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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.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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I Came To The

Mahatma Gandhi

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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.

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Some Form Of Common Worship And A Common Place Of Worship Appear To Be A Human Necessity.

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There Is No Principle Worth The Name If It Is Not Wholly Good.

I Desire No Honour If I Have To Conceal My Religious Beliefs In Order To Have It.

A Faith Gained In Strength Only When People Were Willing To Lay Down Their Lives For It.

If God Is Not A Personal Being For Me Like My Earthly Father, He Is Infinitely More.

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There Is No God

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The Only True Resistance To This Government... [is] To Cease To Co-operate With It.

Truth Is My Religion And Ahimsa Is The Only Way Of Its Realization.

It Is My Firm Faith That Man Is By Nature Going Higher.

Non-cooperation Is Beyond The Reach Of The Bayonet. It Has Found An Abiding Place In The Indian Heart. Workers Like Me Will Go When The Hour Has Struck, But Non-cooperation Will Remain.

There Is No Doubt That Our Last State Will Be Worse Than Our First, If We Surrender Our Reason Into Somebody's Keeping.

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

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

The Cause Is Everything. Those Even Who Are Dearest To Us Must Be Shunted For The Sake Of The Cause.

Mental Violence Has No Potency And Injures Only The Person Whose Thoughts Are Violent. It Is Otherwise With Mental Non-violence. It Has Potency Which The World Does Not Yet Know.

When Anything Assumes The Strength Of A Creed, It Becomes Self-sustained And Derives The Needed Support From Within.

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.

Earth Provides Enough To Satisfy Every Man's Needs, But Not Every Man's Greed.

Keep My Word Positive. Words Become My Behaviors. Keep My Behaviors Positive. Behaviors Become My Habits. Keep My Habits Positive. Habits Become My Values. Keep My Values Positive. Values Become My Destiny.

We Cry For Cow Protection In The Name Of Religion, But We Refuse Protection To The Human Cow In The Shape Of The Girl-widow.

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

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.

There Is No Occasion For Women To Consider Themselves Subordinate Or Inferior To Man

All Religions Teach That Two Opposite Forces Act Upon Us And The Human Endeavour Consists In A Series Of Eternal Rejections And Acceptances.

Study Not Man In His Animal Nature - Man Following The Laws Of The Jungle - But Study Man In All His Glory.

The Elephant Needs A Thousand Times More Food Than The Ant But That Is Not An Indication Of Inequality.

When There Is No Desire For Fruit, There Is Also No Temptation For Untruth Or Himsa.

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

My Religion Says That Only He Who Is Prepared To Suffer Can Pray To God.

Faith Is A Function Of The Heart.

Democracy Can Only Represent The Average If Not Less Than The Average.

Withholding Of Payment Of Taxes Is One Of The Quickest Methods Of Overthrowing A Government.

Passive Resistance Is A Method Of Securing Rights By Personal Suffering; It Is The Reverse Of Resistance By Arms.

Passive Resistance

A Coward Is Incapable Of Exhibiting Love; It Is The Prerogative Of The Brave.

Terrorism And Deception Are Weapons Not Of The Strong, But Of The Weak.

The Function Of Violence Is To Obtain Reform By External Means, The Function Of Passive Resistance, That Is, Soul-force, Is To Obtain It By Growth From Within, Which, In Its Turn, Is Obtained By Self-suffering, Self-purification.

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Infinite Striving To Be The Best Is Man's Duty; It Is Its Own Reward. Everything Else Is In God's Hands.

It Is Better To Allow Our Lives To Speak For Us Than Our Words. God Did Not Bear The Cross Only Two Thousand Years Ago. He Bears It Today, And He Dies And Is Resurrected From Day To Day. It Would Be A Poor Comfort To The World If It Had To Depend On A Historical God Who Died Two Thousand Years Ago. Do Not, Then, Preach The God Of History, But Show Him As He Lives Today Through You.

Whatever May Be True Of The Other Modes Of Warfare, Insatyagraha It Has Been Held That The Causes For Failure Are To Be Sought Within.

It Was Our Love Of Foreign Cloth That Ousted The Wheel From Its Position Of Dignity.

The World Is Touched By Sacrifice. It Does Not Then Discriminate About The Merits Of A Cause. No So God - He Is All Seeing. He Insists On The Purity Of The Cause And On Adequate Sacrifice Thereof.

Truth, Which Is Permanent, Eludes The Historian Of Events. Truth Transcends History.

Islam Was Nothing If It Did Not Spell Complete Democracy.

If There Ever Is To Be A Republic Of Every Village In India, Then I Claim Verity For My Picture In Which The Last Is Equal To The First Or, In Other Words, No One Is To Be The First And None The Last.

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

Be The Change You Seek.

I Worship God As Truth Only. I Have Not Yet Found Him, But I Am Seeking After Him. I Am Prepared To Sacrifice The Things Dearest To Me In Pursuit Of This Quest. Even If The Sacrifice Demanded My Very Life, I Hope I May Be Prepared To Give It.

