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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.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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I Believe In The

Mahatma Gandhi

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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.

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Life Becomes Livable Only To The Extent That Death Is Treated As A Friend, Never As An Enemy.

Unless We Learn The Lesson Of Nonviolence Fully, We Shall Never Do Away With The Deadly Feuds Which Have Been The Curse Of The Frontier People.

The More Efficient A Force Is, The More Silent And The More Subtle It Is.

My Notion Of Democracy Is That Under It The Weakest Shall Have The Same Opportunities As The Strongest.

Legal Imposition Avoids The Necessity Of Honour Or Good Faith.

Homeopathy Cures A Larger Percentage Of Cases Than Any Other Form Of Treatment And Is Beyond Doubt Safer And More Economical.

Faith Is A Function Of The Heart. It Must Be Enforced By Reason. The Two Are Not Antagonistic As Some Think. The More Intense One's Faith Is, The More It Whets One's Reason. When Faith Becomes Blind It Dies.

There Is No Better Way Of Industrializing The Villages Of India Than The Spinning Wheel.

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.

My Religion Is A Matter Solely Between My Maker And Myself.

H. G. Wells Was Not The Only One To Mention Churchill And Hitler In The Same Breath: "churchill And Hitler Are Striving To Change The Nature Of Their Respective Countrymen By Forcing And Hammering Violent Methods On Them. Man May Be Suppressed In This Manner But He Cannot Be Changed. Ahimsa [non-violence In The Hindu Tradition], On The Other Hand, Can Change Human Nature And Sooner Than Men Like Churchill And Hitler."

What We Can Do, We Will Try To Do.

Just As A Prayer May Be Merely A Mechanical Intonation As Of A Bird, So May A Fast Be A Mere Mechanical Torture Of The Flesh.

Individual Liberty Is Allowed To Man Only To A Certain Extent. He Cannot Forget That He Is A Social Being And His Individual Liberty Has To Be Curtailed At Every Step.

Nonviolence Is Impossible Without Humility.

God Gifted Man With Intellect So That He Might Know His Maker. Man Abused It So That He Might Forget His Maker.

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.

No Society Can Possibly Be Built On A Denial Of Individual Freedom.

Self-restraint Is The Very Keystone Of The Ethics Of Vow-taking.

God In His Wisdom Circumscribed Man's Vision, And Rightly Too, For Otherwise Man's Conceit Would Know No Bounds.

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

Satyagraha Thrives On Repression Till At Last The Repressor Is Tired Of It And The Object Of Satyagraha Is Gained.

A Satyagrahi Has Infinite Patience, Abundant Faith In Others, And Ample Hope.

My Hinduism Teaches Me To Respect All Religions. In This Lies The Secret Of Ramarajya.

I Am A Hindu By Birth. And Yet I Do Not Know Much Of Hinduism, And I Know Less Of Other Religions. In Fact I Do Not Know Where I Am, And What Is And What Should Be My Belief. I Intend To Make A Careful Study Of My Own Religion And, As Far As I Can, Of Others.

A Teacher Who Establishes Rapport With The Taught, Becomes One With Them, Learns More From Them Than He Teaches Them. He Who Learns Nothing From His Disciples Is, In My Opinion, Worthless. Whenever I Talk With Someone I Learn From Him. I Take From Him More Than I Give Him.

God To Be God Must Rule The Heart And Transform It.

I Must Not Serve A Distant Neighbour At The Expense Of The Nearest.

External Fears Cease Of Their Own Accord When Once We Have Conquered These Traitors Within The Camp.

Nonviolence To Be A Creed Has To Be All-pervasive.

The Rich Cannot Accumulate Wealth Without The Co-operation Of The Poor In Society.

For My Own Part, I Do Not Want The Freedom Of India If It Means Extinction Of English Or The Disappearance Of Englishmen.

Man Believes And Lives.

In Matters Of Conscience, The Law Of The Majority Has No Place.

A Person Is Bound To Work In Obedience To And In Conformity To That Person's Own Nature.

