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A Slave- Holder, Who Has Decided To Abolish Slavery, Does Not Consult His Slaves Whether They Desire Freedom Or Not.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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A Slave- Holder, Who

Mahatma Gandhi

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A Slave- Holder, Who Has Decided To Abolish Slavery, Does Not Consult His Slaves Whether They Desire Freedom Or Not.

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A Complete Fast Is A Complete And Literal Denial Of Self. It Is The Truest Prayer.

Forces Of Nature Act In A Mysterious Manner. We Can But Solve The Mystery By Deducing The Unknown Result From The Known Results Of Similar Events.

Khaddar Is An Attempt To Revise And Reverse The Process And Establish A Better Relationship Between The Cities And Villages.

Commonsense Is The Realised Sense Of Proportion.

I Was A Co-operator Too In The Sense That I Non-co-operated For Co-operation, And Even Then I Said That If I Could Carry The Country Forward By Co-operation I Should Co-operate.

It Is Better To Allow Our Lives To Speak For Us Than Our Words.

Peace Between Countries Must Rest On The Solid Foundation Of Love Between Individuals.

Ahimsa Is My God, And Truth Is My God.

World Has Things Which Full Fill Man Needs, But Not Greeds.

Live Each Day As If It Were Your Last. Learn As If You Would Live Forever.

In The Secret Of My Heart I Am In Perpetual Quarrel With God That He Should Allow Such Things [as The War] To Go On. My Non-violence Seems Almost Impotent. But The Answer Comes At The End Of The Daily Quarrel That Neither God Nor Non-violence Is Impotent. Impotence Is In Men. I Must Try On Without Losing Faith Even Though I May Break In The Attempt.

The Charkha Is The Symbol Of Sacrifice, And Sacrifice Is Essential For The Establishment Of The Image Of The Deity.

No Police Or Military In The World Can Protect People Who Are Cowards.

The Essence Of True Religious Teaching Is That One Should Serve And Befriend All.

I Have Naturally Formed The Habit Of Restraining My Thoughts. A Thoughtless Word Hardly Ever Escaped My Tongue Or Pen. Experience Has Taught Me That Silence Is Part Of The Spiritual Discipline Of A Votary Of Truth. We Find So Many People Impatient To Talk. All This Talking Can Hardly Be Said To Be Of Any Benefit To The World. It Is So Much Waste Of Time. 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.

Only He Can Take Great Resolves Who Has Indomitable Faith In God And Has Fear Of God.

Satyagraha As Conceived By Me Is A Science In The Making.

Freedom Is Never Dear At Any Price. It Is The Breath Of Life. What Would A Man Not Pay For Living?

A Personal Selfish Prayer Is Bad Whether Made Before An Image Or An Unseen God.

They May Torture My Body, Break My Bones, Even Kill Me. Then They Will Have My Dead Body, But Not My Obedience.

It Is Swaraj When We Learn To Rule Ourselves.

Self Assessment

Idolatry Is Permissible In Hinduism When It Sub Serves An Ideal.

History Has No Record Of A Nation Having Adopted Nonviolent Resistance.

Labour Has Its Unique Place In A Cultured Human Family.

The Weapon Of Nonviolence Does Not Need Supermen Or Superwomen To Wield It; Even Beings Of Common Clay Can Use It And Have Used It Before This With Success.

When The Ego Dies, The Soul Awakes.

What Is Truth? A Difficult Question; But I Have Solved It For Myself By Saying That It Is What The 'voice Within' Tells You.

Difficult Questions

Nobody In This World Possesses Absolute Truth.

Sacrifice That Causes Pain Is No Sacrifice At All. True Sacrifice Is Joy-giving And Uplifting.

Why Worry One's Head Over A Thing That Is Inevitable? Why Die Before One's Death?

In The Case Of The Indian Villager, An Age-old Culture Is Hidden Under Entrustment Of Crudeness.

There Are Two Days In The Year That We Can Not Do Anything, Yesterday And Tomorrow

I Have Found By Experience That Man Makes His Plans To Be Upset By God, But, At The Same Time, Where The Ultimate Goal Is The Search Of Truth, On Matter How A Man's Plans Are Frustrated The Issue Is Never Injurious And Often Better Than Anticipated.

No People Have Risen Who Thought Only Of Rights. Only Those Did So Who Thought Of Duties.

I Would Rather Drown Myself In The Waters Of The Sabarmati Than Harbour Hate Or Animosity In My Heart.

The Good Man Is The Friend Of All Living Things.