It Is Indeed A Million Times Better To Appear Untrue Before The World Than To Be Untrue To Ourselves.

Be The Change That You Want To See

History Is A Record Of Perpetual Wars, But We Are Now Trying To Make New History.

Nonviolence, In Its Dynamic Condition Means Conscious Suffering.

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

Anger And Intolerance Are The Twin Enemies Of Correct Understanding.

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

Machinery Is The Chief Symbol Of Modern Civilization; It Represents A Great Sin.

Unity Among The Different Races And The Different Religions Of India Is Indispensable To The Birth Of National Life.

Bravery Is Not A Quality Of The Body. It Is Of The Soul.

I Would Like To Bury Myself In An Indian Village, Preferably In A Frontier Village.

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.

History Is Replete With Instances Of Men, Who, By Dying With Courage And Compassion On Their Lips Converted The Hearts Of Their Violent Opponents.

Nonviolence And Cowardice Go Ill Together.

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

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.

When A Man Gives Way To Anger, He Only Harms Himself.

If Blood Be Shed, Let It Be Our Own. Let Us Cultivate The Calm Courage To Die Without Killing.

At The Individual Level Swaraj Is Vitally Connected With The Capacity For Dispassionate Self-assessment , Ceaseless Self Purification And Growing Self-reliance.... It Is Swaraj When We Learn To Rule Ourselves

Complete Civil Disobedience Is A State Of Peaceful Rebellion, A Refusal To Obey Every Single State-made Law.

I Shall Never Know God If I Do Not Wrestle With And Against Evil, Even At The Cost Of Life Itself.

Yajna Is Duty To Be Performed, Or Service To Be Rendered, All Twenty-four Hours Of The Day.

I Know That Not Only Is Swaraj Our Birthright, But It Is Our Sacred Duty To Win It.

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.

Well, India Is A Country Of Nonsense

Peace Is The Most Powerful Weapon Of Mankind.

Roving Dogs Do Not Indicate The Civilisation Or Compassion Of The Society. They Betray On The Country The Ignorance And Lethargy Of Its Members.

It Took Britain Half The Resources Of The Planet To Achieve Its Prosperity; How Many Planets Will A Country Like India Require?

Return To The Villages Means A Definite, Voluntary Recognition Of The Duty Of Bread Labour And All Its Connotes.

I Believe That Cunning Is Not Only Morally Wrong But Also Politically Expedient, And Have Therefore Always Discountenanced Its Use Even From The Practical Standpoint.

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

I Cannot Think Of Permanent Enmity Between Man And Man.

We Must Be The World We Want To Create.

If We Want To Impart Education Best Suited To The Needs Of The Villagers, We Should Take The Vidyapith To The Villages.

There Is No Such Thing As 'gandhism', And I Do Not Want To Leave Any Sect After Me.

There Is Nothing That Wastes The Body Like Worry.

It Is The Law Of Love That Rules Mankind.

Khadi Will Be The Sun Of The Whole Industrial Solar System.

The Expert Knows More And More About Less And Less Until He Knows Everything About Nothing.

I Do Regard Spinning And Weaving As A Necessary Part Of Any National System Of Education.

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.

How Can I Make Difference So That I May Bring Peace To This World That I Love And Cherish So Much? A Name Flickers Instantly In My Mind.

Purity Of Mind And Idleness Are Incompatible.

God Accepts The Sacrifice Of The Pure In Heart.

A Spirit Is Not Necessarily Purer, Because It Is Disembodied.

What Is Wanted Is A Deliberate Giving Up Of Violence Out Of Strength.

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

What Do I Think Of Western Civilization? I Think It Would Be A Very Good Idea.

Hindu-muslim Unity, Khaddar And Removal Of Untouchability Are To Me The Foundation Of Swaraj.

Sanitation Is More Important Than Independence.

Nonviolence Is Not Merely A Personal Virtue. It Is Also A Social Virtue To Be Cultivated Like Other Virtues.

Change Occurs When Deeply Felt Private Experiences Are Given Public Legitimacy.

I Have Not Lost The Hope That The Masses Will Refuse To Bow To The Moloch Of War But They Will Rely Upon Their Own Capacity For Suffering To Save Their Country's Honour.

Love And Exclusive Possession Can Never Go Together.

As Long As The Superstition That People Should Obey Unjust Laws Exists, So Long Will Slavery Exist

The Mundane Use Of The Gayatri, Its Repetition For Healing The Sick, Illustrates The Meaning We Have Given To Prayer.

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 The Holy Name Of Liberty Or Democracy?

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.

Man Lives Freely Only By His Readiness To Die.

Retaliation Is Counter-poison And Poison Breeds More Poison. The Nectar Of Love Alone Can Destroy The Poison Of Hate.

Men Aspiring To Be Free Can Hardly Think Of Enslaving Others.

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

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