We Notice That The Mind Is A Restless Bird; The More It Gets The More It Wants, And Still Remains Unsatisfied. The More We Indulge Our Passions The More Unbridled They Become. Our Ancestors, Therefore, Set A Limit To Our Indulgences. They Saw That Happiness Was Largely A Mental Condition. A Man Is Not Necessarily Happy Because He Is Rich, Or Unhappy Because He Is Poor.... Millions Will Always Remain Poor.

Cowardice Is Not A Sign Of Belief In God.

By Noiselessly Going To A Prison A Civil-resister Ensures A Calm Atmosphere.

What Is True Of The Individual Will Be Tomorrow True Of The Whole Nation If Individuals Will But Refuse To Lose Heart And Hope.

The Cow Is The Purest Type Of Sub-human Life.

The Ideal Is A Synthesis Of The Different Cultures That Have Come To Stay In India, That Have Influenced Indian Life, And That, In Their Turn, Have Themselves Been Influenced By The Spirit Of The Soil.

Khadi Mentality Means Decentralization Of The Production And Distribution Of The Necessaries Of Life.

Decentralization

Love Can Never Express Itself By Imposing Sufferings On Others. It Can Only Express Itself By Self-suffering, By Self-purification.

I Have Endeavored To Show That There Is No Real Service Of Humanity In The Profession Of Medicine And That It Is Injurious To Mankind.

Evil Is, Good Or Truth Misplaced.

Restraint Never Ruins One's Health. What Ruins It,is Not Restraint But Outward Suppression. A Really Self-restrained Person Grows Every Day From Strength To Strength And From Peace To More Peace. The Very First Step In Self-restraint Is The Restraint Of Thoughts.

Hinduism Is A Relentless Pursuit Of Truth. "truth Is God" And If Today It Has Become Moribund, Inactive, Irresponsive To Growth, It Is Because We Are Fatigued; And As Soon As The Fatigue Is Over, Hinduism Will Burst Upon The World With A Brilliance Perhaps Unknown Before.

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

Khadi Will Cease To Have Any Value In My Eyes If It Does Not Usefully Employ The Millions.

Always Believe In Your Dreams, Because If You Don't, You'll Still Have Hope.

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

To Say That A Single Human Being, Because Of His Birth, Becomes An Untouchable, Unapproachable Or Invisible Is To Deny God.

When You Surrender Completely To God, As The Only Truth Worth Having, You Find Yourself In Service Of All That Exists. It Becomes Your Joy And Recreation. You Never Tire Of Serving Others.

Finding Yourself

For The Courage Of Self-sacrifice, Woman Is Any Time Superior To Man, As I Believe Man Is To Woman For The Courage Of The Brute.

Since The Propagation Of Nonviolence Is The Mission Of My Life, I Must Pursue It In All Weathers.

The Charkha In The Hands Of A Poor Widow Brings A Paltry Price To Her, In The Hands Of Jawaharlal; It Is An Instrument Of India's Freedom.

Nonviolent Defence Presupposes Recklessness About One's Life And Property.

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

No One Should Dogmatize About The Capacity Of Human Nature For Degradation Or Exaltation.

If We Import Compulsion In Matters Of Religion, There Is No Doubt That We Shall Be Committing Suicide.

The Privilege Of Resisting Or Disobeying A Particular Law Or Order Accrues Only To Him Who Gives Willing And Unswerving Obedience To The Laws Laid Down For Him.

God Has Blessed Man With Seed That Has The Highest Potency And Woman With A Field Richer Than The Richest Earth To Be Found Anywhere On His Globe.

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

If You Want To Play Your Part In The World's Affairs, You Must Refuse To Deck Yourselves For Pleasing Man.

Every Moment Of Your Life Is Infinitely Creative And The Universe Is Endlessly Bountiful. Just Put Forth A Clear Enough Request, And Everything Your Heart Desires Must Come To You.

Untouchability Is A Many-headed Monster And Forms, Some Of Them So Subtle As Not To Be Easily Detected.

