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Change Yourself - You Are In Control.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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Change Yourself - You

Mahatma Gandhi

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Change Yourself - You Are In Control.

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Change Yourself

More From Mahatma Gandhi

Every Worthy Act Is Difficult. Ascent Is Always Difficult. Descent Is Easy And Often Slippery.

I Am A Hindu Because It Is Hinduism Which Makes The World Worth Living. I Am A Hindu Hence I Love Not Only Human Beings, But All Living Beings.

A Life Without Vows Is Like A Ship Without An Anchor Or Like An Edifice That Is Built On Sand Instead Of A Solid Rock.

Education In The Understanding Of Citizenship Is A Short-term Affair If We Are Honest And Earnest.

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

Speed Is Irrelevant If You Are Going In The Wrong Direction.

Wrong Direction

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." - By Mohandas K. Gandhi -

For A Firm Believer In Swadeshi, There Need Be No Pharisaical Self-satisfaction In Wearing Khadi.

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

To Forget How To Dig The Earth And To Tend The Soil Is To Forget Ourselves.

I May Not Unnerve Myself While I Can Struggle Against Evil.

My Wisdom Flows From The Highest Source. I Salute That Source In You. Let Us Work Together For Unity And Love.

Working Together

Rights Of True Citizenship Accrue Only To Those Who Serve The State To Which They Belong.

Civil Disobedience And Excitement And Intoxication Go Ill Together.

Let The Gita Be To You A Mine Of Diamonds, As It Has Been To Me; Let It Be Your Constant Guide And Friend On Life's Way.

Swaraj Of A People Means The Sum Total Of The Swaraj (self-rule) Of Individuals.

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

By Spiritual Training I Mean Education Of The Heart.

What Has Appealed To Me Most In Tolstoy's Life Is That He Practiced What He Preached And Reckoned No Cost Too Great In His Pursuit Of Truth.

A Vow Is Fixed And Unalterable Determination To Do A Thing, When Such A Determination Is Related To Something Noble Which Can Only Uplift The Man Who Makes The Resolve.

Truth Is My God. Non-violence Is The Means Of Realizing Him.

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.

Meditation Is Waiting On God.

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.

One Thing We Have Endeavoured To Observe Most Scrupulously, Namely, Never To Depart From The Strictest Facts And, In Dealing With The Difficult Questions That Have Arisen During The Year, We Hope That We Have Used The Utmost Moderation Possible Under The Circumstances.

Difficult Questions

Live Like Jesus Did, And The World Will Listen.

I Will Not Have The Power Of Nonviolence To Be Underestimated In Order To Cover My Limitations Or Weaknesses.

Woman Is, By Habit Or Nature, Queen Of The Household. She Is Not Designed To Organize On A Large Scale.

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.

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.

The Turning Of The Charkha In A Lifeless Way Will Be Like The Turning Of The Beads Of The Rosary With A Wandering Mind Turned Away From God.

The True Democrat Is He Who With Purely Nonviolent Means Defends His Liberty And, Therefore, His Country's And Ultimately That Of The Whole Of Mankind.

If You Worry About Yesterday's Failures, Then Today's Successes Will Be Few. The Future Depends On What We Do In The Present

If I Could Persuade Myself That I Could Find Him In A Himalayan Cave I Would Proceed There Immediately.

The Real Ornament Of Woman Is Her Character, Her Purity.

The Fact That Mankind Persists Shows That The Cohesive Force Is Greater Than The Disruptive Force, Centripetal Force Greater Than Centrifugal.

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

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.

Mass Civil Disobedience Was For The Attainment Of Independence.

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

Selfishness Is Blind.

You Don't Know Who Is Important To You Until You Actually Lose Them.

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 Practice Of Truth And Nonviolence Melted Religious Differences, And We Learnt To See Beauty In Each Religion.

