?” “I claim to be no more than the average person with less than average ability. I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.” “But you can wake a man only if he is really asleep. No effort that you make will produce any effect upon him if he is merely pretending sleep.” “A man of character will make himself worthy of any position he is given.” “Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.” “Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen, and ask yourself if this step you contemplate is going to be any use to him.” “One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole” “Cowardice is impotence worse than violence. The coward desires revenge but being afraid to die, he looks to others, maybe to the government of the day, to do the work of defense for him. A coward is less than a man. He does not deserve to be a member of a society of men and women.” “Men often become what they believe themselves to be.If I believe I cannot do something,it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can , then I acquire the ability to do it even If I didn’t have it in the beginning”. “It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.” “The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity.” “It is simple impertinence for any man, or any body of men, to begin, or to contemplate, reform of the whole world.” “There are only two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.” “For a bowl of water give a goodly meal; For a kindly greeting bow thou down with zeal; For a simple penny pay thou back with gold; If thy life be rescued, life do not withhold. Thus the words and actions of the wise regard; Every little service tenfold they reward. But the truly noble know all men as one, And return with gladness good for evil done.” “It is easier to build a boy than to mend a man.” “The only difference between man and man all the world over is one of degree, and not of kind, even as there is between trees of the same species. “No one can ride on the back of a man unless it is bent.” “To believe that what has not occurred in history will not occur at all, is to argue disbelief in the dignity of man.” “A man, whilst he is dreaming, believes in his dream; he is undeceived only when he is awakened from his slumber.” “It is man’s social nature which distinguishes him from the brute creation. If it is his privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be inter-dependent. Only an arrogant man will claim to be independent of everybody else and be self-contained.” “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” “It is also a warning. It is a warning that, if nobody reads the writing on the wall, man will be reduced to the state of the beast, whom he is shaming by his manners.” “A man who is truthful and does not mean ill even to his adversary will be slow to believe charges even against his foes. He will, however, try to understand the viewpoints of his opponents and will always keep an open mind and seek every opportunity of serving his opponents.” “Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” “A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.” “Just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may be.” “All have not the same capacity. I would allow a man of intellect to earn more, I would not cramp his talent.” “…service can have no meaning unless one takes pleasure in it. When it is done for show or for fear of public opinion, it stunts the man and crushes his spirit. Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served.” “ordinary man can try million times..but only a ambitions man try diffrent in million ways…create new ways to solve existing problems.” “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.” “The useful and the useless must, like good and evil generally, go on together, and man must make his choice.” “A man of truth must also be a man of care.” “He who runs to the doctor, vaidya, or hakim for every little ailment, and swallows all kinds of vegetable and mineral drugs, not only curtails his life, but by becoming the slave of his body instead of remaining its master, loses self-control, and ceases to be a man.” “A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” “Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.” “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs… Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home” “The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.” “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.” “Intellect takes us along in the battle of life to a certain limit, but at the crucial moment it fails us. Faith transcends reason. It is when the horizon is the darkest and human reason is beaten down to the ground that faith shines brightest and comes to our rescue.” “I do not believe in the doctrine of the greatest good of the greatest number. The only real, dignified, human doctrine is the greatest good of all.” “All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul.” “Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. ” “We should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.” “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?” “Truth never damages a cause that is just.” “I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world.” “Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.” “The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then, and not till then, will he have a glimpse of truth.” “I am but a poor struggling soul yearning to be wholly good, wholly truthful and wholly non-violent in thought, word and deed, but ever failing to reach the ideal which I know to be true. It is a painful climb, but each step upwards makes me feel stronger and fit for the next. ” “The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall always see Truth in fragment and from different points of vision.” “Everyone holds a piece of the truth.” “I may be a despicable person, but when Truth speaks through me I am invincible.” “Even if you are a minority of one, the Truth is the Truth.” “In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. ” “An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does the truth become error because nobody will see