Morality Is The Basis Of Things And Truth Is The Substance Of All Morality.

Civil Disobedience Can Only Lead To Strength And Purity.

A Correct Diagnosis Is Three-fourths The Remedy.

Though We May Know Him By A Thousand Names, He Is One And The Same To Us All.

The Prince And The Peasant Will Not Be Equalized By Cutting Off The Prince's Head.

Unlike The Animal, God Has Given Man The Faculty Of Reason.

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.

Everything That We Do Is Insignificant...and...it Is Very Important That We Do It!

The Bhagavadgita Is A Gospel Of Non-co-operation Between The Forces Of Darkness And Those Of Light.

Prosecution Of The Constructive Programme Means Constructing The Structure Of Swaraj.

Reasoned And Willing Obedience To The Laws Of The State Is The First Lesson In Non-co-operation.

Education Is The Basic Tool For The Development Of Consciousness And The Reconstitution Of Society.

Unwearied Ceaseless Effort Is The Price That Must Be Paid For Turning Faith Into A Rich Infallible Experience.

The Rishis, Who Discovered The Law Of Nonviolence In The Midst Of Violence, Were Greater Geniuses Than Newton.

The Wise Are Unaffected Either By Death Or Life. These Are But Faces Of The Same Coin.

Nothing Is Of A Permanent Nature.

The Only Virtue I Want To Claim Is Truth And Nonviolence.

If We Remain Nonviolent, Hatred Will Die As Everything Does From Disuse.

We Want To Go In For Suffering, And There May Be Torture. If We Put The Women In Front The Government May Hesitate To Inflict On Us All The Penalty That They Might Otherwise Inflict.

Faith Is Not A Delicate Flower Which Would Wither Away Under The Slightest Stormy Weather.

I Cannot Be Subservient Anywhere.

If We Had The Atom Bomb, We Would Have Used It Against The British.

Unrestricted Individualism Is The Law Of The Beast Of The Jungle.

An Unjust Law Is Itself A Species Of Violence. Arrest For Its Breach Is More So.

The Incident Deepened My Feeling For The Indian Settlers. I Discussed With Them The Advisability Of Making A Test Case, If It Were Found Necessary To Do So, After Having Seen The British Agent In The Matter Of These Regulations.

Man Cannot Breathe With Borrowed Lungs.

I Abhor Vivisection With My Whole Soul. All The Scientific Discoveries Stained With Innocent Blood I Count As Of No Consequence.

My Swaraj Will Be Not Be A Result Of Murder Of Others But A Voluntary Act Of Continuous Self-sacrifice.

Like The Bee Gathering Honey From The Different Flowers, The Wise Person Accepts The Essence Of The Different Scriptures And Sees Only The Good In All Religions.

The Strength To Kill Is Not Essential For Self-defense; One Ought To Have The Strength To Die. When A Man Is Fully Ready To Die, He Will Not Even Desire To Offer Violence. Indeed, I May Put It Down As A Self-evident Proposition That The Desire To Kill Is In Inverse Proportion To The Desire To Die. And History Is Replete With Instances Of Men Who By Dying With Courage And Compassion On Their Lips Converted The Hearts Of Their Violent Opponents.

I Would Far Rather That Hinduism Died Than That Untouchability Lived.

Nonviolence Being The Mightiest Force In The World And Also The Most Elusive In Its Working, Demands The Greatest Exercise Of Faith.

My Effort Should Never Be To Undermine Another's Faith But To Make Him A Better Follower Of His Own Faith.

There Are Subjects Where Reason Cannot Take Us Far And We Have To Accept Things On Faith. Faith Then Does Not Contradict Reason But Transcends It. Faith Is A Kind Of Sixth Sense Which Works In Cases Which Are Without The Purview Of Reason.

This Belief In God Has To Be Based On Faith Which Transcends Reason.

Whether Humanity Will Consciously Follow The Law Of Love, I Do Not Know. But That Need Not Disturb Me. The Law Will Work Just As The Law Of Gravitation Works Whether We Accept It Or Not.

Law Of Attraction

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 Measure Of A Country's Greatness Should Be Based On How Well It Cares For Its Most Vulnerable Populations.

Every Reform Means Awakening. Once Truly Awakened, The Nation Will Not Be Satisfied With Reform Only In One Department Of Life.

If Anybody Said That I Should Die If I Did Not Take Beef-tea Or Mutton, Even Under Medical Advice, I Would Prefer Death.

I Am Not Anti-english, I Am Not Anti-british, I Am Not Anti-any Government, But I Am Anti-untruth, Anti-humbug And Anti-injustice.

