Background Image

...

I Would Beseech You Not Only To Be Pure Beyond Suspicion But I Would Ask You To Combine With Stainless Purity, Great Wisdom And Great Ability.

-Mahatma Gandhi

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Would Beseech You

Mahatma Gandhi

...

I Would Beseech You Not Only To Be Pure Beyond Suspicion But I Would Ask You To Combine With Stainless Purity, Great Wisdom And Great Ability.

Views: 10

Topic

More From Mahatma Gandhi

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.

An India Prostrate At The Feet Of Europe Can Give No Hope To Humanity.

No Human Being Is So Bad As To Be Beyond Redemption.

Blind Adoration, In The Age Of Action, Is Perfectly Valueless, Is Often Embarrassing And, Equally, Often Painful.

No Nation Being Under Another Nation Can Accept Gifts, And Kick At The Responsibility Attached To Those Gifts, Imposed By The Conquering Nation.

Be The Change You're Trying To Create

A True Life Lived Amongst The People Is In Itself An Object-lesson That Must Produce Its Own Effect Upon Immediate Surroundings.

Satyagraha Is A Force That Has Come To Stay. No Force In The World Can Kill It.

There Is No Love Where There Is No Will

Democracy Demands Patient Instruction On It Before Legislation.

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

A Man Of Truth Must Also Be A Man Of Care.

To One Who Reads The Spirit Of The Gita, It Teaches The Secret Of Nonviolence, The Secret Of Realizing Self Through The Physical Body.

It Is Easy Enough To Say, I Do Not Believe In God. For God Permits All Things To Be Said Of Him With Impunity. He Looks At Our Acts. And Any Breach Of His Law Carries With It, Not Its Vindictive, But It Purifying, Compelling Punishment.

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

Nonviolence To Be Worth Anything Has To Work In The Face Of Hostile Forces.

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

All Your Scholarship, All Your Study Of Shakespeare And Wordsworth Would Be In Vain, If At The Same Time You Do Not Build Your Character, And Attain Mastery Over Your Thoughts And Actions.

I Eat To Live, To Serve, And Also, If It So Happens, To Enjoy, But I Do Not Eat For The Sake Of Enjoyment.

The Difference Between What We Do And What We Are Capable Of Doing Would Suffice To Solve Most Of The World's Problems.

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.

Increase Of Material Comforts, It May Be Generally Laid Down, Does Not In Any Way Whatsoever Conduce To Moral Growth.

Of All The Myriads Of God, Daridranarayana Is The Most Sacred Inasmuch As It Represents The Untold Millions Of The Poor People As Distinguished From The Few Rich People.

If A Man Voluntarily Allows Himself To Be Crushed, He Yields The Oil Of Moral Energy Which Sustains The World.

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

The Villagers Want Bread-not Butter-and Disciplined Work, Some Work That Will Supplement Their Agricultural Avocations Which Do Not Go On For All The 12 Months.

Even If You Are A Minority Of One, The Truth Is The Truth.

Speak Your Mind

I Offer You Peace. I Offer You Love. I Offer You Friendship. I See Your Beauty. I Hear Your Need. I Feel Your Feelings.

Action Expresses Priorities.

I Must Say That, Beyond Occasionally Exposing Me To Laughter, My Constitutional Shyness Has Been No Dis-advantage Whatever. In Fact I Can See That, On The Contrary, It Has Been All To My Advantage.

Live Simply That Others Might Simply Live.

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

My Religion And My Patriotism Derived From My Religion, Embrace All Life.

Knowledge Of The Tallest Scientist Or The Greatest Spiritualist Is Like A Particle Of Dust.

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.

Final Satyagraha Is Inconceivable Without An Honorable Peace Between The Several Communities Composing The Indian Nation.

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

As A Rule I Had A Distaste For Any Reading Beyond My School Books.

I Regard Duryodhana And His Party As The Baser Impulses In Man, And Arjuna And His Party As The Higher Impulses.

The Force Of Nonviolence Is Infinitely More Wonderful And Subtle Than The Material Forces Of Nature, Like Electricity.

Anything That Exists Is Possible.

Destruction Of The Churches And The Like Is Not The Way To Swaraj As Defined By The Congress.

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

To Practice Nonviolence In Mundane Matters Is To Know Its True Value.

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

Boycott Of Foreign Cloth Through Picketing May Easily Be Violent; Through The Use Of Khadi It Is Most Natural And Absolutely Nonviolent.

Cow-slaughter And Man-slaughter Are In My Opinion Two Sides Of The Same Coin.

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.

It Is Impossible To Wait And Weigh, In Golden Scales, The Sentiments Of Prejudice And Superstition That Have Gathered Round The Priests Who Are Considered To Be The Custodians Of Hinduism.

