Background Image

...

A Votary Of Ahimsa Cannot Subscribe To The Utilitarian Formula (of The Greatest Good Of The Greatest Number). He Will Strive For The Greatest Good Of All And Die In The Attempt To Realize That Ideal.

-Mahatma Gandhi

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

A Votary Of Ahimsa

Mahatma Gandhi

...

A Votary Of Ahimsa Cannot Subscribe To The Utilitarian Formula (of The Greatest Good Of The Greatest Number). He Will Strive For The Greatest Good Of All And Die In The Attempt To Realize That Ideal.

Views: 9

Topic

More From Mahatma Gandhi

Jail-going Is Only The Beginning, Not The End Of Satyagraha. The Acme Of Satyagraha For Us Would Be To Lay Down Our Lives For The Defence Of India's Just Cause.

I Crave To Die With My Hand At The Spinning Wheel.

Ahimsa Is The Attribute Of The Soul, And Therefore, To Be Practiced By Everybody In All Affairs Of Life. If It Cannot Be Practiced In All Departments, It Has No Practical Value.

Democracy Is An Impossible Thing Until The Power Is Shared By All, But Let Not Democracy Degenerate Into Mobocracy.

Impossible Things

Without Satyagraha Carried Out In The Proper Spirit, There Is No Victory, No Swaraj.

Education Should Be So Revolutionized As To Answer The Wants Of The Poorest Villager, Instead Of Answering Those Of An Imperial Exploiter.

Nonviolence Of The Strong Is Infinitely Braver Than Their Violence.

My Religion Teaches Me That A Promise Once Made Or A Vow Once Taken For A Worthy Object May Not Be Broken.

Is It Not Possible For Us All To Realize That The Masses Will Never Mount To Freedom Through Murder?

Imitation Is The Sincerest Flattery.

The Thing About You Christians, Is That You Are So Unlike Your Christ.

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.

Man Should Earnestly Desire The Well - Being Of All God's Creations And Pray That We May Have The Strength To Do So.

It Only Confirms Me In My Belief That There Is No Swaraj Without A Settlement With The Mussalmans.

The Gita Is Not For Those Who Have No Faith.

The Path Of Truth Is As Narrow As It Is Straight. Even So Is That Of Ahimsa.

I Would Rather Have India Reduced To A State Of Pauperism Than Have Thousands Of Drunkards In Our Midst.

Non-co-operation In Itself Is Unnatural, Vicious And Sinful.

It Is Claimed For Satyagraha That It Is A Complete Substitute For Violence Or War.

A Nonviolent Man Cannot Desire Embarrassment.

Every Calamity Should Lead To A Thorough Cleansing Of Individual As Well As Social Life.

To Prevent The Workers From Going To Their Work By Standing In Front Of Them Is Pure Violence And Must Be Given Up.

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

Violence Is The Weapon Of Weak, Non-violence That Of The Strong.

There Is No Such Thing As ‘too Insane’ Unless Others Turn Up Dead Due To Your Actions.

For India To Enter Into The Race For Armaments Is To Court Suicide.

It Was The Cowards Who Died Many Times Before Their Death.

Those Who Are Truthful, Nonviolent And Brave Do Not Cease To Be So Because Of The Stupidity Of Their Leader.

Whatever Else India May Not Be, She Is At Least One Thing, She Is The Greatest Storehouse Of Spiritual Knowledge.

Morality Is Contraband In War.

Under Ideal Conditions, The Barrister And The Bhangi (sweeper) Should Both Get The Same Payment.

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.

A Man Of Character Will Make Himself Worthy Of Any Position He Is Given.

India Has The Right, If She Only Knew, Of Becoming The Predominant Partner By Reason Of Her Numbers, Geographical Position And Culture Inherited For Ages.

Of All The Animal Creations Of God, Main Is The Only Animal Who Has Been Created In Order That He May Know His Maker. Man's Aim Is Life Is Not Therefore To Add From Day To Day To His Material Prospects And To His Material Possessions, But His Predominant Calling Is, From Day To Day To Come Nearer To His Own Maker.

Violence Is Bound Sooner Or Later To Exhaust Itself But Peace Cannot Issue Out Of Such Exhaustion.

Sooner Or Later

I Worship The God That Is Truth Or Truth Which Is God Through The Service Of These Millions.

My Swadeshi Chiefly Centers Round The Handspun Khaddar And Extends To Everything That Can Be And Is Produced In India.