The British Are Weak In Numbers, We Are Weak In Spite Of Our Numbers.

There Is No One Without Faults, Not Even Men Of God. They Are Men Of God Not Because They Are Faultless, But Because They Know Their Faults, They Strive Against Them, They Do Not Hide Them, And Are Ever Ready To Correct Themselves.

I Hold That The World Is Sick Of Armed Rebellions.

Nothing Once Begun Should Be Abandoned, Unless It Is Proved To Be Morally Wrong.

Repression Does For A True Man Or A Nation What Fire Does For Gold.

It Is Beneath Human Dignity To Lose One's Individuality And Become A Mere Cog In The Machine.

The Truth Is That Cowardice Itself Is Violence Of A Subtle Type And Therefore Dangerous And Far More Difficult To Eradicate Than The Habit Of Physical Violence.

For Me Every Ruler Is Alien That Defies Public Opinion.

I Wish To Change There Minds, Not Kill Them For Weaknesses We All Poses.

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

Painters And Poets Are Obliged To Exaggerate The Proportions Of Their Figures In Order To Give True Perspective.

The Spirit Of Non-violence Necessarily Leads To Humility. Non-violence Means Reliance On God, The Rock Of Ages. If We Would Seek His Aid, We Must Approach Him With A Humble And Contrite Heart.

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

Unless We Are Able To Evolve A Spirit Of Mutual Tolerance For Diametrically Opposite Views, Non Co-operation Is An Impossibility.

I Own No Property And Yet I Feel That I Am Perhaps The Richest Man In The World.

The Purpose Of Life Is Undoubtedly To Know Oneself. We Cannot Do It Unless We Learn To Identify Ourselves With All That Lives. The Sum-total Of That Life Is God.

Lady Is The Buddy Of Man, Skilled With Equivalent Mental Limit.

The Purification Required Is Not Of Untouchables But Of The So-called Superior Castes.

I Condemn, For All Climes And For All Times, Secret Murders And Unfair Methods Even For A Fair Cause.

I Am A Passionate Seeker After Truth Which Is But Another Name For God.

I Have Known Many Meat Eaters To Be Far More Nonviolent Than Vegetarians.

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

Our Non-co-operation Is With The System The English Have Established In India, With The Material Civilization And Its Attendant Greed And Exploitation Of The Weak.

Character Alone Will Have Real Effect On The Masses.

My Opposition To The Socialist And The Other Consists In Attacking Violence As A Means Of Effecting Any Lasting Reform.

I Care So Deeply About This Matter That I'm Willing To Take On The Legal Penalties, To Sit In This Prison Cell, To Sacrifice My Freedom, In Order To Show You How Deeply I Care. Because When You See The Depth Of My Concern, And How Civil I Am In Going About This, You're Bound To Change Your Mind About Me, To Abandon Your Rigid, Unjust Position, And To Let Me Help You See The Truth Of My Cause.

India Is One Vast Prison With High Walls Of Suppression Clothing Her Mind And Her Body.

Let India Become Alive By Self-purification, That Is Self-restraint And Self-denial, And She Will Be A Boon To Herself And Mankind.

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.

The Soul Of India Lives In Its Villages.

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

If Non-violence Is The Law Of Our Being, The Future Is With Women.

Women Empowerment

Ahimsa Is The Strongest Force Known.

Many An Individual Has Turned From The Mean, Personal, Acquisitive Point Of View To One That Sees Society As A Whole And Works For Its Benefit. If There Has Been Such A Change In One Person, There Can Be The Same Change In Many.

The Moment The Cultivators Of The Soil Realize Their Power, The Evil Of Zamindari Will Be Sterilized.

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

Violent Men Have Not Been Known In History To Die To A Man. They Die Up To A Point.

God Chooses As His Instrument The Humblest And Weakest Of His Creatures To Fulfill Himself.

It's Very Dangerous To Mix Up The Words Natural And Habitual. We Have Been Trained To Be Quite Habitual At Communicating In Ways That Are Quite Unnatural.

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

God Is The Shield Of The Nonviolent.

