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I Would Risk Violence A Thousand Times Rather Than Risk The Emasculation Of The Whole Race.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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I Would Risk Violence

Mahatma Gandhi

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I Would Risk Violence A Thousand Times Rather Than Risk The Emasculation Of The Whole Race.

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

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

Nonviolence Abhors Fear And Therefore, Secrecy.

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

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.

The Common Factor Of All Religions Is Nonviolence.

The Weak Can Never Forgive. Forgiveness Is The Attribute Of The Strong.

Fear Gone, There Can Be No Hatred.

A Weak Man Is Just By Accident. A Strong But Non-violent Man Is Unjust By Accident.

We Want Freedom For Our Country, But Not At The Expense Or Exploitation Of Others, Not So As To Degrade Other Countries.

Every Man Has An Equal Right To The Necessaries Of Life Even As Birds And Beasts Have.

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

What Is Life Worth Without Trials And Tribulations Which Are The Salt Of Life.

Religion Is A Thing To Be Lived. It Is Not Merely Sophistry.

In This, Of All The Countries In The World, Possession Of Inordinate Wealth By Individuals Should Be Held As A Crime Against Indian Humanity.

It Is A Tragedy That Religion For Us Means, Today, Nothing More Than Restrictions On Food And Drink, Nothing More Than Adherence To Absence Of Superiority And Inferiority.

If You Will Express The Requisite Purity Of Character In Action, You Cannot Do It Better Than Through The Spinning Wheel.

A Warrior Lives On His Wars, Whether Offensive Or Defensive. And He Suffers A Collapse If He Finds That His Warring Capacity Is Unwanted.

Let No One Try To Justify The Glaring Difference Between The Classes And The Masses, The Prince And The Pauper, By Saying That The Former Need More.

All Of Us With One Voice Call One God Differently As Parmatma, Ishwara, Shiva, Vishnu, Rama, Allah, Khuda, Dada-hormuzda, Jehova, God And An Infinite Variety Of Names.

My Uniform Experience Has Convinced Me That There Is No Other God Than Truth

Even A Single Lamp Dispels The Deepest Darkness.

Truth And Ahimsa Will Never Be Destroyed.

They Cannot Take Away Our Self-respect If We Do Not Give It To Them.

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

No Nation Keeps Another In Subjection Without Herself Turning Into A Subject Nation.

God Has Made Of Man And Woman One Complete Whole. In The Scheme Of Nature, Both Of Them Are Equal.

If You Want Something Done, Ask. If You Want Something Done Quickly, Ask, And Then Begin Counting Down From Ten With No Explanation.

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

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

If Every Component Part Of The Nation Claims The Right Of Self-determination For Itself, There Is No One Nation And There Is No Independence.

Let Your Thoughts Be Positive For They Will Become Your Words. Let Your Words Be Positive For They Will Become Your Actions. Let Your Actions Be Positive For They Will Become Your Values. Let Your Values Be Positive For They Will Become Your Destiny.

My Imperfections And Failures Are As Much A Blessing From God As My Successes And My Talents And I Lay Them Both At His Feet.

Truth Is Transcendent. There Are Many Expressions Of It And Ways To Glimpse It. We Cannot Hold It In Our Clenched Fist, But Must Hold It In Our Open Palm And Invite Others To See It For Themselves.

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

The Allah Of Islam Is The Same As The God Of Christians And The Ishwar Of Hindus.

A Vow Must Lead One Upwards, Never Downwards Towards Perdition.

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

When We Fear God, Then We Shall Fear No Man, However High-placed He May Be.

I Believe That Religious Education Must Be The Sole Concern Of Religious Associations.

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

My Quarrel With The Advocates Of Contraceptives Lies In Their Taking For Granted That Ordinary Mortals Cannot Exercise Self-control.

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

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

In The Midst Of Darkness, Light Persists.

There Can Be No Rule Of God In The Present State Of Iniquitous Inequalities In Which A Few Roll In Riches And The Masses Do Not Get Enough To Eat.

Reasoned And Willing Obedience To The Laws Of The State Is The First Lesson In Non-co-operation.

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

Prayer Has Been The Saviour Of My Life. Without It I Should Have Been A Lunatic Long Ago.

If India Won Her Freedom Through Truth And Non-violence, India Would Not Only Point The Way To All The Exploited Asiatic Nations, She Would Become A Torch-bearer For The Negro Races.

I See Neither Bravery Nor Sacrifice In Destroying Life Or Property, For Offense Or Defense.

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

Running Away For Fear Of Death, Leaving One's Dear Ones, Temples Or Music To Take Care Of Themselves, Is Irreligion; It Is Cowardice.

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

Nothing Is Impossible For Pure Love.