If I Preach Against The Modern Artificial Life Of Sensual Enjoyment, And Ask Men And Women To Go Back To The Simple Life Epitomized In The Charkha, I Do So Because I Know That Without An Intelligent Return To Simplicity, There Is No Escape From Our D.

If You Give Me Rice, I'll Eat Today; If You Teach Me How To Grow Rice, I'll Eat Every Day.

Love Based Upon Indulgence Of Animal Passion, Is At Best A Selfish Affair, And Likely To Snap Under The Slightest Strain.

True Prayer Is Not A Prelude To Inaction.

We Burn The Evil Men Do With Their Mortal Remains. We Treasure The Memory Of The Good They Do, And Distance Magnifies It.

I Want Co-operation Between Nations For The Salvaging Of Civilization, But Co-operation Presupposes Free Nations Worthy Of Co-operation.

It's Not Just Words. Action Expresses Priorities.

Hinduism Has Become A Conservative Religion And, Therefore, A Mighty Force Because Of The Swadeshi Spirit Underlying It.

The Path Of Bhakti, Karma And Love As Expounded In The Gita Leaves No Room For The Despising Of Man By Man.

What I Want To Achieve, What I Have Been Striving And Pining For These Thirty Years, Is Self-realization, That Is, To See God Face To Face.

For Thousands To Do To Death A Few Hundreds Is No Bravery. It Is Worse Than Cowardice. It Is Unworthy Of Nationalism, Of Any Religion.

There Is More To Life Than Increasing Its Speed.

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.

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

What Is Gained By Violence Must Be Lost Before Superior Violence.

We Want Freedom For Our Country, But Not At The Expense Or Exploitation Of Others, Not So As To Degrade Other Countries.

Nonviolence Is A Universal Principle And Its Operation Is Not Limited By A Hostile Environment.

I Have Felt That The Gita Teaches Us That What Cannot Be Followed In Day-to-day Practice Cannot Be Called Religion.

In Satyagraha, A Courted Imprisonment Carries Its Own Praise.

Self-realization Is The Object Of The Gita, As It Is Of All Scriptures.

A Fear-stricken Person Can Never Know God, And One Who Knows God Will Never Fear A Mortal Man.

Nonviolent Non-co-operation With Evil Means Co-operation With All That Is Good.

It Is Necessary To Correct The Error That Vegetarianism Has Made Us Weak In Mind, Or Passive Or Inert In Action. I Do Not Regard Flesh-food As Necessary At Any Stage

If Co-operation Is A Duty, I Hold That Non-co-operation Also Under Certain Conditions Is Equally A Duty.

I Have Shut My Mind Against Nothing And I Am A Friend Of Great Britain. I Always Have Been. I Have No Axe To Grind.

The Congress Fights Not With Violent But With Nonviolent Means, However Imperfect, However Crude The Nonviolence May Be.

Nature Cure Is So Simple Easy And Cheap.....this System Of Treatment Should Be Used.

In Fact, It Is More Correct To Say That Truth Is God, Than To Say That God Is Truth.

God Alone Is The Judge Of True Greatness Because He Knows Men's Hearts.

Each One Has To Find His Peace From Within. And Peace To Be Real Must Be Unaffected By Outside Circumstances.

Purity Of Personal Life Is The One Indispensable Condition For Building Up A Sound Education.

Does Not The History Of The World Show That There Would Have Been No Romance In Life If There Had Been No Risks?

I Believe In Advaita, I Believe In The Essential Unity Of Man And For That Matter Of All That Lives.

The Spinning Wheel Is Itself An Exquisite Piece Of Machinery. My Head Daily Bows In Reverence To Its Unknown Inventor.

There Is No Reason To Believe That There Is One Law For Families And Another For Nations.

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.

It Is No Easy Task To Do Away With A Thing That Is Established. We, Therefore, Say That The Non-beginning Of A Thing Is Supreme Wisdom.

The Fire Of Independence Is Burning Just As Bright In My Breast As In The Most Fiery Breast In This Country, But Ways And Methods Differ.

Khaddar Was Conceived With A Much More Ambitious Object, That Is, To Make Our Villages Starvation-proof.

Fasting And Prayer Are Common Injunctions In My Religion.

Britain's Success In The Exploitation Of Non-european Races Raised The Ambition Of Bismarck And Later Mussolini And Others.

To Ignore The Mussalman Grievance As If It Was Not Felt Is To Postpone Swaraj.

... There Are Chords In Every Human Heart. If We Only Knew How To Strike The Right Chord, We Would Bring Out The Music.