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

My Idea Of Society Is That While We Are Born Equal, Meaning That We Have A Right To Equal Opportunity, All Have Not The Same Capacity.

God Is Not In Strength But In Truth.

I Saw That Bad Handwriting Should Be Regarded As A Sign Of An Imperfect Education.

Your Capacity To Keep Your Vow Will Depend On The Purity Of Your Life.

A Man Is But The Product Of His Thoughts What He Thinks, He Becomes.

Without Action, You Aren't Going Anywhere.

An Error Does Not Become Truth By Reason Of Multiplied Propagation, Nor Does Truth Become Error Because Nobody Sees It.

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

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.

Difficult Situations

I Claim To Be A Simple Individual Liable To Err Like Any Other Fellow Mortal. I Own, However, That I Have Humility Enough To Confess My Errors And To Retrace My Steps.

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

Cow Protection To Me Is Infinitely More Than Mere Protection Of The Cow.

The Call Of The Spinning Wheel Is The Noblest Of All. Because It Is The Call Of Love. And Love Is Swaraj.

All Our Philosophy Is As Dry As Dust If It Is Not Immediately Translated Into Some Act Of Living Service.

The Satyagrahi Strives To Reach Reason Through The Heart. The Method Of Reaching The Heart Is To Awaken Public Opinion.

The Human Voice Can Never Reach The Distance That Is Covered By The Still Small Voice Of Conscience.

Let The Jews Who Claim To Be The Chosen Race Prove Their Title By Choosing The Way Of Non-violence For Vindicating Their Position On Earth. Every Country Is Their Home, Including Palestine, Not By Aggression But By Loving Service

Economic Equality Of My Conception Does Not Mean That Every One Will Literally Have The Same Amount.

The Swaraj Of My Dream Is The Poor Man's Swaraj.

The English Language Is So Elastic That You Can Find Another Word To Say The Same Thing.

English Language

Nonviolence Has Come Among Men And It Will Live. It Is The Harbinger Of The Peace Of The World.

If You Think The World Is All Wrong, Remember That It Contains People Like You.

God Cannot Be Realized Through Intellect.

I Have An Implicit Faith ... That Mankind Can Only Be Saved Through Non-violence, Which Is The Central Teaching Of The Bible, As I Have Understood The Bible.

Swaraj Means Ability To Regard Every Inhabitant Of India As Our Own Brother Or Sister.

My Attitude Towards The British Is One Of Utter Friendliness And Respect.

If Untouchability Lives, Hinduism Perishes And Even India Perishes, But If Untouchability Is Eradicated From The Hindu Heart, Root And Branch, Then Hinduism Has A Definite Message For The World.

It Is Weakness Which Breeds Fear, And Fear Breeds Distrust.

To Answer Brutality With Brutality Is To Admit One's Moral And Intellectual Bankruptcy.

Democracy Comes Naturally To Him Who Is Habituated Normally To Yield Willing Obedience To All Laws, Human Or Divine.

Truth Is God, And Truth Overrides All Our Plans. The Whole Truth Is Only Embodied Within The Heart Of Great Power-truth.

The Path Is The Goal.

What May Appear As Truth To One Person Will Often Appear As Untruth To Another Person. But That Need Not Worry The Seeker. When There Is Honest Effort, It Will Be Realised That What Appears To Be Different Truths Are Like Apparently Different Countless Leaves Of The Same Tree.

The Voice Of The People May Be Said To Be God's Voice, The Voice Of The Panchayat.

Bravery On The Battlefield Is Impossible For Us. Bravery Of The Soul Still Remains Open To Us.

Is She Not More Self-sacrificing, Has She Not Greater Courage? Without Her, Man Would Not Be. If Nonviolence Is To Be The Law Of Our Being, The Future Is With Women.

Life Will Not Be A Pyramid With The Apex Sustained By The Bottom, But An Oceanic Circle Whose Centre Will Be The Individual.

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

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

Performance Of One's Duties Should Be Independent Of Public Opinion.