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

Ravana Was A Rakshasa But This Rakshasi Of Untouchability Is Even More Terrible Than Ravana.

India Must Learn To Live Before She Can Aspire To Die For Humanity.

To Forgive And Accept Injustice Is Cowardice.

Non-violent Resistance Implies The Very Opposite Of Weakness. Defiance Combined With Non-retaliatory Acceptance Of Repression From One's Opponents Is Active, Not Passive. It Requires Strength, And There Is Nothing Automatic Or Intuitive About The Resoluteness Required For Using Non-violent Methods In Political Struggle And The Quest For Truth.

Stoning Prophets And Erecting Churches To Their Memory Afterwards Has Been The Way Of The World Through The Ages. Today We Worship Christ, But The Christ In The Flesh We Crucified.

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

What The Sermon Describes In A Graphic Manner, The Bhagavadgita Reduces To A Scientific Formula.

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

A True And Nonviolent Combination Of Labour Would Act Like A Magnet Attracting To It All The Needed Capital.

Nobody Can Hurt Me Without My Permission.

Islam Appeals To People Because It Appeals Also To Reason.

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

Himsa Does Not Need To Be Taught, Man As Animal Is Violent, But As Spirit Is Nonviolent.

There Is No Such Thing As ‘too Insane’ Unless Others Turn Up Dead Due To Your Actions.

May Not Men Earn Their Bread By Intellectual Labor? No, The Needs Of The Body Must Be Supplied By The Body.

Every Formula Of Every Religion Has In This Age Of Reason, To Submit To The Acid Test Of Reason And Universal Assent.

We Find The General Work Of Mankind Is Being Carried On From Day To Day By The Mass Of People Acting In Harmony As If By Instinct. If They Were Instinctively Violent, The World Would End In No Time.

Nonviolence Is An Active Force Of The Highest Order. It Is Soul Force Or The Power Of The Godhead Within Us.

The Concepts Of Truth May Differ. But All Admit And Respect Truth. That Truth I Call God. For Sometime I Was Saying, "god Is Truth," But That Did Not Satisfy Me. So Now I Say, "truth Is God."

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

Make Injustice Visible.

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

I Have No Disciples, Being Myself An Aspirant After Discipleship And In Search Of A Guru.

For A Satyagrahi Brigade Only Those Are Eligible Who Believe In Ahimsa And Satya.

Destruction Is Not The Law Of Humans. Man Lives Freely Only By His Readiness To Die, If Need Be, At The Hands Of His Brother, Never By Killing Him. Every Murder Or Other Injury, No Matter For What Cause, Committed Or Inflicted On Another Is A Crime Against Humanity.

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

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.

Culture Of The Mind Must Be Subservient To The Heart.

He Who Runs May See That Opium And Such Other Intoxicants And Narcotics Stupefy A Man's Soul And Reduce Him To A Level Lower Than That Of Beasts.

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

I Must Dissent Emphatically From Any Proposal To Spend Any Money On Preparing A Statue Of Me, More Especially At A Time When People Do Not Have Enough Food And Clothing.

That Atomic Energy Though Harnessed By American Scientists And Army Men For Destructive Purposes May Be Utilised By Other Scientists For Humanitarian Purposes Is Undoubtedly Within The Realm Of Possibility. ... An Incendiary Uses Fire For His Destructive And Nefarious Purpose, A Housewife Makes Daily Use Of It In Preparing Nourishing Food For Mankind.

True Suffering Does Not Know Itself And Never Calculates.

A Man Who Behaves Like A Beast Is Worse Than The Beast.

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.

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

I Must Refuse To Believe That The Germans Contemplate With Equanimity The Evacuation Of Cities Like London For Fear Of Destruction To Be Wrought By Man's Inhuman Ingenuity.

... There Are Chords In Every Human Heart. If We Only Knew How To Strike The Right Chord, We Would Bring Out The Music.

The Greatness Of A Nation And Its Moral Progress Can Be Judged By The Way Its Animals Are Treated. I Hold That The More Helpless A Creature The More Entitled It Is To Protection By Man From The Cruelty Of Humankind.

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

I Call Him Religious Who Understands The Suffering Of Others.

Seek Ye First The Charkha And Its Concomitants And Everything Else Will Be Added Unto You.

Surely Islam Has Nothing To Fear From Criticism Even If It Be Unreasonable.

A Satyagrahi Has Always His Minimum And It Is This Minimum That Is Wanted In Connection With This Struggle.

Peace Between Countries Must Rest On The Solid Foundation Of Love Between Individuals.

Before Civil Disobedience Can Be Practised On A Vast Scale, People Must Learn The Art Of Civil Or Voluntary Obedience.

Everything That We Do Is Insignificant...and...it Is Very Important That We Do It!

