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If We Were To Drive Out The English With The Weapons With Which They Enslaved Us, Our Slavery Would Still Be With Us Even When They Have Gone.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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If We Were To

Mahatma Gandhi

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If We Were To Drive Out The English With The Weapons With Which They Enslaved Us, Our Slavery Would Still Be With Us Even When They Have Gone.

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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.

Hindu Religious Literature, Indeed All Religious Literature, Is Full Of Illustrations To Prove The Truth.

For Me, Rama And Rahim Are One And The Same Deity.

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

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

The Still Small Voice Within You Must Always Be The Final Arbiter When There Is A Conflict Of Duty.

The Present War Is The Saturation Point In Violence. It Spells, To My Mind, Also Its Doom.

"all Men Are Born Equal And Free" Is Not Nature's Law In The Literal Sense.

A Convert's Enthusiasm For His New Religion Is Greater Than That Of A Person Who Is Born In It.

For India To Enter Into The Race For Armaments Is To Court Suicide.

The Most Heinous And The Most Cruel Crimes Of Which History Has Record Have Been Committed Under The Cover Of Religion Or Equally Noble Motives.

The Music Of Life Is In Danger Of Being Lost In The Music Of The Voice.

Idleness Is The Great Plague Of India.

Virtue Lies In Being Absorbed In One's Prayers In The Presence Of Din And Noise.

I Am A Proud Staunch Sanatani Hindu.

My Ahimsa Is My Own. I Am Not Able To Accept In Its Entirety The Doctrine Of Non-killing Of Animals.

Nonviolence Of The Strong Cannot Be A Mere Policy. It Must Be A Creed, Or A Passion, If 'creed' Is Objected To.

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

But The Fact That I Had Learnt To Be Tolerant To Other Religions Did Not Mean That I Had Any Living Faith In God.

Whatever You Do May Seem Insignificant To You, But It Is Most Important That You Do It.

The Socialism That India Can Assimilate Is The Socialism Of The Spinning Wheel.

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.

Unless Discipline Is Rooted In Nonviolence, It Might Prove To Be A Source Of Infinite Mischief.

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

God Demands Nothing Less Than Self - Surrender As The Price For The Only Real Freedom That Is Worth Having.

I Am A Christian And A Hindu And A Muslim And A Jew.

My Work Will Be Finished If I Succeed In Carrying Conviction To The Human Family That Every Man Or Woman, However Weak In Body, Is The Guardian Of His Or Her Self-respect And Liberty.

Mere Brave Speech Without Action Is Letting Off Useless Steam.

When The Ego Dies, The Soul Awakes.

Truth Is The First Thing To Be Sought For, And Beauty And Goodness Will Then Be Added Unto You.

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

Nonviolence Is The Law Of Our Species As Violence Is The Law Of The Brute.

Ramanama Is For The Pure At Heart And For Those Who Want To Attain Purity And Remain Pure.

I Know That Man Who Forsakes Truth Can Forsake His Country And His Nearest And Dearest Ones.

Manliness Consists Not In Bluff, Bravado Or Loneliness. It Consists In Daring To Do The Right Thing And Facing Consequences Whether It Is In Matters Social, Political Or Other. It Consists In Deeds Not Words.

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

The West Has Yet To Discover Anything So Hygienic As The Indian Toothstick.

Abstract Truth Has No Value Unless It Incarnates In Human Beings Who Represent It, By Proving Their Readiness To Die For It.

The Restoration Of Free Speech, Free Association And Free Press Is Almost The Whole Swaraj.

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

A Man Who Is Truthful And Does Not Mean Ill Even To His Adversary Will Be Slow To Believe Charges Even Against His Foes. He Will, However, Try To Understand The Viewpoints Of His Opponents And Will Always Keep An Open Mind And Seek Every Opportunity Of Serving His Opponents.

How Can I Even Secretly Harbour The Thought That My Neighbour's Faith Is Inferior To Mine?

No People Have Risen Who Thought Only Of Rights. Only Those Did So Who Thought Of Duties.

Service Is Not Possible Unless It Is Rooted In Love Orahimsa.

Man Is Sent Into The World To Perform His Duty Even At The Cost Of His Life.

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

It Amazes Me To Find An Intelligent Person Who Fights Against Something Which He Does Not At All Believe Exists.

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

It Is Knowledge That Ultimately Gives Salvation.

The Richest Grace Of Ahimsa Will Descend Easily Upon The Owner Of Hard Discipline.

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

What Will Tell In The End Will Be Character And Not A Knowledge Of Letters.

Love And Exclusive Possession Can Never Go Together.

All Great Religions Have Rightly Regarded Kama As The Arch-enemy Of Man, Anger Or Hatred Coming Only In The Second Place.