it.” “But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.” “Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.” “Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.” “Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence” “Truth is like a vast tree which yields more and more fruit the more you nurture it. ” The deeper the search in the mind of truth, the richer the discovery of the gems buried there.” “Government control gives rise to fraud, suppression of Truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help…” “Truth should be the very breath of our life. When once this state in the pilgrim’s progress is reached, all other rules of correct living will come without any effort, and obedience to them will be instinctive.” “Truth is transcendent. There are many expressions of it and ways to glimpse it. We cannot hold it in our clenched fist, but must hold it in our open palm and invite others to see it for themselves.” “Truth is like a vast tree, which yields more and more fruit, the more you nurture it” “My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth.” “The devotee of truth is often obliged to grope in the dark.” “I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.” “Yet even differences prove helpful, where there are tolerance, charity and Truth.” “An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self sustained.” “I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.” “Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.” “It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.” “We are constantly being astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence.” “Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.” “It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to be friend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.” “Strength of numbers is the delight of the timid. The Valiant in spirit glory in fighting alone.” “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” “Action expresses priorities.” “The first principal of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.” “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” “I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.” “Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat for it is momentary.” “An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.” “Violence begins with the fork.” “I came in contact with every known Indian anarchist in London. Their bravery impressed me, but I felt that their zeal was misguided. I felt that violence was no remedy for India’s ills, and that her civilisation required the use of a different and higher weapon for self-protection.” “Intolerance is a species of violence and therefore against our creed.” “Where choice is set between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence … I prefer to use arms in defense of honor rather than remain the vile witness of dishonor…” “You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.” “The expert knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing.” “Nothing has saddened me so much in life as the hardness of heart of educated people.” “There would be nothing to frighten you if you refused to be afraid.” “Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.” “What lies ahead of you & what lies behind you is nothing compared to what lies within you.” “Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.” “Nothing once begun should be abandoned, unless it is proved to be morally wrong.” “They cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them.” “Do not crave to know the views of others, nor base your intent thereon. To think independently for your self is a sign of fearlessness.” “I have but shadowed forth my intense longing to lose myself in the Eternal and become merely a lump of clay in the Potter’s divine hands so that my service may become more certain because uninterrupted by the baser self in me.” “Purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to the purification of one’s surroundings.” “Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.” “Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.” “My effort should never be to undermine another’s faith but to make him a better follower of his own faith.” “If we have lost faith in our vernaculars, it is a sign of want of faith in ourselves; it is the surest sign of decay. And no scheme of self-government, however benevolently or generously it may be bestowed upon us, will ever make us a self-governing nation, if we have no respect for the languages our mothers speak.” “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.” “I call him religious who understands the suffering of others.” “With my meagre knowledge of my own religion I do not want to belong to any religious body”. “Every home is a university and the parents are the teachers.” “Only this much I knew – that under ideal conditions, true education could be imparted only by the parents, and that then there should be the minimum of outside help.” “There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.” “The earth provides enough to satisfy every person’s need, but not every person’s greed.” “To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” “We measure the universe by our own miserable foot-rule. When we are slaves, we think that the whole universe is enslaved. Because we are in an abject condition, we think that the whole of India is in that condition. As a matter of fact, it is not so, yet it is as well to impute our slavery to the whole of India. But if we bear in mind the above fact, we can see that if we become free, India is free. And in this thought you have a definition of Swaraj. It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves.” “Manliness consists not in bluff, bravado or loneliness. It consists in daring to do the right thing and facing consequences whether it is in matters social, political or other. It consists in deeds not words.” “The only tyrant I accept in this world is the ‘still small voice’ within me. And even though I have to face the prospect of being a minority of one, I humbly believe I have the courage to be in such a hopeless minority.” “True beauty lies in purity of the heart.” “There are no good-byes, where ever you’ll be, you’ll be in my heart.” “It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say.” “If you want