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

It Is The Faith And Perseverance And Single-mindedness With Which Hitler Has Perfected His Weapons Of Destruction That Commands My Admiration.

I Am A Seasoned Soldier Of Nonviolence, And I Have Evidence Enough To Sustain My Faith.

The One Religion Is Beyond All Speech.

India's Coming Into Her Own Will Mean Every Nation Doing Likewise.

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

It Is An Ever-growing Belief With Me That Truth Cannot Be Found By Violent Means.

A Nonviolent Struggle Necessarily Involves Construction On A Small Scale. It Cannot Therefore Lead To Tamas Or Darkness Or Inertia.

A Satyagrahi Exhausts All Other Means Before He Resorts To Satyagraha.

I Have Not Know A Worthy Son To Whom His Mother Appeared Ugly.

You May Think Your Actions Are Meaningless And That They Won't Help, But That Is No Excuse, You Must Still Act.

For The Poor, The Economic Is Spiritual.

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

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

We But Mirror The World. All The Tendencies Present In The Outer World Are To Be Found In The World Of Our Body. If We Could Change Ourselves, The Tendencies In The World Would Also Change. As A Man Changes His Own Nature, So Does The Attitude Of The World Change Towards Him. This Is The Divine Mystery Supreme. A Wonderful Thing It Is And The Source Of Our Happiness. We Need Not Wait To See What Others Do.

A Bogus Congress Register Can Never Lead You To Swaraj Any More Than A Paper Boat Can Help You To Sail Across The Padma.

Indeed, The Test Of Orderliness In A Country Is Not The Number Of Millionaires It Owns, But The Absence Of Starvation Among Its Masses.

There Are Unjust Laws As There Are Unjust Men.

Religions Are Different Roads Converging To The Same Point.

Different Roads

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.

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

Cowards Can Never Be Moral.

If We Remain Nonviolent, Hatred Will Die As Everything Does From Disuse.

The Willing Sacrifice Of The Innocents Is The Most Powerful Retort To Insolent Tyranny That Has Yet To Be Conceived By God Or Man.

God Will Not Be God, If He Allowed Himself To Be The Object Of Proof By His Creatures.

Man Lives Freely Only By His Readiness To Die.

True Ahimsa Lay In Running Into The Mouth Of Himsa.

Non-co-operation Is A Movement Intended To Invite Englishmen To Co-operate With Us On Honourable Terms Or Retire From Our Land.

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

All I Want To Say, With The Utmost Emphasis At My Command, Is That The Description Of India As A Military Country Is Wrong.

Self-realization Is The Object Of The Gita, As It Is Of All Scriptures.

Hesitating To Act Because The Whole Vision Might Not Be Achieved, Or Because Others Do Not Yet Share It, Is An Attitude That Only Hinders Progress.

Let Everyone Try And Find That As A Result Of Daily Prayer He Adds Something New To His Life, Something With Which Nothing Can Be Compared.

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

Nonviolence Is The Law Of The Human Race And Is Infinitely Greater Than, And Superior To, Brute Force.

If They Are Truly Nonviolent, They Must Also Realize That Civil Disobedience Is An Impossibility Till The Preliminary Work Of Construction Is Done.

Freedom Of A Nation Cannot Be Won By Solitary Acts Of Heroism Though They May Be Of The True Type, Never By Heroism So Called.

A Man Who Broods On Evil Is As Bad A Man Who Does Evil, If He Is No Worse.

A Votary Of Ahimsa Always Prays For Ultimate Deliverance From The Bondage Of The Flesh.

Nonviolence And Cowardice Go Ill Together.

Undoubtedly, Prayer Requires A Living Faith In God. Successful Satyagraha Is Inconceivable Without That Faith.

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

Non-co-operation And Civil Disobedience In Terms Of Swaraj Are Not To Be Thought Of Without Substantial Constructive Effort.

If I Know Hinduism At All, It Is Essentially Inclusive And Ever-growing, Ever-responsive. It Gives The Freest Scope For Imagination, Speculation And Reason.

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

Thanks To The Court's Decision, Only Clean Indians (meaning Upper Caste Hindu Indians) Or Colored People Other Than Kaffirs, Can Now Travel In The Trains.

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

A National Spirit Is Necessary For National Existence. A Flag Is A Material Aid To The Development Of Such A Spirit.

We Are Merely Instruments Of The Almighty's Will And Therefore Ignorant Of What Helps Us Forward And What Acts As An Impediment. We Must Thus Rest Satisfied With The Knowledge Only Of The Means And If These Are Pure, We Can Fearlessly Leave The End To Take Care Of Itself.

True Happiness Brings More Richness Than All The Money In The World.

The Spinning Wheel For Us Is The Foundation For All Public Corporate Life.