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

Decency And Tolerance, To Be Of Any Value, Must Be Capable Of Withstanding The Severest Strain.

God Is The Vital Force Or Spirit Which Is All-pervading, All-embracing And, Therefore, Beyond Human Ken.

Hate The Sin, Love The Sinner.

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

If There Is Violence, It Will Certainly Be Crushed Because Violence Can Only End In A Disgraceful Rout.

My Only Sanction Is The Love And Affection In Which You Hold Me. But It Has Its Weaknesses, As It Has Its Strengths.

Every Moment Of My Existence Is Dedicated To The Winning Of Swaraj By Means Of Truth And Nonviolence.

Poverty Is The Greatest Violence.

God Cannot Be So Cruel And Unjust As To Make The Distinctions Of High And Low Between Man And Man, And Woman And Woman.

The State Is The Sum Total Of The Sacrifice, On Its Behalf, Of Its Members.

Through Realization Of Freedom Of India, I Hope To Realize And Carry On The Mission Of Brotherhood Of Man.

Brotherhood Of Man

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

Character Alone Will Have Real Effect On The Masses.

Friendship That Insists Upon Agreement On All Matters Is Not Worth The Name. Friendship To Be Real Must Ever Sustain The Weight Of Honest Differences, However Sharp They Be.

The Man Who Coerces Another Not To Eat Fish Commits More Violence Than He Who Eats It.

If You Do What You Enjoy Doing You'll Never Have To Work Hard.

It Is Difficult For Me To Regard Anyone Who Obeys No Moral Principle In His Conduct To Be A Religious Man.

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

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

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

The Woman Who Knows And Fulfils Her Duty Realizes Her Dignified Status.

Go For The Throat. If You Cant, Go For The Nads.

Love Is A Rare Herb That Makes A Friend Even Of A Sworn Enemy And This Herb Grows Out Of Nonviolence.

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

A Religion Cannot Be Sustained By The Number Of Its Lip-followers Denying In Their Lives Its Tenets.

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.

It Is Much More Difficult To Live For Nonviolence Than To Die For It.

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

The Story Of Ramakrishna Is A Story Of Religion In Practice. His Life Enables Us To See God Face To Face.... In This Age Of Skepticism Ramakrishna Presents An Example Of A Bright And Living Faith Which Gives Solace To Thousands Of Men And Women Who Would Otherwise Have Remained Without Spiritual Light.

We Are All Very Imperfect And Weak Things, And If We Are To Destroy All Whose Ways We Do Not Like, There Will Be Not A Man Left Alive.

I Cannot Think Of Permanent Enmity Between Man And Man.

In The Dictionary Of The Seeker Of Truth There Is No Such Thing As Being "not Successful." He Is Or Should Be An Irrepressible Optimist Because Of His Immovable Faith In The Ultimate Victory Of Truth, Which Is God.

I'm A Lover Of My Own Liberty, And So I Would Do Nothing To Restrict Yours.

It Is As Much Our Obligation Not To Cooperate With Evil As It Is To Cooperate With Good

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

Nothing Enduring Can Be Built On Violence.

Throughout The History Of Mankind There Have Been Murderers And Tyrants; And While It May Seem Momentarily That They Have The Upper Hand, They Have Always Fallen. Always.

A Satyagrahi Would Neither Retaliate Nor Would He Submit To The Criminal, But Seek To Cure Him By Curing Himself.

I Am Not Conscious Of A Single Experience Throughout My Three Months' Stay In England And Europe That Made Me Feel That After All East Is East And West Is West. On The Contrary, I Have Been Convinced More Than Ever That Human Nature Is Much The Same, No Matter Under What Clime It Flourishes, And That If You Approached People With Trust And Affection You Would Have Ten-fold Trust And Thousand-fold Affection Returned To You.

The One Religion Is Beyond All Speech.

Satyagraha, Of Which Civil Resistance Is But A Part, Is To Me The Universal Law Of Life.

Fear Has Its Use, But Cowardice Has None. I May Not Put My Finger Into The Jaws Of A Snake, But The Very Sight Of The Snake Need Not Strike Terror Into Me.

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

Poverty Is The Worst Form Of Violence.

Hunger And Poverty

To Believe That What Has Not Occurred In History Will Not Occur At All, Is To Argue Disbelief In The Dignity Of Man.

I Have In My Life Never Been Guilty Of Saying Things I Did Not Mean - My Nature Is To Go Straight To The Heart And If Often I Fail In Doing So For The Time Being, I Know That Truth Ultimately Makes Itself Heard And Felt, As It Has Often Done In My Experience.

Once One Assumes An Attitude Of Intolerance, There Is No Knowing Where It Will Take One. Intolerance, Someone Has Said, Is Violence To The Intellect And Hatred Is Violence To The Heart.