A Religious Act Cannot Be Performed With The Aid Of The Bayonet Or The Bomb.

Untouchability, I Hold, Is A Sin, If Bhagavadgita Is One Of Our Divine Books.

Truth Triumphs, Even If There Be No Public Support.

I Do Feel That Spiritual Progress Does Demand At Some Stage That We Should Cease To Kill Our Fellow Creatures For The Satisfaction Of Our Bodily Wants.

So Long As We Fear The Outside World, We Must Cease To Think Of Swaraj.

The Spinning Wheel Is The One Thing To Which All Must Turn To In The Indian Clime For The Transition Stage At Any Rate And The Vast Majority Must For All Time.

I Can Not Give You The Reference Of Ram Chandar Or Krishna, Because They Were Not Historical Figures. I Can Not Help It But To Present To You The Names Of (hazrat) Abu Bakar (ra) And (hazrat) Umar Farooq (ra). They Were Leaders Of A Vast Empire, Yet They Lived A Life Of Austerity.

I Look Upon Air-power For Destruction As A Terrible Crime Against Humanity.

Without An Unreserved Surrender To His Grace, Complete Mastery Over Thoughts Is Impossible.

A Man Of Faith Does Not Bargain Or Stipulate With God.

Satyagraha Is A Purely Spiritual Weapon.

Restore The Spinning Wheel To Its Place And You Will Solve The Problem Of Poverty.

As The Means, So The End.

Though We Are Politically Free, We Are Hardly Free From The Subtle Domination Of The West.

The Secret Of A Happy Life Lies In Renunciation. Renunciation Is Life.

I Cannot In All Conscience Agree To Anyone Being Sent To The Gallows. God Alone Can Take Life Because He Alone Gives It . . .

[he] Alone Is Truly Nonviolent Who Remains Nonviolent Even Though He Has The Ability To Strike.

Man Often Becomes What He Believes Himself To Be.

A General Belief Seems To Prevail In The Colony That The Indians Are Little Better, If At All, Than The Savages Or Natives Of Africa. Even The Children Are Taught To Believe In That Manner, With The Result That The Indian Is Being Dragged Down To The Position Of A Raw Kaffir.

Forgiveness Is Choosing To Love. It Is The First Skill Of Self-giving Love.

Positive Thinking

When Untouchability Is Rooted Out, These Distinctions Will Vanish And No One Will Consider Himself Superior To Any Other.

I Reject Any Religious Doctrine That Does Not Appeal To Reason And Is In Conflict With Morality.

Renunciation Made For The Sake Of Service Is An Ineffable Joy Of Which None Can Deprive Anyone, Because That Nectar Springs From Within And Sustains Life.

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

We Do Not Know The Laws Of God, Nor Their Working.

Faith... Must Be Enforced By Reason... When Faith Becomes Blind It Dies.

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

One's Everyday Life Is Never Capable Of Being Separated From His Spiritual Being.

Non-violence And Truth Are Inseparable And Presuppose One Another.

All Humanity Is One Undivided And Indivisible Family. I Cannot Detach Myself From The Wickedest Soul.

No Culture Can Live If It Attempts To Be Exclusive.

Art And Culture

Nonviolence In The Sense Of Mere Non-killing Does Not Appear To Me, Therefore, To Be Of Any Improvement On The Technique Of Violence.

He Who Trusts Has Never Yet Lost In The World. A Suspicious Man Is Lost To Himself And The Eworld.... Suspicion Is Of The Brood Of Violence. Non-violence Cannot But Trust.

A Nonviolent Action Accompanied By Nonviolence In Thought And Word Should Never Produce Enduring Violent Reaction Upon The Opponent.

The Most Violent Weapon On Earth Is The Table Fork.

Anger, Lust And Such Other Evil Passions Raging In The Heart Are The Real Untouchables.

Faith Is The Function Of The Heart.