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.

I Cannot Give Active Support In The War Effort Without Denying A Life-time Of Practice.

A Devotee Of Rama May Be Said To Be The Same As The Steadfast One (sthitaprajnya) Of The Gita.

It Would Conduce To National Progress And Save A Great Deal Of Time And Trouble If We Cultivated The Habit Of Never Supporting The Resolutions Either By Speaking Or Voting For Them If We Had Not Either The Intention Or The Ability To Carry Them Out.

To A Starving Man, God Can Only Appear In The Form Of Bread.

To My Mind, The Life Of A Lamb Is No Less Precious Than That Of A Human Being.

God Comes To The Hungry In The Form Of Food.

Exploitation Of The Poor Can Be Extinguished Not By Effecting The Destruction Of A Few Millionaires, But By Removing The Ignorance Of The Poor And Teaching Them To Non-cooperate With Their Exploiters.

Satyagraha Is Itself An Unmistakable Mute Prayer Of An Agonized Soul.

As Soon As We Become One With The Ocean In The Shape Of God, There Is No More Rest For Us, Nor Indeed Do We Need Rest Any Longer.

Whatever One Does Cheerfully Is Good For Health.

True Happiness Brings More Richness Than All The Money In The World.

It Is The Absolute Right Of India To Misgovern Herself.

The Very Word Islam Means Peace, Which Is Nonviolence.

All The Great Religions Of The World Inculcate Equality And Brotherhood Of Mankind And The Virtue Of Toleration.

I Believe In Trusting. Trust Begets Trust. Suspicion Is Foetid And Only Stinks. He Who Trusts Has Never Yet Lost In The World.

Through The Deliverance Of India, I Seek To Deliver The So-called Weaker Races Of The Earth From The Crushing Heels Of Western Exploitation In Which England Is The Greatest Partner.

Englishmen Must Learn To Be Brahmins, Not Banias.

English Language

Do You Think I Am Superstitious? I Am A Super-atheist.

A Democrat Must Be Utterly Selfless. He Must Think And Dream Not In Terms Of Self Or Of Party, But Only Of Democracy.

God Is The Hardest Taskmaster I Have Known On This Earth And He Tries You Through And Through.

The Untouchability Of Hinduism Is Probably Worse Than That Of The Modern Imperialists.

Though A Non-co-operator, I Shall Gladly Subscribe To A Bill To Make It Criminal For Anybody To Call Me Mahatma And To Touch My Feet.

Facts We Would Always Place Before Our Readers, Whether They Are Palatable Or Not, And It Is By Placing Them Constantly Before The Public In Their Nakedness That The Misunderstanding Between The Two Communities In South Africa Can Be Removed.

Ahimsa And Truth Are So Intertwined That It Is Practically Impossible To Disentangle And Separate Them.

I Well Remember How The Thoughts I Had Up To The Time Of My Discharge From The Jail On Every Occasion Were Modified Immediately After Discharge, And After Getting First-hand Information Myself. Somehow Or Other The Jail Atmosphere Does Not Allow You To Have All The Bearings In Your Mind.

I Do Not Want To Foresee The Future. I Am Concerned With Taking Care Of The Present. God Has Given Me No Control Over The Moment Following.

The Pilgrimage To Swaraj Is A Painful Climb.

Suffering Cheerfully Endured, Ceases To Be Suffering And Is Transmuted Into An Ineffable Joy.

Man, Through The Cow, Is Enjoined To Realize His Identity With All That Lives.

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.

No Power On Earth Can Resist The Lovers Of Liberty Who Are Ready Not To Kill Opponents, But Be Killed By Them.

If It Is Possible For The Human Tongue To Give The Fullest Description Of God, I Have Come To The Conclusion That God Is Truth.

Make Injustice Visible.

A Religion Cannot Be Sustained By The Number Of Its Lip-followers Denying In Their Lives Its Tenets.

I Must Try To Live In Society And Yet Remain Untouched By Its Pitfalls.

To Believe In Something, And Not To Live It, Is Dishonest.

Satyagraha Is An Attribute Of The Spirit Within.

Give The Villagers Village Arithmetic, Village Geography, Village History And The Literary Knowledge That They Must Use Daily, I.e. Reading And Writing Letters, Etc.

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.

My Love Of Nationalism Is That My Country May Become Free, And If Need Be, The Whole Of The Country Die, So That The Human Race May Live.

Anything That Exists Is Possible.