Prayer From The Heart Can Achieve What Nothing Else Can In The World.

I Look Only To The Good Qualities Of Men. Not Being Faultless Myself, I Won't Presume To Probe Into The Faults Of Others.

I Once Experimented With Marijuna, Next Thing I Know I'm Waking Up With Blood On My Hands.......and Not My Own Blood.

Punishment Is God's. He Alone Is The Infallible Judge.

There Is No Yajna (sacrifice) Greater Than Spinning Calculated To Bring Peace To The Troubled Spirit, To Soothe The Distracted Student's Mind, To Spiritualize His Life.

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

A Man Who Wants To Control His Animal Passions Easily Does So If He Controls His Palate.

Love Requires That True Education Should Be Easily Accessible To All And Should Be Of Use To Every Villager In This Daily Life. The Emphasis Laid On The Principle Of Spending Every Minute Of One's Life Usefully Is The Best Education For Citizenship.

The Hardest Heart And The Grossest Ignorance Must Disappear Before The Rising Sun Of Suffering Without Anger And Without Malice.

Nonviolent Nationalism Is A Necessary Condition Of Corporate Or Civilized Life.

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.

Human Life Is A Series Of Compromises, And It Is Not Always Easy To Achieve In Practice What One Has Found To Be True In Theory.

An Ounce Of Practice Is Worth More Than Tons Of Preaching.

I Know Of No Religion Or Sect That Has Done Or Is Doing Without A House Of God, Variously Described As A Temple, A Mosque, A Church, A Synagogue Or Agiary.

But No One Has A Right To Coerce Others To Act According To His Own View Of Truth.

To Call Woman The Weaker Sex Is A Libel; It Is Man's Injustice To Woman. If By Strength Is Meant Brute Strength, Then, Indeed, Is Woman Less Brute Than Man. If By Strength Is Meant Moral Power, Then Woman Is Immeasurably Man's Superior.

If Untouchability Is An Integral Part Of Hinduism, The Latter Is A Spent Bullet.

Without Real Nonviolence, There Would Be Perfect Anarchy.

Unrestricted Individualism Is The Law Of The Beast Of The Jungle.

The Real Test Of Nonviolence Lies In Its Being Brought In Contact With Those Who Have Contempt For It.

It Has Always Been A Mystery To Me How Men Can Feel Themselves Honoured By The Humiliation Of Their Fellow Beings.

The Weak Can Never Forgive. Forgiveness Is The Attribute Of The Strong. For The Least Sin, It Wouldn't Take Us Longto Get So We Had No One Left To Live With.for To Be Social Is To Be Forgiving.

An Error Does Not Become Truth By Reason Of Multiplied Propagation, Nor Does Truth Become Error Because Nobody Sees It.

I Regard The Constituent Assembly As The Substitute Ofsatyagraha. It Is Constructive Satyagraha.

Interdependence Is And Ought To Be As Much The Ideal Of Man As Self-sufficiency. Man Is A Social Being.

Non-violence Is Not A Quality To Be Evolved Or Expressed To Order. It Is An Inward Growth Depending For Sustenance Upon Intense Individual Effort.

Individual Effort

Purity Of Mind And Idleness Are Incompatible.

The Enemy Is Fear. We Think It Is Hate; But, It Is Fear.

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

Non-co-operation Is The Nation's Notice That It Is No Longer Satisfied To Be In Tutelage.

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

Fear Of Disease Killed More Men Than Disease Itself.

It Is Nonviolent Non-co-operation Which Evokes The Highest Spirit Of Self-sacrifice That Will Wean One From The Error Of One's Ways.

If Intellect Plays A Large Part In The Field Of Violence, I Hold That It Plays A Larger Part In The Field Of Nonviolence.

My Gita Tells Me That Evil Can Never Result From A Good Action.

Faith Becomes Lame, When It Ventures Into Matters Pertaining To Reason!

It Is Swaraj When We Learn To Rule Ourselves.

Self Assessment

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

The Earth Has Everything For All Human Needs, But Nothing For His Greed.

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

India Unarmed Would Not Require To Be Destroyed Through Poison Gas Or Bombardment.

Men Are Good. But They Are Poor Victims Making Themselves Miserable Under The False Belief That They Are Doing Good.

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

It Only Confirms Me In My Belief That There Is No Swaraj Without A Settlement With The Mussalmans.

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

Lovers Of Swaraj Cannot Rest Till A Solution Is Found Which Would Allay Mussalman Apprehensions And Yet Not Endanger Swaraj.

True Prayer Is Not A Prelude To Inaction.

A Thousand Candles Can Be Lighted From The Flame Of One Candle, And The Life Of The Candle Will Not Be Shortened. Happiness Can Be Spread Without Diminishing That Of Yourself.