something really important to be done you must not merely satisfy the reason, you must move the heart also.” “I look upon an increase in the power of the State with the greatest fear because, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality which lies at the heart of all progress.” “Forgive and forget, but never forget to forgive. You may find a happier heart is the key to a happier life.” “If I was to be their real teacher and guardian, I must touch their hearts, I must share their joys and sorrows, I must help them to solve the problems that faced them, and I must take along the right channel the surging aspirations of their youth.” “When the fear of jail disappears, repression puts heart into the people.” “What does it matter to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?” “Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood.” “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” “There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.” “I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.” “Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.” “I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.” “A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.” “There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for.” “I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.” “Speak only if it improves upon the silence.” “Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.” “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” “Live simply so that others may simply live.” “A thousand candles can be lighted from the flame of one candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness can be spread without diminishing that of yourself.” “Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.” “The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.” “I believe in trusting. Trust begets trust. Suspicion is foetid and only stinks. He who trusts has never yet lost in the world.” “A true Brahmachari will not even dream of satisfying the fleshly appetite”. “I should love to satisfy all, if I possibly can; but in trying to satisfy all, I may be able to satisfy none. I have, therefore, arrived at the conclusion that the best course is to satisfy one’s own conscience and leave the world to form its own judgment, favorable or otherwise.” Conscientious objectors to vaccination should stand alone, if need be, against the whole world, in defense of their conviction.” “If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” “Champions are made from something they have deep inside of them-a desire, a dream, a vision.” “Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.” “I learned from Hussain how to be wronged and be a winner, I learnt from Hussain how to attain victory while being oppressed.” “Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself” “I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world.” “Even the most despotic government cannot stand except for the consent of the governed… “It dawned upon me that fasting could be made as powerful a weapon of indulgence as of restraint” “As the elephant is powerless to think in the terms of the ant, in spite of the best intentions in the world, even so is the Englishman powerless to think in the terms of, or legislate for, the Indian.” “I can retain neither respect nor affection for government which has been moving from wrong to wrong in order to defend its immorality” “True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding the true path for ourselves, and fearlessly following it.” “Morality is a contraband in war.” “Vaccination is a barbarous practice and one of the most fatal of all the delusions current in our time. “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.” “Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong, but of the weak.” “Doubt is invariably the result of want or weakness of faith.” “Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use.” “Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or another. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and it will make not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at large.” “There goes my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.” “But so long as I lived under a system of Government based on force and voluntarily partook of the many facilities and privileges it created for me, I was bound to help that Government to the extent of my ability when it was engaged in a war, unless I non-co-operated with the Government and renounced to the utmost of my capacity the privileges it offered me.” “One of the objects of a newspaper is to understand popular feeling and to give expression to it; another is to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; and the third is fearlessly to expose popular defects.” “If you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly.” “In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.” “Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state.” “The more efficient a force is, the more silent and the more subtle it is.” “Where there is fear there is no religion.” “My politics is my religion, my religion is my politics.” “Those who believe religion and politics aren’t connected don’t understand either.” “Religion which takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.” “There are as many different religions as there are individuals.” “A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.” “A convert’s enthusiasm for his new religion is greater than that of a person who is born in it.” “Behaviour is the mirror in which we can display our image.” “Distinguish between real needs and artificial wants and control the latter.” “Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act which deprived a whole nation of arms as the blackest.” “You can’t lead a true life without suffering” “It seems to me as clear as daylight that abortion would be a crime.” “Sacrifice is joy.” “Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.” “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.” “I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the culture of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any” “I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.” “When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.” “As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.” “I