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I Do Not Believe That The Spiritual Law Works On A Field Of Its Own. On The Contrary, It Expresses Itself Only Through The Ordinary Activities Of Life. It Thus Affects The Economic, The Social And The Political Fields.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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I Do Not Believe

Mahatma Gandhi

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I Do Not Believe That The Spiritual Law Works On A Field Of Its Own. On The Contrary, It Expresses Itself Only Through The Ordinary Activities Of Life. It Thus Affects The Economic, The Social And The Political Fields.

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Religion Of Our Conception, Thus Imperfect, Is Always Subject To A Process Of Evolution And Re-interpretation.

All Faiths Constitute A Revelation Of Truth, But All Are Imperfect And Liable To Error.

Labour, Because It Chose To Remain Unintelligent, Either Became Subservient, Or Insolently Believed In Damaging The Capitalists' Goods And Machinery Or Even In Killing The Capitalists.

Truth Alone Will Endure, All The Rest Will Be Swept Away Before The Tide Of Time. I Must Continue To Bear Testimony To Truth Even If I Am Forsaken By All. Mine May Today Be A Voice In The Wilderness, But It Will Be Heard When All Other Voices Are Silenced, If It Is The Voice Of Truth.

A Nation That Is Capable Of Limitless Sacrifice Is Capable Of Rising To Limitless Heights. The Purer The Sacrifice The Quicker The Progress.

I Learnt From Hussein How To Achieve Victory While Being Oppressed.

There Is A Power Now Slumbering Within Us, Which Is Awakened Would Do To Evil What Light Does To Darkness.

Never Has Man Reached His Destination By Persistence In Deviation From The Straight Path.

Journalism Should Never Be Prostituted For Selfish Ends Or For The Sake Of Merely Earning A Livelihood Or, Worse Still, For Amassing Money.

To Know Music Is To Transfer It To Life.

You Are Not Going To Know The Meaning Of God Or Prayer Unless You Reduce Yourself To A Cipher.

Religion Is More Than Life. Remember That His Own Religion Is The Truest To Every Man Even If It Stands Low In The Scales Of Philosophical Comparison.

I Swear By Swadeshi As It Affords Occasion For Ample Exercise Of All Our Faculties And It Tests Every One Of The Millions Of Men And Women, Young And Old.

The Earth Has Enough Resources For Our Need, But Not For Our Greed.

In The Days Of Democracy There Is No Such Thing As Active Loyalty To A Person. You Are, Therefore, Loyal Or Disloyal To Institutions.

Where My Own Mission Is Concerned, My Thought Is Active, And I Try To Wish Everyone Well In Spite Of Doubts And Mistrust.

There Is No Such Thing As Compulsion In The Scheme Of Nonviolence.

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

When The Fear Of Jail Disappears, Repression Puts Heart Into The People.

Liberty Is A Dearly Bought Commodity And Prisons Are Factories Where It Is Manufactured.

A Man's True Wealth Hereafter Is The Good He Has Done To His Fellowmen.

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

True Beauty Consists Of Purity Of Heart.

One Cannot Reach Truth By Untruthfulness. Truthful Conduct Alone Can Reach Truth.

Confession Of One's Guilt Purifies And Uplifts. Its Suppression Is Degrading And Should Always Be Avoided.

The Newspaperman Has Become A Walking Plague. He Spreads The Contagion Of Lies And Calumnies.

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.

God Is Not In Strength But In Truth.

If Swaraj Is To Be Had By Peaceful Methods, It Will Only Be Attained By Attention To Every Little Detail Of National Life.

A Friendship That Exacts Oneness Of Opinion And Conduct Is Not Worth Much.

Commonsense Is The Realised Sense Of Proportion.

I Want For India Complete Independence In The Full English Sense Of That English Term.

It Is The Reformer Who Is Anxious For The Reform, And Not Society, From Which He Should Expect Nothing Better Than Opposition, Abhorrence And Even Mortal Persecution.

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

The More I Reflect And Look Back On The Past, The More Vividly Do I Feel My Limitations.

Anything That Exists Is Possible.

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.

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

The Greater Our Innocence, The Greater Our Strength And The Swifter Our Victory

Love Has More Force Than A Besieging Army.

I Shall Despair When I Despair Of Myself, Of God And Humanity.

Whilst Power, Superimposed, Always Needs The Help Of The Police And The Military, Power Generated From Within Should Have Little Or No Use Of Them.

If You're Going To Be A Bear, Be A Grizzly.

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.

I Have Described Swaraj As Ramarajya And Ramarajya Is An Impossibility Unless We Have Thousands Of Sitas.

I Believe In Absolute Oneness Of God And Therefore Also Of Humanity.