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

A Country Whose Culture Is Based On Nonviolence Will Find It Necessary To Have Every Home As Much Self-contained As Possible.

If You`d Be Loved, Be Worthy To Be Love

I Do Not Regard Flesh-food As Necessary For Us At Any Stage And Under Any Clime In Which It Is Possible For Human Beings Ordinarily To Live, I Hold Flesh-food To Be Unsuited To Our Species.

Vegetarian Health

If It Weren't For Christians, I'd Be A Christian.

The Socialistic Conception Of The West Was Born In An Environment Reeking With Violence.

God's Ways Are More Than Man's Arithmetic.

To Forgive Is Not To Forget. The Merit Lies In Loving In Spite Of The Vivid Knowledge That One That Must Be Loved Is Not A Friend. There Is Not Merit In Loving An Enemy When You Forget Him For A Friend.

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

Any Imposition From Without Means Compulsion. Such Compulsion Is Repugnant To Religion.

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

Happiness Is When What You Think, What You Say, And What You Do Are In Harmony.

President Means Chief Servant

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.

Any Young Man, Who Makes Dowry A Condition To Marriage, Discredits His Education And His Country And Dishonours Womanhood.

My Love Of Nationalism Is That My Country May Become Free, And If Need Be, The Whole Of The Country Die, So That The Human Race May Live.

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

Satyagraha Has Been Designed As An Effective Substitute For Violence.

The Seeker Is At Liberty To Extract From This Treasure Any Meaning He Likes, So As To Enable Him To Enforce In His Life The Central Teaching.

I Call Myself A Sanatani Eternal Hindu, Because I Believe In The Vedas, The Upanishads, The Puranas, And All That Goes By The Name Of Hindu Scripture, And Therefore In Avataras And Rebirth.

The Reaction That A Ruthless Dictator Sets Up In Us Either That Of Awe Or Pity According Respectively As We React To Him Violently On Nonviolently.

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

Anything That Exists Is Possible.

My Attitude Towards The British Is One Of Utter Friendliness And Respect.

God Comes To The Hungry In The Form Of Food.

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

Faith Is The Function Of The Heart.

The End Is Inherent In The Means.

The Fullest Life Is Impossible Without An Immovable Belief In A Living Law In Obedience To Which The Whole Universe Moves.

He Who Would In His Own Person Test The Fact Of God's Presence Can Do So By A Living Faith.

All Compromise Is Based On Give And Take, But There Can Be No Give And Take On Fundamentals. Any Compromise On Mere Fundamentals Is A Surrender. For It Is All Give And No Take.

Ahimsa Is The Attribute Of The Soul, And Therefore, To Be Practiced By Everybody In All Affairs Of Life. If It Cannot Be Practiced In All Departments, It Has No Practical Value.

Hindu Dharma Is Like A Boundless Ocean Teeming With Priceless Gems. The Deeper You Dive The More Treasures You Find.

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

For The Poor, The Economic Is Spiritual.

Only He Can Take Great Resolves Who Has Indomitable Faith In God And Has Fear Of God.

Satyagraha Is A Law For Universal Application. Beginning With The Family, Its Use Can Be Extended To Every Other Circle.

A 'no' Uttered From The Deepest Conviction Is Better Than A 'yes' Merely Uttered To Please, Or Worse, To Avoid Trouble.

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.

If God Gives Me The Privilege Of Dying For The Hinduism Of My Conception, I Shall Have Sufficiently Died For The Unity Of All And Even For Swaraj.

That We Should Obey Laws Whether Good Or Bad Is A New-fangled Notion. There Was No Such Thing In Former Days. The People Disregarded Those Laws They Did Not Like And Suffered The Penalties For Their Breach.

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

The Fire Of Independence Is Burning Just As Bright In My Breast As In The Most Fiery Breast In This Country, But Ways And Methods Differ.

We Have To Tackle The Triple Malady Which Holds Our Villages Fast In Its Grip; Want Of Corporate Sanitation, Deficient Diet And Inertia.

God Never Occurs To You In Person But Always In Action.

Capital Exploits The Labour Of A Few To Multiply Itself.

Man Lives Freely Only By His Readiness To Die, If Need Be, At The Hands Of His Brother, Never By Killing Him.

If Anybody Said That I Should Die If I Did Not Take Beef-tea Or Mutton, Even Under Medical Advice, I Would Prefer Death.

I Will Say That If There Is Anything Like God Or Truth On Earth, Hindu-muslim Unity Is Also Possible.

Cowardice Is Impotence Worse Than Violence. The Coward Desires Revenge But Being Afraid To Die, He Looks To Others, Maybe To The Government Of The Day, To Do The Work Of Defense For Him. A Coward Is Less Than A Man. He Does Not Deserve To Be A Member Of A Society Of Men And Women.

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