He Who Spins Before The Poor, Inviting Them To Do Likewise, Serves God As No One Else Does.

A Free India Will Throw All Her Weight In Favour Of World Disarmament And Should Herself Be Prepared To Give A Lead In This.

Nonviolent Non-co-operators Can Only Succeed When They Have Succeeded In Attaining Control Over The Hooligans Of India.

Literacy In Itself Is No Education.

There Is No Such Thing As Slow Freedom. Freedom Is Like A Birth. Till We Are Fully Free We Are Slaves. All Birth Takes Place In A Moment.

Active Nonviolence Of The Brave Puts To Flight Thieves, Dacoits, Murderers, And Prepares An Army Of Volunteers Ready To Sacrifice Themselves In Quelling Riots, In Extinguishing Fires And Feuds, And So On.

God Answers Prayer In His Own Way, Not Ours.

The Only Praise I Would Like And Treasure Is The Promotion Of The Activities To Which My Life Is Dedicated.

No Confirmed Satyagrahi Is Dismayed By Dangers, Seen Or Unseen, From His Opponent's Side.

To Call Woman The Weaker Sex Is A Libel; It Is Man's Injustice To Woman.

I Shall, Of Course, Die With Nonviolence On My Lips.

Conversion Without A Clean Heart Is A Denial Of God And Religion.

I Have Nothing Of The Communalist In Me Because My Hinduism Is All Inclusive.

That Religion And That Nation Will Be Blotted Out Of The Face Of The Earth Which Pins Its Faith On Injustice, Untruth Or Violence.

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

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

Force That The Performance Of Duty Naturally Generates Is The Non-violent And Invincible Force That Satyagraha Brings Into Being.

In Hinduism We Have Got An Admirable Foot-rule To Measure Every Shastra And Every Rule Of Conduct, And That Is Truth.

Unless Discipline Is Rooted In Nonviolence, It Might Prove To Be A Source Of Infinite Mischief.

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

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 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.

History Supplied Numerous Instances To Prove That Brute Force Is As Nothing Before Soul-force.

Being Dissatisfied And Properly Dissatisfied With The Husk Of Hinduism, You Are In Danger Of Losing Even The Kernel, Life Itself.

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

Obedience To The Law Of Bread Labour Will Bring About A Silent Revolution In The Structure Of Society.

The West Has Yet To Discover Anything So Hygienic As The Indian Toothstick.

Passive Resistance Seeks To Rejoin Politics And Religion And To Test All Our Actions In The Light Of Ethical Principles.

Ethical Principles

Passive Resistance

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.

I Submit That Scientists Have Not Yet Explored The Hidden Possibilities Of The Innumerable Seeds, Leaves And Fruits For Giving The Fullest Possible Nutrition To Mankind.

If We Had Attained The Full Vision Of Truth, We Would No Longer Be Seekers, But Become One With God, For Truth Is God.

Indeed, A Civil Resister Offers Resistance Only When Peace Becomes Impossible.

My Swaraj Takes Note Of Bhangis, Dheds, Dublas And The Weakest Of The Weak, And Except The Spinning Wheel I Know No Other Thing Which Befriends All These.

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

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.

A Genuine Satyagraha Should Never Excite Contempt In The Opponent Even When It Fails To Command Regard Or Respect.

Nonviolence Is Not A Weapon Of The Weak. It Is A Weapon Of The Strongest And Bravest.

Nonviolent Non-co-operation, I Am Convinced, Is A Sacred Duty At Times.

Kaffirs Are As A Rule Uncivilized - The Convicts Even More So. They Are Troublesome, Very Dirty And Live Almost Like Animals.

True Art Takes Note Not Merely Of Form But Also Of What Lies Behind.

My Religion Is Based On Truth And Non-violence. Truth Is My God. Non-violence Is The Means Of Realising Him.

Nearly Everything You Do Is Of No Importance, But It Is Important That You Do It.