The Movement Of Nonviolent Non-co-operation Has Nothing In Common With The Historical Struggles For Freedom In The West.

If Gandhism Means Simply Mechanically Turning The Spinning Wheel, It Deserves To Be Destroyed.

At Times, Non-co-operation Becomes As Much A Duty As Co-operation.

Satyagraha Does Not Begin And End With Civil Disobedience.

I Know, To Banish Anger Altogether From One's Breast Is A Difficult Task. It Cannot Be Achieved Through Pure Personal Effort. It Can Be Done Only By God's Grace.

If You Don't Ask, You Don't Get It

God Never Blinks

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.

The Sanyasa Of The Gita Will Not Tolerate Complete Cessation Of Activity.

People In A Democracy Should Be Satisfied With Drawing The Government's Attention To A Mistake, If Any.

My Heart Rebels Against Any Foreigner Imposing On My Country The Peace Which Is Here Called Pax-britannica.

God Is Not Outside This Earthly Case Of Ours.

Love Is The Law Of Life.

Religious Truth, Or For That Matter Any Truth, Requires A Calm And Meditative Atmosphere For Its Percolation.

I Will Far Rather See The Race Of Man Extinct Than That We Should Become Less Than Beasts By Making The Noblest Of God's Creation, Woman, The Object Of Our Lust.

I Object To Violence Because When It Appears To Do Good, The Good Is Only Temporary; The Evil It Does Is Permanent.

Nonviolent Action Without The Co-operation Of The Heart And The Head Cannot Produce The Intended Result.

By Ahimsa We Will Be Able To Save The Cow And Also Win The Friendship Of The English.

As Soon As We Lose The Moral Basis, We Cease To Be Religious. There Is No Such Thing As Religion Over-riding Morality.

What Is Imprisonment To The Man Who Is Fearless Of Death Itself?

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.

To Observe Morality Is To Attain Mastery Over Our Mind And Our Passions.

A Teetotaler Would Regard It As His Duty To Associate With His Drunkard Brother For The Purpose Of Weaning Him From The Evil Habit.

Individual Liberty And Interdependence Are Both Essential For Life In Society.

Intolerance Betrays Want Of Faith In One's Cause.

In Our Progress Towards The Goal, We Ever See More And More Enchanting Scenery.

My Greatest Weapon Is Mute Prayer.

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

My Fast Is, Among Other Things, Meant To Qualify Me For Achieving That Equal And Selfless Love.

The Truth Is To Be Found Nowhere Else Other Than Within Ourselves.

A Plea For The Spinning Wheel Is A Plea For Recognizing The Dignity Of Labour.

We, The English Educated Indians, Often Unconsciously Make The Terrible Mistake Of Thinking That The Microscopic Minority Of The English-speaking Indians Is The Whole Of India.

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

I Claim To Know My Millions. All The Hours Of The Day I Am With Them. They Are My First Care And God That Is To Be Found In The Hearts Of The Dumb Millions.

Let Us, By Praying, Purify Ourselves And We Shall Not Only Remove Untouchability But Shall Also Hasten The Advent Of Swaraj.

The Votary Of Ahimsa Has Only One Fear, That Is, Of God.

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

What Is Equality Of Rights Between A Giant And A Dwarf?

Mother Cow Is In Many Ways Better Than The Mother Who Gave Us Birth.

All My Actions Have Their Rise In My Inalienable Love Of Mankind.

It Is Wrong And Immoral To Seek To Escape The Consequences Of One's Acts.

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

In The Midst Of Death Life Persists, In The Midst Of Untruth, Truth Persists, In The Midst Of Darkness Light Persists.

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

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

Spiritual Instruments Suffer In Their Potency When Their Use Is Taught Through Non-spiritual Messages Which Are Self-propagating.

My Dharma Teaches Me To Give My Life For The Sake Of Others Without Even Attempting To Kill.

We Shall Dig Our Own Grave If We Do Not Purge Ourselves Of This Curse Of Untouchability.

Healthy, Well-informed, Balanced Criticism Is The Ozone Of Public Life.