I Recall Having Read, At The Brothers' Instance, Madame Blavatsky's Key To Theosophy. This Book Stimulated In Me The Desire To Read Books On Hinduism, And Disabused Me Of The Notion Fostered By The Missionaries That Hinduism Was Rife With Superstition.

The Measure Of A Society Can Be How Well Its People Treat Its Animals

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.

Find Purpose. The Means Will Follow.

Ramanama Purifies While It Cures, And, Therefore, It Elevates.

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

A Satyagrahi Lays Down His Life, But Never Gives Up. That Is The Meaning Of The 'do Or Die' Slogan.

... 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.

Non-co-operation Is An Attempt To Awaken The Masses To A Sense Of Their Dignity And Power.

If Hand-spinning Is An Effective Method Of Making India Self-supporting, It Must Be Made Part Of The Franchise.

Coal Is Not Dear For The Coal-miner Who Can Use It There And Then, Nor Is Khadi Dear For The Villager Who Manufactures His Own Khadi.

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

It Will Be Necessary For Us Indians - Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Parsis And All Others To Whom India Is Their Home - To Recognize A Common Flag To Live And Die For.

Human Language Can But Imperfectly Describe God's Ways.

If The Circulation Of Blood Theory Could Not Have Been Discovered Without Vivisection, The Human Kind Could Well Have Done Without It.

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

What Is Truth? A Difficult Question; But I Have Solved It For Myself By Saying That It Is What The "voice Within" Tells You. All That I Can In True Humility Present To You Is That Truth Is Not To Be Found By Anybody Who Has Not Got An Abundant Sense Of Humility. If You Would Swim On The Bosom Of The Ocean Of Truth You Must Reduce Yourself To Zero.

God Is Light, Not Darkness. God Is Love, Not Hate. God Is Truth, Not Untruth. God Alone Is Great.

A Man Who Is Intentionally Unarmed Relies Upon The Unseen Force Called God By Poets, But Called The Unknown By Scientists.

My Freedom From Hatred - I Would Even Claim For Myself Individually, My Love - For Those Who Consider Themselves To Be My Enemies, Does Not Make Me Blind To Their Faults.

Seven Blunders Of The World That Lead To Violence.

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

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.

I Am Not Fighting Machinery As Such, But The Madness Of Thinking That Machinery Saves Labor. Men Save Labor Until Thousands Of Them Are Without Work And Die Of Hunger On The Streets. I Want To Secure Employment And Livelihood Not Only To Part Of The Human Race, But For All. I Will Not Have The Enrichment Of A Few At The Expense Of The Community. At Present The Machine Is Helping A Small Minority To Live On The Exploitation Of The Masses. The Motive Force Of This Minority Is Not Humanity Or Love Of Their Kind, But Greed And Avarice.

The Law Of Love Could Be Best Understood And Learned Through Little Children.

The Unparalleled Extravagance Of English Rule Has Demented The Rajas And The Maharajas Who, Unmindful Of Consequences, Ape It And Grind Their Subjects To Dust.

It's More Important To Put The Own Heart In The Prayer Than To Put Other's Words With Nothing Of The Own Heart.

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None, While In Flesh, Can Be Entirely Free From Himsa, Because One Never Completely Renounces The Will To Live.

Nonviolence Is The Rock On Which The Whole Structure Of Non-co-operation Is Built.

Truth And Nonviolence Are As Old As The Hills.

If I Arrogate To Myself The Exclusive Title Of Being In The Right, I Usurp The Function Of The Deity.

Religion Is Not Like A House Or A Cloak Which Can Be Changed At Will.

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

You May Have Occasion To Possess Or Use Material Things, But The Secret Of Life Lies In Never Missing Them.

I Have Found That Life Persists In The Midst Of Destruction And, Therefore, There Must Be A Higher Law Than That Of Destruction. Only Under That Law Would A Well-ordered Society Be Intelligible And Life Worth Living.

Jesus Was The Most Active Resister Known To History. His Was Nonviolence Par Excellence.

The Renunciation Of The Gita Is The Acid Test Of Faith.

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 Hold That The World Is Sick Of Armed Rebellions.

We Are Aware That The Business Of Swaraj Will Thrive Only If The Boycott Of Foreign Cloth Is Successful.

The Whole Of India Was The Home Of Every Indian Who Considered Himself As One And Behaved As Such, No Matter To What Faith He Belonged.

Many Persons Claiming Different Faiths Make Us One And An Indivisible Nation. All These Have An Equal Claim To Be The Nationals Of India.

Leo Tolstoy's Life Has Been Devoted To Replacing The Method Of Violence For Removing Tyranny Or Securing Reform By The Method Of Nonresistance To Evil. He Would Meet Hatred Expressed In Violence By Love Expressed In Selfsuffering.

Civil Disobedience Is A Stimulation For The Fighters And A Challenge To The Opponent, In The Present Instance, Authority.