Ahimsa Is The Eradication Of The Desire To Injure Or To Kill.

Any Young Man, Who Makes Dowry A Condition To Marriage, Discredits His Education And His Country And Dishonours Womanhood.

Nations Are Not Formed In A Day, The Formation Requires Years.

If We Were To Drive Out The English With The Weapons With Which They Enslaved Us, Our Slavery Would Still Be With Us Even When They Have Gone.

Honesty Is Incompatible With Amassing A Large Fortune.

The Collectors Of Revenue And The Policeman Are The Only Symbols By Which Millions In India's Villages Know British Rule.

Man's Upward Progress Means Ever Increasing Difficulty, Which Is To Be Welcomed.

Never Own Defeat In A Sacred Cause And Make Up Your Minds Henceforth That You Will Be Pure And That You Will Find A Response From God.

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.

A Perfect Muslim Is He From Whose Tongue And Hands Mankind Is Safe.

Seven Deadly Sins Wealth Without Work Pleasure Without Conscience Science Without Humanity Knowledge Without Character Politics Without Principle Commerce Without Morality Worship Without Sacrifice.

The Charkha, Which Is The Embodiment Of Willing Obedience And Calm Persistence, Must Therefore Succeed Before There Is Civil Disobedience.

All Truths, Not Merely Ideas, But Truthful Faces, Truthful Pictures Or Songs, Are Highly Beautiful.

The Khadi Spirit Means Also An Infinite Patience.

Swaraj Is Not Meant For Cowards, But For Those Who Would Mount Smilingly To The Gallows And Refuse Even To Allow Their Eyes To Be Bandaged.

God's Laws Are Eternal And Unalterable And Not Separable From God Himself.

Wildlife Is Decreasing In The Jungles, But It Is Increasing In The Towns.

The State Is The Sum Total Of The Sacrifice, On Its Behalf, Of Its Members.

Freedom Of India Will Demonstrate To All The Exploited Races Of The Earth That Their Freedom Is Very Near.

Be The Change You Are Trying To Create.

A Man Of Prayer Regards What Are Known As Physical Calamities As Divine Chastisement.

I Do Not Regard Flesh-food As Necessary For Us At Any Stage And Under Any Clime In Which It Is Possible For Human Beings Ordinarily To Live, I Hold Flesh-food To Be Unsuited To Our Species.

Vegetarian Health

Your Character Must Be Above Suspicion And You Must Be Truthful And Self-controlled.

Non-violence Is Not A Garment To Be Put On And Off At Will. Its Seat Is In The Heart, And It Must Be An Inseparable Part Of Our Being.

A Clean Confession Combined With A Promise Never To Commit The Sin Again, When Offered Before One Who Has The Right To Receive It, Is The Purest Type Of Repentance.

The Early Mussalmans Accepted Islam Not Because They Knew It To Be Revealed But Because It Appealed To Their Virgin Reason.

One Can Measure The Greatness And The Moral Progress Of A Nation By Looking At How It Treats Its Animals.

Democracy Is Not A State In Which People Act Like Sheep.

The History Of The World Is Full Of Men Who Rose To Leadership, By Sheer Force Of Self-confidence, Bravery And Tenacity.

Self Confidence

If One Has No Affection For A Person Or A System, One Should Feel Free To Give The Fullest Expression To His Disaffection So Long As He Does Not Contemplate, Promote, Or Incite Violence.

Indian Nationalism Is Not Exclusive, Nor Aggressive, Nor Destructive.

Sorrow And Suffering Make For Character If They Are Voluntarily Borne, But Not If They Are Imposed.

To My Mind, Swaraj Based On Nonviolence Is The Fulfillment Of The Constructive Programme.

Jealousy Does Not Wait For Reasons.

Nothing In The Shastra, Which Is Manifestly Contrary To Universal Truths And Morals, Can Stand.

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

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