I Can Combine The Greatest Love With The Greatest Opposition To Wrong.

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

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

I Hold That Without Truth And Nonviolence There Can Be Nothing But Destruction Of Humanity.

Live Each Day As If It Were Your Last. Learn As If You Would Live Forever.

I Know That I Have Still Before Me A Difficult Path To Traverse. I Must Reduce Myself To Zero. So Long As A Man Does Not Of His Own Free Will Put Himself Last Among His Fellow Creatures, There Is No Salvation For Him. Ahimsa Is The Farthest Limit Of Humility.

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.

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

Satisfaction Lies In The Effort, Not In The Attainment, Full Effort Is Full Victory.

My Soul Refuses To Be Satisfied So Long As It Is A Helpless Witness Of A Single Wrong Or A Single Misery.

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.

Truth And Non-violence Are Not Cloistered Virtues But Applicable As Much In The Forum And The Legislatures As In The Market Place.

The Attack On Untouchability Is An Attack On This High-and Low-ness.

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

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

It Is Not A Mistake To Commit A Mistake, For No One Commits A Mistake Knowing It To Be One. But It Is A Mistake Not To Correct The Mistake After Knowing It To Be One. If You Are Afraid Of Committing A Mistake, You Are Afraid Of Doing Anything At All. You Will Correct Your Mistakes Whenever You Find Them.

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

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.

Individual Civil Disobedience Was Everybody's Inherent Right, Like The Right Of Self-defence In Normal Life.

Faith Is A Kind Of Sixth Sense Which Works In Cases Which Are Without The Purview Of Reason.

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

There Is No Distrust Of Men And Mankind In Me. They Will Answer Before God, So Why Should I Worry?

The Truest Test Of A Democracy Is In The Ability Of Anyone To Act As He Likes, So Long As He Does Not Injure The Life Or Property Of Anyone Else.

Retreat Itself Is Often A Plan Of Resistance And May Be A Precursor Of Great Bravery And Sacrifice. Every Retreat Is Not Cowardice Which Implies Fear To Die.

Hinduism Has Sinned In Giving Sanction To Untouchability.

A Man Can Give Up A Right, But He May Not Give Up A Duty Without Being Guilty Of A Grave Dereliction.

Even A Little Untruth Destroys A Man, As A Drop Of Poison Ruins Milk.

Of What Avail Is My Love If It Be Only So Long As I Trust My Friend?

Do Not Worry About What Others Are Doing! Each Of Us Should Turn The Searchlight Inward And Purify His Or Her Own Heart As Much As Possible.

Independence Means Voluntary Restraints And Discipline, Voluntary Acceptance Of The Rule Of Law.

You Assist An Administration Most Effectively By Obeying Its Orders And Decrees. An Evil Administration Never Deserves Such Allegiance. Allegiance To It Means Partaking Of The Evil. A Good Man Will Therefore Resist An Evil System Or Administration With His Whole Soul.

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

No Perfect Democracy Is Possible Without Perfect Nonviolence At The Back Of It.

The Quest Of Truth Involves Tapas-self-suffering-sometimes Even Unto Death.

For Me There Is A Vital Connection Between The Bihar Calamity And The Untouchability Campaign.

This Earthly Existence Of Ours Is More Brittle That The Glass Bangles That Ladies Wear.

If I Were Asked To Define The Hindu Creed, I Should Simply Say: Search After Truth Through Non-violent Means. Hinduism Is A Relentless Pursuit After Truth.

Those Who Say Religion Has Nothing To Do With Politics Do Not Know What Religion Is.

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.

It Is Difficult To Judge, When Both Sides Are Employing Weapons Of Violence, Which Side 'deserves' To Succeed.

Disobedience, To Be Civil, Implies Discipline, Thought, Care, Attention.

It Is Simple Impertinence For Any Man, Or Any Body Of Men, To Begin, Or To Contemplate, Reform Of The Whole World.

Intolerance Is A Species Of Violence And Therefore Against Our Creed.

Ram Mohan Roy Would Have Been A Greater Reformer And Lokmanya Tilak A Greater Scholar If They Had Not To Start With The Handicap Of Having To Think In English And Transmit Their Thoughts Chiefly In English.

Real Education Has To Draw Out The Best From The Boys And Girls To Be Educated.

There Is An Orderliness In The Universe, There Is An Unalterable Law Governing Everything And Every Being That Exists Or Lives. It Is No Blind Law; For No Blind Law Can Govern The Conduct Of Living Beings.

If You Don't Find God In The Next Person You Meet, It Is A Waste Of Time Looking For Him Further.

Since Satyagraha Is A Method Of Conversion And Conviction, It Seeks Never To Use The Slightest Coercion.

Human Language Can But Imperfectly Describe God's Ways.