All The Four Stages In A Man's Life Are Devised By The Seers In Hinduism For Imposing Discipline And Self-restraint.

Cowardice Is Not A Sign Of Belief In God.

India Unarmed Would Not Require To Be Destroyed Through Poison Gas Or Bombardment.

The Gita Is Not An Aphoristic Work, It Is A Great Religious Poem.

Great Religious

I Have Always Felt That The True Text-book For The Pupil Is His Teacher

A Man Who Behaves Like A Beast Is Worse Than The Beast.

Peace Is Its Own Reward.

My Only Sanction Is The Love And Affection In Which You Hold Me. But It Has Its Weaknesses, As It Has Its Strengths.

Freedom And Slavery Are Mental States.

Dining And Marriage Restrictions Stunt Hindu Society.

God Has No Religion.

To Yield To The Threat Or Actual Use Of Violence Is A Surrender Of One's Self Respect And Religious Conviction.

That Which Makes Man The Mere Plaything Of Fate Is God.

The Primary Object Of Non-co-operation Is Nowhere Stated To Be Paralysis Of The Government. The Primary Object Is Self-purification.

A Nonviolent Occupation Is That Occupation Which Is Fundamentally Free From Violence And Which Involves No Exploitation Or Envy Of Others.

Where There Are Millions Upon Millions Of Units Of Idle Labour, It Is No Use Thinking Of Labour-saving Devices.

To Me The Mahabharata Is A Profoundly Religious Book, Largely Allegorical, In A Way Meant To Be A Historical Record.

A Person Who Believes In Nonviolence Believes In A Living God. He Cannot Accept Defeat.

The Cry For Peace Will Be A Cry In The Wilderness, So Long As The Spirit Of Nonviolence Does Not Dominate Millions Of Men And Women.

Nonviolence Is Not A Cloistered Virtue, Confined Only To The Rishi And The Cave-dweller.

There Is No Time Limit For A Satyagrahi Nor Is There A Limit To His Capacity For Suffering.

He Who Does Not See God In The Next Person He Meets Need Look No Further.

If You`d Be Loved, Be Worthy To Be Love

Liberty And Democracy Become Unholy When Their Hands Are Dyed Red With Innocent Blood.

There Is No Greater Spellbinder Of Peace Than The Name Of God.

Since One Satan Is One Too Many For Me, I Would Not Multiply Him.

Everyone Holds A Piece Of The Truth.

Remember There Is Always A Limit To Self-indulgence, None To Restraint... Civilization , In The Real Sense Of The Term, Consists Not In The Multiplication But In The Deliberate And Voluntary Restriction Of Wants. This Alone Promotes Real Happiness And Contentment , And Increases The Capacity For Service .

If I Could Wake All Of The Women Of Asia, India Could Be Won In A Day.

I Claim That Human Mind Or Human Society Is Not Divided Into Watertight Compartments Called Social, Political And Religious. All Act And React Upon One Another.

Man Has Always Desired Power. Ownership Of Property Gives This Power. Man Hankers Also After Posthumous Fame Based On Power.

True Nonviolence Is Mightier Than The Mightiest Violence.

For A Nonviolent Struggle, There Is No Age Limit. The Blind, The Maimed And The Bed-ridden May Serve, And Not Only Men But Women Also.

God Is Not In Strength But In Truth.

We Believe As Much In The Purity Of Races As We Think They (the Whites) Do...by Advocating The Purity Of All Races.

The Votaries Of Nonviolence Cannot Harbour Violence Even In Thought, Let Alone The Question Of Doing It.

Complete Independence Will Be Complete Only To The Extent Of Our Approach In Practice To Truth And Nonviolence.

I Do Believe That Ideas Ripen Quickly When Nourished By The Blood Of Martyrs.

In A Strictly Scientific Sense God Is At The Bottom Of Both Good And Evil.

The Need Of The Moment Is Not One Religion, But Mutual Respect And Tolerance Of The Devotees Of The Different Religions.

True Ahimsa Lay In Running Into The Mouth Of Himsa.

Hitler Killed Five Million Jews. It Is The Greatest Crime Of Our Time. But 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.

Men Like Me Feel That Untouchability Is No Integral Part Of Hinduism, It Is An Excrescence.

It Is Easier To Bridge The Oceans That Lie Between Continents Than It Is To Bridge The Gap Between Individuals Or The Peoples.

Truth And Nonviolence Are Both The Means And The End, And Given The Right Type Of Men, The Legislatures Can Be The Means Of Achieving The Concrete Pursuit Of Truth And Nonviolence.