The Law Which Governs All Life Is God.

Love Transcends All Animosity And Is Never Partial.

I Have So Much To Accomplish Today That I Must Meditate For Two Hours Instead Of One.

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.

When I See A Cow, It Is Not An Animal To Eat, It Is A Poem Of Pity For Me And I Worship It And I Shall Defend Its Worship Against The Whole World.

Experience Convinces Me That Permanent Good Can Never Be The Outcome Of Untruth & Violence. Even If My Belief Is A Fond Delusion, It Will Be Admitted That It Is A Fascinating Delusion.

Man In The Flesh Is Essentially Imperfect. He May Be Described As Being Made In The Image Of God But Is Far From Being God.

There Is No Distrust Of Men And Mankind In Me. They Will Answer Before God, So Why Should I Worry?

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.

Soul-force Comes Only Through God's Grace And Never Descends Upon A Man Who Is A Slave To Lust.

Religion Is Not What You Will Get After Reading All The Scriptures Of The World. It Is Not Really What Is Grasped By The Grain. It Is A Heart Grasp.

If We Would Be Pure, If We Would Save Hinduism, We Must Rid Ourselves Of This Poison Of Enforced Widowhood.

But The Fact That I Had Learnt To Be Tolerant To Other Religions Did Not Mean That I Had Any Living Faith In God.

Without Proper, Careful Organisation Of The Spinning Wheel And Khaddar, There Is Absolutely No Civil Disobedience.

Generosity Consists Not The Sum Given, But The Manner In Which It Is Bestowed

Social Service That Savours Of Patronage Is Not Service.

Satyagraha Is A Purely Spiritual Weapon.

My Notion Of Democracy Is That Under It The Weakest Shall Have The Same Opportunities As The Strongest... No Country In The World Today Shows Any But Patronizing Regard For The Weak... Western Democracy, As It Functions Today, Is Diluted Fascism... True Democracy Cannot Be Worked By Twenty Men Sitting At The Center. It Has To Be Worked From Below, By The People Of Every Village.

Nonviolence Does Not Require Any Outside Or Outward Training.

All Religions Are Branches Of The Same Mighty Tree, But I Must Not Change Over From One Branch To Another For The Sake Of Expediency.

The Future Of India Lies In Its Villages

Ahimsa Is The Highest Ideal. It Is Meant For The Brave, Never For The Cowardly.

In India There Is A Common Saying That The Way To Swaraj Is Through Mandalay.

In A Gentle Way, You Can Shake The World.

We Believe As Much In The Purity Of Race As We Think They Do... We Believe Also That The White Race Of South Africa Should Be The Predominating Race.

Nonviolence Requires More Courage Than The Soldier Of War.

I Believe In The Doctrine Of Non-violence As A Weapon Of The Weak. I Believe In The Doctrine Of Non-violence As A Weapon Of The Strongest. I Believe That A Man Is The Strongest Soldier For Daring To Die Unarmed.

My Fast Is A Matter Between God And Myself.

If That Is The Law Of Life We Must Work It Out In Daily Exisitance. Wherever There Are Wars, Wherever We Are Confronted With An Opponent, Conquer By Love. I Have Found That The Certain Law Of Love Has Answered In My Own Life As The Law Of Destruction Has Never Done.

My Own Opinion Is That Just As Fundamentally Man And Woman Are One, Their Problems Must Be One In Essence.

Civilizations Have Come And Gone And, In Spite Of Our Vaunted Progress, I Am Tempted To Ask Again And Again, 'to What Purpose?'

Without Devotion, Action And Knowledge Are Cold And Dry And Many Even Become Shackles.

The Gita Distinguishes Between The Powers Of Light And Darkness And Demonstrates Their Incompatibility.

What We Can Do, We Will Try To Do.

I Do Believe That Where There Is A Choice Between Cowardice And Non-violence I Would Advise Violence. Thus When My Eldest Son Asked Me What He Should Have Done, Had He Been Present When I Was Almost Fatally Assaulted In 1908, Whether He Should Have Run Away And Seen Me Killed Or Whether He Should Have Used His Physical Force Which He Could And Wanted To Use, And Defended Me, I Told Him That It Was His Duty To Defend Me Even By Using Violence.

True Religion Being The Greatest Thing In Life And In The World, Has Been Exploited The Most.

Learn As If You Will Live Forever.

It Is Derogatory To The Dignity Of Mankind, It Is Derogatory To The Dignity Of India, To Entertain For One Single Moment Hatred Towards Englishmen.