My Ahimsa Would Not Tolerate The Idea Of Giving A Free Meal To A Healthy Person Who Has Not Worked For It In Some Honest Way.

When Doubts Haunt Me, When Disappointments Stare Me In The Face, And I See Not One Ray Of Hope On The Horizon, I Turn To Bhagavad-gita And Find A Verse To Comfort Me; And I Immediately Begin To Smile In The Midst Of Overwhelming Sorrow. Those Who Meditate On The Gita Will Derive Fresh Joy And New Meanings From It Every Day.

Labour Is Priceless, Not Gold.

I Am A Man Of Peace. I Believe In Peace. But I Do Not Want Peace At Any Price.

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

The Truth Can Never Be Wrong, Even If No One Hears It.

The Only Real And Reliable Guarantee For Khadi Would Be Honesty, Truthfulness And Sincerity Of Khadi Workers.

Compassion Is A Muscle That Gets Stronger With Use.

But I Never Again Went Through This Street. There Would Be Other Men Coming In This Man's Place And, Ignorant Of The Incident, They Would Behave Likewise. Why Should I Unnecessarily Court Another Kick? I Therefore Selected A Different Walk.

Death Is At Any Time Blessed But It Is Twice Blessed For A Warrior Who Dies For His Cause, That Is, Truth.

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

Eye For Eye And The World Will Go Blind.

I Believe In The Fundamental Truth Of All Great Religions Of The World.

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.

Perfect Nonviolence Is Difficult. It Admits To No Weakness.

Nonviolence, In Its Dynamic Condition Means Conscious Suffering.

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

Men Of Stainless Character And Self Purification Will Easily Inspire Confidence And Automatically Purify The Atmosphere Around Them.

Conquer The Heart Of The Enemy With Truth And Love, Not By Violence.

My Plea Is For Banishing The English Language As A Cultural Usurper, As We Successfully Banished The Political Rule Of The English Usurper.

Before The Throne Of The Almighty, Man Will Be Judged Not By His Acts But By His Intentions. For God Alone Reads Our Hearts.

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

Khadi Service, Village Service And Harijan Service Are One In Reality, Though Three In Name.

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.

Solitude Is A Catalyst For Innovation

If We Are To Make Progress, We Must Not Repeat History But Make New History. We Must Add To Inheritance Left By Our Ancestors.

Fight If You Must On The Path Of Righteousness And God Will Be With You.

Though Philosophical Hinduism Has No Other God But God, It Cannot Be Denied That Practical Hinduism Is Not So Emphatically Uncompromising As Islam.

A Rose Will Smell As Sweet By Any Other Name, But It Must Be The Rose Of Liberty That I Want And Not The Artificial Product.

There Is Little That Separates Humans From Other Sentient Beings - We All Feel Joy, We All Deeply Crave To Be Alive And To Live Freely, And We All Share This Planet Together.

India's Freedom Must Revolutionize The World's Outlook Upon Peace And War.

Charkha Is An Instrument Of Service.

Nothing Is Impossible For Pure Love.

Civil Disobedience Is The Inherent Right Of A Citizen.

God Speaks To Us Every Day Only We Don't Know How To Listen.

We Dare Not Enter The Kingdom Of Liberty With Mere Life-homage To Truth And Nonviolence.

All My Experiments In Ahimsa Have Taught Me That Nonviolence In Practice Means Common Labour With The Body.

Cow Protection Is The Gift Of Hinduism To The World.

Blaming The Wolf Would Not Help The Sheep Much. The Sheep Must Learn Not To Fall In The Clutches Of The Wolf.

The External Is In No Way The Essence Of Religion, But The External Often Proclaims The Internal.

It Is Not Part Of Religion To Breed Buffaloes Or, For That Matter, Cows.

Nationalism, Like Virtue, Has Its Own Reward.

It Is Easier To Build A Boy Than To Mend A Man.

To Safeguard Democracy The People Must Have A Keen Sense Of Independence, Self-respect, And Their Oneness.

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

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