My Whole Soul Rebels Against The Idea That Hinduism And Islam Represent Two Antagonistic Cultures And Doctrines.

Non-violence Is The Article Of Faith.

Truth And Nonviolence Demand That No Human Being May Debar Himself From Serving Any Other Human Being, No Matter How Sinful He May Be.

First They Ignore You, Then They Denounce You, And Then They Say That They Knew What You Were Saying All The Time.

A Satyagrahi, Whilst He Is Ever Ready To Fight, Must Be Equally Eager For Peace.

Cowardice Is Incompatible With Divine Wisdom.

In His Boundless Love God Permits The Atheist To Live.

God Has So Ordered This World That No One Can Keep His Goodness Or Badness Exclusively To Himself.

Your Life Is Your Message.

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

Truth Has Drawn Me Into The Field Of Politics; And I Can Say Without The Slightest Hesitation, And Yet In All Humility, That Those Who Say That Religion Has Nothing To Do With Politics Do Not Know What Religion Means.

Far More Indispensable Then Food For The Physical Body Is Spiritual Nourishment For The Soul. One Can Do Without Food For A Considerable Time, But A Man Of The Spirit Cannot Exist For A Single Second Without Spiritual Nourishment.

Khaddar Does Not Displace A Single Cottage Industry.

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.

Nonviolence Implies Voluntary Submission To The Penalty For Non-co-operation With Evil.

My Optimism Rests On My Belief In The Infinite Possibilities Of The Individual To Develop Nonviolence. . . . In A Gentle Way You Can Shake The World.

Even A Believer In Nonviolence Has To Say Between Two Combatants Which Is Less Bad Or Whose Cause Is Just.

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.

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.

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

The Person Who Discovered The Law Of Love Was A Far Greater Scientist Than Any Of Our Modern Scientists. Only Our Explorations Have Not Gone Far Enough And So It Is Not Possible For Everyone To See All Its Workings.

I Do Not Regard Capital To Be The Enemy Of Labour.

The Gita Has Become For Me The Key To The Scriptures Of The World.

Hinduism Would Not Have Been Much Of A Religion If Rama Had Not Steeled His Heart Against Every Temptation.

God Is Not In Kaaba Or In Kashi. He Is Within Everyone Of Us.

The Khaddar Of My Conception Is That Handspun Cloth Entirely Takes The Place Of Mill Cloth In India.

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

Why Should I Need An Artist To Explain A Work Of Art To Me? Why Should It Not Speak Out To Me Itself?

A Fast To Be True Must Be Accompanied By A Readiness To Receive Pure Thoughts And Determination To Resist All Satan's Temptations.

There Is Goodness As Well As Greatness In Simplicity, Not In Wealth.

Swaraj Is A Hardy Tree Of Patient Growth.

My Own Veneration For Other Faiths Is The Same As That For My Own Faith; Therefore No Thought Of Conversion Is Possible

The Greater The Realization Of Truth And Ahimsa, The Greater The Illumination.

Detachment Is Not Indifference. It Is The Prerequisite For Effective Involvement. Often What We Think Is Best For Others Is Distorted By Our Attachments To Our Opinions. We Want Others To Be Happy In The Way We Think They Should Be Happy. It Is Only When We Want Nothing For Ourselves That We Are Able To See Clearly Into Others Needs And Understand How To Serve Them.

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

Satyagraha Does Not Begin And End With Civil Disobedience.

My Religion Teaches Me That I Should, By My Personal Conduct, Instill Into The Minds Of Those Who Might Hold Different Views The Conviction That Cow Killing Is A Sin.

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

When I Admire The Wonders Of A Sunset Or The Beauty Of The Moon, My Soul Expands In The Worship Of The Creator.

Restraint Never Ruins One's Health.

There Are Unjust Laws As There Are Unjust Men.

The Hater Hates Not For The Sake Of Hatred But Because He Wants To Drive Away From His Country The Hated Being Or Beings.

God Always Saves The World From The Consequences Of Unintended Errors Of Men Who Live In Fear Of Him.

It Is Possible To Live In Peace.

A Wretched Parent Who Claims Obedience From His Children, Without First Doing His Duty By Them, Excites Nothing But Contempt.

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.

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

To Me God Is Truth And Love, God Is Ethics And Morality, God Is Fearlessness.

Freedom Is Not Worth Having If It Does Not Connote Freedom To Err.

Literary Education Must Follow The Education Of The Hand -the One Gift That Distinguishes Man From Beast.

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

Swaraj Means, A State Such That We Can Maintain Our Separate Existence Without The Presence Of The English.

The Avowed Policy Of Non-co-operation Has Been Not To Make Political Use Of The Disputes Between Labour And Capital.