Each And Every One Of You Should Consider Himself To Be A Trustee For The Welfare Of The Rest Of His Fellow Labourers And Not Be Self-seeking.

In Nature There Is A Fundamental Unity Running Through All The Diversity We See About Us. Religions Are Given To Mankind So As To Accelerate The Process Of Realisation Of Fundamental Unity.

Spiritual Force Is Like Any Other Force At The Service Of Man.

Islam Stands For The Unity And Brotherhood Of Mankind, And Not For Disrupting The Oneness Of The Human Family.

Lovers Of Swaraj Cannot Rest Till A Solution Is Found Which Would Allay Mussalman Apprehensions And Yet Not Endanger Swaraj.

Mere Mental, That Is, Intellectual Labour, Is For The Soul And Has Its Own Satisfaction.

India Must Learn To Live Before She Can Aspire To Die For Humanity.

There Is No Hope For The Aching World Except Through The Narrow And Straight Path Of Nonviolence.

Man Is Born Of Woman, He Is Flesh Of Her Flesh And Bone Of Her Bone.

My Religion And My Patriotism Derived From My Religion, Embrace All Life.

The Law Of Love, Call It Attraction, Affinity, Cohesion If You Like, Governs The World.

A Small Group Of Determined And Like-minded People Can Change The Course Of History.

An Awakened People Who Rely Upon Their Nonviolent Strength Are Independent In The Face Of Any Conceivable Combination Of The Armed Powers.

It Is The Best Thing To Blame Ourselves When People Cannot Get On Well With Us. Boundless Charity Necessarily Includes All Or It Ceases To Be Boundless. We Must Be Strict With Ourselves And Lenient With Our Neighbors. For We Know Not Their Difficulties And What They Overcome.

India As A Nation Can Live And Die Only For The Spinning Wheel.

Hate The Sin And Not The Sinner' Is A Precept Which, Though Easy Enough To Understand, Is Rarely Practiced, And That Is Why The Poison Of Hatred Spreads In The World.

The Real Love Is To Love Them That Hate You, To Love Your Neighbor Even Though You Distrust Him.

Mankind Has To Get Out Of Violence Only Through Non-violence.

"do Not Worry In The Least About Yourself, Leave All Worry To God" This Appears To Be The Commandment In All Religions.

Let Not The Spirit Wander While The Words Of Prayer Run On Out Of Our Mouth.

God Can Never Be Realized By One Who Is Not Pure Of Heart.

There Are Many Causes I Would Die For. There Is Not A Single Cause I Would Kill For.

God Answers Prayer In His Own Way, Not Ours.

One Who Hooks His Fortune To Ahimsa, The Law Of Love, Daily Lessens The Circle Of Destruction And To That Extent Promotes Life And Love.

But Success And Failure Are Of No Account. They Are God's Concern, Not Mine.

To A Hungry Man, A Piece Of Bread Is The Face Of God.

I Believe In The Essential Unity Of All That Lives. Therefore, I Believe That If One Person Gains Spiritually, The Whole World Gains, And That If One Person Falls, The Whole World Falls To That Extent.

The Weak Can Never Forgive. Forgiveness Is The Attribute Of The Strong.

Love And Exclusive Possession Can Never Go Together.

Purity Of Life Is The Highest And Truest Art.

I Have Called Spinning The Yajna Of This Age Of India.

The Sum Of All That Lives Is God.

Truth Alone Will Endure, All The Rest Will Be Swept Away Before The Tide Of Time.

The Science Of Nonviolence Can Alone Lead One To Pure Democracy.

Man Has The Supreme Knack Of Deceiving Himself; The Englishman Is Supremest Among Men.

My Nationalism, Fierce Though It Is, Is Not Exclusive, Is Not Devised To Harm Any Nation Or Individual.

Hindu Dharma Is Like A Boundless Ocean Teeming With Priceless Gems. The Deeper You Dive The More Treasures You Find.

Satyagraha Is A Law For Universal Application. Beginning With The Family, Its Use Can Be Extended To Every Other Circle.

Indeed, One Perfect Resister Is Enough To Win The Battle Of Right Against Wrong.

Non-co-operation Intended To Pave The Way To Real Honourable And Voluntary Co-operation Based On Mutual Respect And Trust.

A Religion That Takes No Account Of Practical Affairs And Does Not Help To Solve Them Is No Religion.

Independence Of My Conception Means Nothing Less Than The Realization Of The "kingdom Of God" Within You And On This Earth.