appeal for cessation of hostilities, not because you are too exhausted to fight, but because war is bad in essence. You want to kill Nazism. You will never kill it by its indifferent adoption.” “There are many causes that I am prepared to die for, but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.” “One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.” “Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding.” “I crave to die with my hand at the spinning wheel.” “Sympathy is what you have for someone after they die, pity you have for someone when they don’t have a date to the biggest dance of the year. Empathy is what I do to you when you judge me. Envy is having pity on yourself. Can you discern the rest for yourself?” “Stoning prophets and erecting churches to their memory afterwards has been the way of the world through the ages. Today we worship Christ, but the Christ in the flesh we crucified.” “If it had not been for the Christians that I have known I might have been a Christian.” “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” “Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress.” “We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.” “We should be able to refuse to live if the price of living be the torture of sentient beings.” “It does not require money, to live neat, clean and dignified.” “If we are to make progress, we must not repeat history but make new history. We must add to inheritance left by our ancestors.” “Civilization is the encouragement of differences.” “All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.” “We must be ever courteous and patient with those who do not see eye to eye with us. We must resolutely refuse to consider our opponents as enemies.” “Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.” “Service without humility is selfishness and egotism.” “Selfishness is blind.” “Good travels at a snail’s pace. Those who want to do good are not selfish, they are not in a hurry, they know that to impregnate people with good requires a long time.” “That we should obey laws whether good or bad is a new-fangled notion. There was no such thing in former days. The people disregarded those laws they did not like and suffered the penalties for their breach.” “Solitude is a catalyst for innovation” “We don’t use guns because we don’t have guns” “I believe that just as everyone inherits a particular form so does he inherit the particular characteristics and qualities of his progenitors, and to make this admission is to conserve one’s energy.” “I have not conceived my mission to be that of a knight-errant wandering everywhere to deliver people from difficult situations. My humble occupation has been to show people how they can solve their own difficulties.” “To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect and their oneness, and should insist upon choosing as their representatives only such persons as are good and true.” “No matter how explicit the pledge, people will turn and twist the text to suit their own purpose” “I might be ready to embrace a snake, but, if one comes to bite you, I should kill it and protect you.” “Politics envelops us like the coils of a snake and no way out but to wrestle with it” “That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.” “We stand on the threshold of a twilight-whether morning or evening we do not know. One is followed by the night, the other heralds the dawn.” “The truest test of a democracy is in the ability of anyone to act as he likes, so long as he does not injure the life or property of anyone else. “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs. As it is, they succumbed anyway in their millions.” “No reform is possible unless some of the educated and the rich voluntarily accept the status of the poor, travel third, refuse to enjoy the amenities denied to the poor, and instead of taking avoidable hardships, discourtesies, and injustice as a matter of course, fight for their removal.” “It was not easy to commit suicide as to contemplate it.” “The real seat of taste was not the tongue but the mind” “Homeopathy cures a larger percentage of cases than any other form of treatment and is beyond doubt safer and more economical.” “I have always felt that the true text-book for the pupil is his teacher” “The more I reflect and look back on the past, the more vividly do I feel my limitations.” “Let every youth take a leaf out of my book and make it a point to account for everything that comes into and goes out of his pocket, and like me he is sure to be a gainer in the end.” “Disease increases in proportion to the increase in the number of doctors in a place.” “The story of the creation and similar things in it did not impress me very much, but on the contrary made me incline somewhat towards atheism.” “I am definitely of opinion that a public worker should accept no costly gifts.” “As a rule I had a distaste for any reading beyond my school books.” “No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.” “You don’t know who is important to you until you actually lose them.” “Whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it’s very important that you do it. Because nobody else will.” “The various religions are like different roads converging on the same point. What difference does it make if we follow different routes, provided we arrive at the same destination?” “Don’t talk about it. The rose doesn’t have to propagate its perfume. It just gives it forth, and people are drawn to it. Live it, and people will come to see the source of your power.” “It’s easy to stand in the crowd but it takes courage to stand alone” “Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph: a beginning, a struggle, and a victory.” “Nobody can hurt me without my permission.” “There’s more to life than increasing its speed” “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” “In a gentle way you can shake the world.” “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” “If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.” “To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.” “There are two days in the year that we can’t do anything, yesterday and tomorrow”
Filed under: Quotes