True Swadeshi Is That Alone In Which All The Processes Through Which Cotton Has To Pass Are Carried Out In The Same Village Or Town.

Employers Ganging Up Against Workers Is Like Raising An Army Of Elephants Against Ants.

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

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.

Prayer Is An Impossibility Without A Living Faith In The Presence Of God Within.

Presence Of God

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.

I Do Not Believe That The Spiritual Law Works On A Field Of Its Own. On The Contrary, It Expresses Itself Only Through The Ordinary Activities Of Life. It Thus Affects The Economic, The Social And The Political Fields.

Ahimsa Magnifies One's Own Defects, And Minimizes Those Of The Opponent. It Regards The Mole In One's Own Eye As A Beam And The Beam In The Opponent's Eye As A Mole.

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.

Seek Not Greater Wealth, But Simpler Pleasure; Not Higher Fortune, But Deeper Felicity.

The Field Of Research In The Doctrine Of Civil Resistance Is Necessarily Limited, As The Occasions For Civil Resistance In A Man's Life Must Not Be Frequent.

It Dawned Upon Me That Fasting Could Be Made As Powerful A Weapon Of Indulgence As Of Restraint

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

Nonviolence Is A Universal Law Acting Under All Circumstances.

If We Wish To Create A Lasting Peace We Must Begin With The Children.

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

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

The Difficulty One Experiences In Meeting Himsa Arises From Weakness Of Mind.

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.

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

We Must Break Through The Provincial Crust If We Are To Reach The Core Of All-india Nationalism.

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

Where Death Without Resistance Or Death After Resistance Is The Only Way, Neither Party Should Think Of Resorting To Law-courts Or Help From The Government.

National Education To Be Truly National Must Reflect The National Condition For The Time Being.

A Vow Imparts Stability, Ballast And Firmness To One's Character.

Constant Development Is The Law Of Life, And A Man Who Always Tries To Maintain His Dogmas In Order To Appear Consistent Drives Himself Into A False Position.

What Senseless Violence Does Is To Prolong The Lease Of Life Of The British Or Foreign Rule.

A Congregational Prayer Is A Means For Establishing Essential Human Unity Though Common Worship.

Providence Has Its Appointed Hour For Everything. We Cannot Command Results, We Can Only Strive.

Everything Happens For A Reason

Liberty Never Meant The License To Do Anything At Will.

But For My Faith In God, I Should Have Been A Raving Maniac.

Such Expression Is Impossible In A Cramped Atmosphere. As I Have No Desire To Offer Civil Disobedience I Cannot Write Freely. As The Author Of Satyagraha I Cannot, Consistently With My Profession, Suppress The Vital Part Of Myself For The Sake Of Being Able To Write On Permissible Subjects. ... It Would Be Like Dealing With The Trunk Without The Head.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Flattery.

What Can Be Richer And More Fruitful Than A Greater Fulfillment Of The Vow Of Nonviolence In Thought, Word And Deed Or The Spread Of That Spirit?

The Mentality Which Made One Section Of The Indians Look Upon Another As Enemies Was Suicidal; It Could Only Serve To Perpetuate Their Slavery.

A Nonviolent Man Cannot Desire Embarrassment.

India Will Not Be A Helpless Partner In Her Own Exploitation And Foreign Domination.

We Have To Be The Change We Want In The World.

That Nonviolence Which Only An Individual Can Use Is Not Of Much Use In Terms Of Society.

Begin Your Day With Prayer, And Make It So Soulful That It May Remain With You Until The Evening.

It Is Nature's Kindness That We Do Not Remember Past Births. Life Would Be A Burden If We Carried Such A Tremendous Load Of Memories.

A Seeker After Truth, A Follower Of The Law Of Love, Cannot Hold Anything Against Tomorrow.

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

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

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

Everything I Have Personally Experienced, And That Also Has Been Expressed By The Leaders Of The Great Religions Points To The Fact That A Global Spirituality Already Exists And Was Intrinsically There From The Start As God (by Whatever Name) Is One And Is Indivisible - Everywhere Outside Time And Place.

Journalism Has A Distinct Place In Familiarizing And Expressing Public Opinion.

It Is No Religion To Have For One's Wife A Girl Who Is Fit Only To Sit In One's Lap, It Is The Height Of Irreligion.

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

What Is Really Needed To Make Democracy Function Is Not Knowledge Of Facts, But Right Education.

Purity Of Mind And Idleness Are Incompatible.

What Crimes, For Which We Condemn The Government As Satanic, Have Not We Been Guilty Of Towards Our Own Untouchable Brethren?

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

Desirelessness Or Renunciation Does Not Come For The Mere Talking About It.

Education Without Courage Is Like A Wax Statue - Beautiful To Look At But Bound To Melt At The First Touch Of A Hot Stuff.

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

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