My Quarrel With The Advocates Of Contraceptives Lies In Their Taking For Granted That Ordinary Mortals Cannot Exercise Self-control.

Nonviolence Cannot Be Learnt By Staying At Home.

The Present War Is The Saturation Point In Violence. It Spells, To My Mind, Also Its Doom.

If We All Discharge Our Duties, Rights Will Not Be Far To Seek. If Leaving Duties Unperformed We Run After Rights, They Will Escape Us Like A Will-o'-the-wisp.

If There Was Any Teacher In The World Who Insisted Upon The Inexorable Law Of Cause And Effect, It Was Gautam, And Yet My Friends, The Buddhists Outside India, Would, If They Could, Avoid The Effects Of Their Own Acts.

A Government Builds Its Prestige Upon The Apparently Voluntary Association Of The Governed.

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.

We May Have Our Private Opinions But Why Should They Be A Bar To The Meeting Of Hearts?

The Charkha Is Intended To Realize The Essential And Living Oneness Of Interest Among India's Myriads.

The Beauty Of Poetry Is That The Creation Transcends The Poet.

Duly Enlightened Gandhi's Head By Mall Of The 'free Press Journal,' Bombay, In 1932watches May Disagree, But Let Us Not.

I Must Not Refrain From Saying That India Can Gain More By Waiving The Right Of Punishment.

If A Man Were So Placed Or Could So Place Himself As To Be Absolutely Above All Dependence On His Fellow-beings He Would Become So Proud And Arrogant As To Be A Veritable Burden And Nuisance To The World.

The Way Of Peace Is The Way Of Truth. Truthfulness Is Even More Important Than Peacefulness.

I Refuse To Buy From Anybody Anything However Nice Or Beautiful If It Interferes With My Growth Or Injures Those Whom Nature Has Made My First Care.

I Have Recognized That The Nation Has The Right, If It So Wills, To Vindicate Her Freedom Even By Actual Violence.

A Language Is An Exact Reflection Of The Character And Growth Of Its Speakers.

Everyone Holds A Piece Of The Truth.

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.

I Believe In The Fundamental Truth Of All Great Religions Of The World. I Believe That They Are All God- Given And I Believe That They Were Necessary For The People To Whom These Religions Were Revealed. And I Believe That If Only We Could All Of Us Read The Scriptures Of The Different Faiths From The Standpoints Of The Followers Of These Faiths, We Should Find That They Were At Bottom All One And Were All Helpful To One Another.

The Strength To Kill Is Not Essential For Self-defence; One Ought To Have The Strength To Die.

We Cannot Be Speakers Who Do Not Listen. But Neither Can We Be Listeners Who Do Not Speak.

That I Want To Destroy British Imperialism Is Another Matter, But I Want To Do So By Converting Those Who Are Associated With It.

To See Farther, You Must Climb Higher.

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.

If We Are Nonviolent Through And Through, Our Nonviolence Would Have Been Self-evident.

A Man Cannot Serve God And Mammon, Nor Be "temperate And Furious" At The Same Time.

The Greatness Of A Person Lies In His Heart, Not In His Head; That Is Intellect.

He Who Is Ever Brooding Over Result Often Loses Nerve In The Performance Of His Duty.

It Is Health That Is Real Wealth And Not Pieces Of Gold And Silver.

It Is Nonviolent Non-co-operation Which Evokes The Highest Spirit Of Self-sacrifice That Will Wean One From The Error Of One's Ways.

The Real Seat Of Taste Was Not The Tongue But The Mind

Apparently, I've Acted Like A Terrorist. But I'm Not A Terrorist.

Every Person In A Well-ordered State Is Fully Conscious Of Both His Responsibilities And His Rights.

Human Language Can But Imperfectly Describe God's Ways.

Nonviolence Is The Virtue Of The Manly. The Coward Is Innocent Of It.

Ahimsa Can Be Practiced Only Towards Those That Are Inferior To You In Every Way.

I Look Only To The Good Qualities Of Men. Not Being Faultless Myself, I Won't Presume To Probe Into The Faults Of Others.

True Knowledge Gives A Moral Standing And Moral Strength.

Let Us Fear God And We Shall Cease To Fear Man.

Prayer Can Come In Only When Fasting Has Done Its Work. It Can Make Fasting Easy And Bearable.

I Believe That It Is Impossible To End Hatred With Hatred.

The Lower Animals Are Our Brethren. I Include Among Them The Lion And The Tiger. We Do Not Know How To Live With These Carnivorous Beasts And Poisonous Reptiles Because Of Our Ignorance.

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