If I Were A Dictator, Religion And State Would Be Separate. I Swear By My Religion. I Will Die For It. But It Is My Personal Affair. The State Has Nothing To Do With It. The State Would Look After Your Secular Welfare, Health, Communications, Foreign Relations, Currency And So On, But Not Your Or My Religion. That Is Everybody's Personal Concern!

Secular Society

Without A Belief In My Programme And Without An Acceptance Of My Condition, You Will Ruin Me, Ruin Yourselves And Ruin The Cause.

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

Dharma Is That Which Is Enjoined By The Holy Books, Followed By The Sages, Interpreted By The Learned And Which Appeals To The Heart.

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

The Best Way Of Losing A Cause Is To Abuse Your Opponent And To Trade Upon His Weakness.

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

The Sum Total Of Karma Is God.

Nonviolence Is The Means, The End For Everyone Is Complete Independence.

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

Truth Is By Nature Self-evident. As Soon As You Remove The Cobwebs Of Ignorance That Surround It, It Shines Clear.

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

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

If Untouchability Lives, Humanity Must Die.

Surely, Conversion Is A Matter Between Man And His Maker Who Alone Knows His Creatures' Hearts.

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

All True Art Must Help The Soul To Realize Its Inner Self.

Your Future Depends On What You Do Today.

Without The Study Of Samskrit One Cannot Become A True Indian And A True Learned Man.

Shraddha Means Self-confidence And Self-confidence Means Faith In God.

Self Confidence

No Man Could Look Upon Another As His Enemy, Unless He First Became His Own Enemy.

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.

The Earth, The Air, The Land And The Water Are Not An Inheritance From Our Fore Fathers But On Loan From Our Children. So We Have To Handover To Them At Least As It Was Handed Over To Us.

If You Do Nothing There Will Be No Results

There Must Be Power In The Word Of A Satyagraha General, Not The Power That The Possession Of Limitless Arms Gives, But The Power That Purifies Life Which Strict Vigilance And A Ceaseless Application Produce.

I Suggest That We Are Thieves In A Way. If I Take Anything That I Do Not Need For My Own Immediate Use, And Keep It, I Thieve It From Somebody Else. ... Nature Produces Enough For Our Wants From Day To Day, And If Only Every-body Took Enough For Himself And Nothing More, There Would Be No Pauperism In This World, There Would Be No Man Dying Of Starvation In This World. But So Long As We Have Got This Inequality, So Long We Are Thieving.

My Implicit Faith In Nonviolence Does Mean Yielding To Minorities When They Are Really Weak.

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

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.

We Shall Make Progress Towards Swaraj Only If We Do Everything Thoughtfully And With Understanding.

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.

Unless Nonviolence Of The Strong Is Really Developed Among Us, There Should Be No Thought Of Civil Disobedience For Swaraj, Whether Within The States Or In British India.

Reason Has To Be Strengthened By Suffering, And Suffering Opens The Eyes Of Understanding.

The Idol In The Temple Is Not God. But Since God Resides In Every Atom, He Resides In That Idol Too.

There Is No Road Towards Peace; Peace Is The Road

The Message Of Khaddar Can Penetrate To The Remotest Villages If We Only Will That It Shall Be So.

The Soul Of India Lives In Its Villages.

In A Society Based On Nonviolence, The Smallest Nation Will Feel As Tall As The Tallest.

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.

The Force Generated By Nonviolence Is Infinitely Greater Than The Force Of All The Arms Created By Man's Ingenuity.

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

The Strength To Kill Is Not Essential For Self-defense; One Ought To Have The Strength To Die. When A Man Is Fully Ready To Die, He Will Not Even Desire To Offer Violence. Indeed, I May Put It Down As A Self-evident Proposition That The Desire To Kill Is In Inverse Proportion To The Desire To Die. And 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 Is An Intensely Active Force When Properly Understood And Used.

Nationalism, Like Virtue, Has Its Own Reward.

Faith Alone Is The Sun Of Life.

I Am Conscious Of My Own Limitations. That Consciousness Is My Only Strength.

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

A Vow Is A Purely Religious Act Which Cannot Be Taken In A Fit Of Passion. It Can Be Taken Only With A Mind Purified And Composed And With God As Witness.

Wherever Flaxseeds Become A Regular Food Item Among The People, There Will Be Better Health.

Nonviolence Succeeds Only When We Have A Real Living Faith In God.

Truth Stands For The Fact, Nonviolence Negates The Fact.

Hinduism With Its Message Of Ahimsa Is To Me The Most Glorious Religion In The World.

Truth Is The Right Designation Of God.

Selfishness Is Blind.

Yajna Is Not Yajna If One Feels It To Be Burdensome Or Annoying.

Nothing In The Shastras, Which Is Capable Of Being Reasoned, Can Stand If It Is In Conflict With Reason.