Man's Nature Is Not Essentially Evil. Brute Nature Has Been Know To Yield To The Influence Of Love. You Must Never Despair Of Human Nature.

Mere Brave Speech Without Action Is Letting Off Useless Steam.

Love Is The Basis Of Our Friendship As It Is Of Religion.

With My Meager Knowledge Of My Own Religion I Do Not Want To Belong To Any Religious Body

We Must Treat Arrest As The Normal Condition Of The Life Of A Non-co-operator.

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

Old As I Am In Age, I Have No Feeling That I Have Ceased To Grow Inwardly Or That My Growth Will Stop At The Dissolution Of The Flesh. What I Am Concerned With Is My Readiness To Obey The Call Of Truth, My God, From Moment To Moment, No Matter How Inconsistent It May Appear. My Commitment Is To Truth, Not To Consistency.

Imperialism Is A Negation Of God. It Does Ungodly Acts In The Name Of God.

I Believe That There Is No Prayer Without Fasting, And There Is No Real Fast Without Prayer.

Fasting Is Futile Unless It Is Accompanied By An Incessant Longing For Self-restraint.

I Simply Want To Tell The Story Of My Experiments With Truth...as My Life Consists Of Nothing But Those Experiments.

My Mission Is To Convert Every Indian, Every Englishman And Finally The World To Nonviolence For Regulating Mutual Relations, Whether Political, Economic, Social Or Religious.

... Man Was Not Born A Carnivorous Animal, But Born To Live On The Fruits And Herbs That The Earth Grows. I Know We Must All Err. I Would Give Up Milk If I Could, But I Cannot. I Have Made That Experiment Times Without Number. I Could Not, After A Serious Illness, Regain My Strength, Unless I Went Back To Milk. That Has Been The Tragedy Of My Life. But The Basis Of My Vegetarianism Is Not Physical, But Moral. If Anybody Said That I Should Die If I Did Not Take Beef Tea Or Mutton, Even On Medical Advice, I Would Prefer Death. That Is The Basis Of My Vegetarianism.

Human Society Is A Ceaseless Growth, And Unfoldment In Terms Of Spirituality.

Ahimsa In Theory No One Knows. It Is As Indefinable As God.

No Man Loses His Freedom Except Through His Own Weakness.

The Control Of The Palate Is A Valuable Aid For The Control Of The Mind.

I Believe In The Absolute Oneness Of God And Therefore Of Humanity. What Though We Have Many Bodies? We Have But One Soul. . . . I Know God Is Neither In Heaven Nor Down Below, But In Everyone.

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

Use Truth As Your Anvil, Nonviolence As Your Hammer And Anything That Does Not Stand The Test When It Is Brought To The Anvil Of Truth And Hammered With Nonviolence, Reject It.

Whoever Is Victor, There Should Be, After The War, A Commonwealth Of All Nations.

Fear Has Its Use, But Cowardice Has None. I May Not Put My Finger Into The Jaws Of A Snake, But The Very Sight Of The Snake Need Not Strike Terror Into Me.

If India Becomes The Slave Of The Machine, Then, I Say, Heaven Save The World.

In This Day Of Wonders No One Will Say That A Thing Or An Idea Is Worthless Because It Is New. To Say It Is Impossible Because It Is Difficult Is Again Not In Consonance With The Spirit Of The Age. Things Undreamt Of Are Daily Being Seen, The Impossible Is Ever Becoming Possible.

Intolerance Is Itself A Form Of Violence And An Obstacle To The Growth Of A True Democratic Spirit.

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.

An Unjust Law In Itself Is An Act Of Violence.

I Believe In The Absolute Oneness Of God And, Therefore, Also Of Humanity. I Have Always Believed God To Be Without Form. What I Did Hear Was Like A Voice From Afar, And Yet Quite Near.

Satyagraha Does Not Depend On Outside Help, It Derives All Its Strength From Within.

The Fragrance Of Nonviolence Was Never Sweeter Than It Was Today Amidst The Stink Of Violence Of The Most Cowardly Type That Was Being Displayed In The Cities Of India.

The Woman Who Knows And Fulfils Her Duty Realizes Her Dignified Status.

It Would Be A Sad Day For India If It Has To Inherit The English Scale And The English Tastes So Utterly Unsuitable To The Indian Environment.

Trending Author

David Rockefeller

Wilhelm Ostwald

Michael Douglas

Category