Every Single Act Of One Who Would Lead A Life Of Purity Should Be In The Nature Of Yajna.

I Have So Much To Accomplish Today That I Must Meditate For Two Hours Instead Of One.

Children Inherit The Qualities Of The Parents, No Less Than Their Physical Features. Environment Does Play An Important Part, But The Original Capital On Which A Child Starts In Life Is Inherited From Its Ancestors. I Have Also Seen Children Successfully Surmounting The Effects Of An Evil Inheritance. That Is Due To Purity Being An Inherent Attribute Of The Soul.

God Has Blessed Me With The Mission To Place Nonviolence Before The Nation For Adoption.

Freedom Is Like Birth. Till We Are Fully Free, We Are Slaves.

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

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

Persistent Questioning And Healthy Inquisitiveness Are The First Requisite For Acquiring Learning Of Any Kind.

Solitude Is A Catalyst For Innovation

The Only Way Love Punishes In By Suffering.

A Heart-felt Prayer Is Not Recitation With The Lips. It Is A Yearning From Within Which Expresses Itself In Every Word, Every Act, Nay Every Thought Of People.

Jealousy Does Not Wait For Reasons.

What We Are Doing To The Forests Of The World Is But A Mirror Reflection Of What We Are Doing To Ourselves And To One Another.

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

Civil Disobedience Is The Assertion Of A Right Which Law Should Give But Which It Denies.

The Propagation Of Truth And Nonviolence Can Be Done Less By Books Than By Actually Living On Those Principles.

Robust Faith In Oneself And Brave Trust Of The Opponent, So Called Or Real, Is The Best Safeguard.

Truth Should So Humble That Even Dust Could Crush It.

It Is Wonderful, If We Chose The Right Diet, What An Extraordinarily Small Quantity Would Suffice.

The Swaraj Of My Dream Recognizes No Race Or Religious Distinctions.

God Has Been Described By All The Scriptures Of The World As Protector And Saviour Of The Sinner.

What Is A War Criminal? Was Not War Itself A Crime Against God And Humanity, And, Therefore, Were Not All Those Who Sanctioned, Engineered, And Conducted Wars, War Criminals? War Criminals Are Not Confined To The Axis Powers Alone. Roosevelt And Churchill Are No Less War Criminals Than Hitler And Mussolini. England, America And Russia Have All Of Them Got Their Hands Dyed More Or Less Red - Not Merely Germany And Japan.

Satyagraha Is A Relentless Search For Truth And A Determination To Search Truth.

Hatred Can Be Overcome Only By Love.

Man Should Forget His Anger Before He Lies Down To Sleep.

Faith Is Not A Delicate Flower Which Would Wither Away Under The Slightest Stormy Weather.

Islam Stands For The Unity And Brotherhood Of Mankind, And Not For Disrupting The Oneness Of The Human Family.

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.

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

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, To Me, Is A Great World Teacher Among Others.

It Is Also A Warning. It Is A Warning That, If Nobody Reads The Writing On The Wall, Man Will Be Reduced To The State Of The Beast, Whom He Is Shaming By His Manners.

The Charkha Is Intended To Realize The Essential And Living Oneness Of Interest Among India's Myriads.

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

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.

My Nonviolence Does Not Admit Of Running Away From Danger And Leaving The Dear Ones Unprotected.

Mass Illiteracy Is India's Sin And Shame And Must Be Liquidated.

The Nation Cannot Be Kept On The Nonviolent Path By Violence.

You Can Judge A Society By The Way It Treats It's Animals

Faith Alone Is The Sun Of Life.

There Is A Sufficiency In The World For Man's Need But Not For Man's Greed.

The Highest Truth Needs No Communicating, For It Is By Its Very Nature Self-propelling. It Radiates Its Influence Silently As The Rose Its Fragrance Without The Intervention Of A Medium.

It Is Not Given To Man To Know The Whole Truth. His Duty Lies In Living Up To The Truth As He Sees It, And In Doing So, To Resort To The Purest Means, I.e., To Non-violence. God Alone Knows Absolute Truth. Therefore, I Have Often Said, Truth Is God. It Follows That Man, A Finite Being, Cannot Know Absolute Truth. Nobody In This World Possesses Absolute Truth. This Is God's Attribute Alone. Relative Truth Is All We Know. Therefore, We Can Only Follow The Truth As We See It. Such Pursuit Of Truth Cannot Lead Anyone Astray.

All The Religions Of The World Describe God Pre-eminently As The Friend Of The Friendless, Help Of The Helpless, And Protector Of The Weak.

Man Is Not To Drown Himself In The Well Of The Shastras, But He Is To Dive In Their Broad Ocean And Bring Out Pearls.

The Consumption Of Vegetables Involves Himsa, But I Cannot Give Them Up.

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