To Double Your Successes, You Might Have To Double Your Failure Rate.

There Can Be No Friendship Between Cowards, Or Cowards And Brave Men.

When Nonviolence Is Accepted As The Law Of Life, It Must Pervade The Whole Being And Not Be Applied To Isolated Acts.

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

The Law And The Lawgiver Are One.

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

The First Condition Of Humaneness Is A Little Humility And A Little Diffidence About The Correctness Of One's Conduct And A Little Receptiveness.

The World Easily Finds An Honourable Place For The Magician Who Produces New And Dazzling Things.

To Find Truth Completely Is To Realize Oneself And One's Destiny, I.e. To Become Perfect.

God Is Truth, Truth Is God.

Power Is Of Two Kinds. One Is Obtained By The Fear Of Punishment And The Other By Acts Of Love. Power Based On Love Is A Thousand Times More Effective And Permanent Then The One Derived From Fear Of Punishment.

The Essence Of A Vow Does Not Consist In The Difficulty Of Its Performance But In The Determination Behind It Unflinchingly To Stick To It In The Teeth Of Difficulties.

True Education Is That Which Proves Useful In Life And Makes You Industrious.

Nothing Is Impossible For Pure Love.

Love Is The Humblest Yet The Most Powerful Force That The Human Being Has.

Intellect Takes Us Along In The Battle Of Life To A Certain Limit, But At The Crucial Moment It Fails Us. Faith Transcends Reason. It Is When The Horizon Is The Darkest And Human Reason Is Beaten Down To The Ground That Faith Shines Brightest And Comes To Our Rescue.

Khaddar Delivers The Poor From The Bonds Of The Rich And Creates A Moral And Spiritual Bond Between The Classes And The Masses.

To Die In The Act Of Killing Is, In Essence, To Die Defeated.

I Own No Enemy On Earth. That Is My Creed.

We Don't Use Guns Because We Don't Have Guns

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

If The Poet Spun For Half An Hour Daily, His Poetry Would Gain In Richness.

The Principle Of Majority Does Not Work When Differences On Fundamentals Are Involved.

We Do Not Know Whether It Is Good To Live Or To Die. Therefore, We Should Not Take Delight In Living, Nor Should We Tremble At The Thought Of Death. We Should Be Equiminded Towards Death. This Is The Ideal. It May Be Long Before We Reach It, And Only A Few Of Us Can Attain It. Even Then, We Must Keep It Constantly In View, And The More Difficult It Seems Of Attainment, The Greater Should Be The Effort We Put Forth.

Let Hundreds Like Me Perish, But Let Truth Triumph.

A Satyagrahi Is Dead To His Body Even Before The Enemy Attempts To Kill Him.

I Believe That The Sum Total Of The Energy Of Mankind Is Not To Bring Us Down But To Lift Us Up, And That Is The Result Of The Definite, If Unconscious, Working Of The Law Of Love. The Fact That Mankind Persists Shows That The Cohesive Force Is Greater Than The Disruptive Force, Centripetal Force Greater Than Centrifugal.

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

Nobody In This World Possesses Absolute Truth.

People Become What They Expect Themselves To Become

A Rabbit That Runs Away From The Bull-terrier Is Not Particularly Non-violent.

Our Nonviolence Vis-а-vis The British Government Has Been The Nonviolence Of The Weak.

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.

Tulsidas's Ramayana Is A Notable Book Because It Is Informed With The Spirit Of Purity, Pity And Piety.

Men In Prison Are "civilly Dead" And Have No Claim To Any Say In Policy.

In Order That Knowledge May Not Run Riot, The Author Of The Gita Has Insisted On Devotion Accompanying It And Has Given It The First Place.

Love And Exclusive Possession Can Never Go Together.

Satyagraha Does Not Begin And End With Civil Disobedience.

Prayer Needs No Speech. It Is In Itself Independent Of Any Sensuous Effort. But It Must Be Combined With The Utmost Humility.

Faith Is Put To The Test When The Situation Is Most Difficult.

When Faced With A Choice Between Violence And Cowardice, Always Choose Violence

The Religion Of Nonviolence Is Not Meant Merely For Therishis And Saints.

We Are Too Near The Scene Of Tragedy To Realize That This Canker Or Untouchability Has Traveled Far Beyond Its Prescribed Limits And Has Sapped The Very Foundation Of The Whole Nation.

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

Do Not Judge Others. Be Your Own Judge And You Will Be Truly Happy. If You Will Try To Judge Others, You Are Likely To Burn Your Fingers.

Unexampled Bravery, Born Of Nonviolence, Coupled With Strict Honesty Shown By A Fair Number Of Muslims, Is Sure To Infect The Whole Of India.

Trending Author

Thomas Campbell

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Category