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If You Want Something Really Important To Be Done You Must Not Merely Satisfy The Reason, You Must Move The Heart Also.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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Mahatma Gandhi

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If You Want Something Really Important To Be Done You Must Not Merely Satisfy The Reason, You Must Move The Heart Also.

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

To A People Famishing And Idle, The Only Acceptable Form In Which God Can Dare Appear Is Work And Promise Of Food As Wages.

To End Slavery, You Must Overcome The Mental And Physical Inertia Of The Masses And Quicken Their Intelligence And Creative Faculty.

If My Nonviolence Is To Be Contagious And Infectious, I Must Acquire Greater Control Over My Thoughts.

A Small Group Of Determined And Like-minded People Can Change The Course Of History.

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

Education Is The Basic Tool For The Development Of Consciousness And The Reconstitution Of Society.

The Message Of The Gita Is To Be Found In The Second Chapter Of The Gita Where Lord Krishna Speaks Of The Balanced State Of Mind, Of Mental Equipoise.

Are Creeds Such Simple Things Like The Clothes Which A Man Can Change At Will And Put On At Will? Creeds Are Such For Which People Live For Ages And Ages.

There Is No "playing With Truth" In The Charkha Programme, For Satyagraha Is Not Predominantly Civil Disobedience But A Quiet And Irresistible Pursuit Of Truth.

I Have Not Hesitated To Call The System Of Government Under Which We Are Labouring 'satanic' And I Withdraw Naught Out Of It.

The Day A Woman Can Walk Freely On The Roads At Night, That Day We Can Say That India Has Achieved Independence

There Is No One Without Faults, Not Even Men Of God. They Are Men Of God Not Because They Are Faultless, But Because They Know Their Faults, They Strive Against Them, They Do Not Hide Them, And Are Ever Ready To Correct Themselves.

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.

Nonviolence Is The Virtue Of The Manly. The Coward Is Innocent Of It.

Truth Never Damages A Cause That Is Just.

The Gita Is Not An Aphoristic Work, It Is A Great Religious Poem.

Great Religious

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.

The One Religion Is Beyond All Speech.

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

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

Whatever May Be The Pros And Cons Of Going To The Public Theatre, It Is A Patent Fact That It Has Undermined The Morals And Ruined The Character Of Many A Youth In His Country.

In The Attitude Of Silence The Soul Finds The Path In A Clearer Light, And What Is Elusive And Deceptive Resolves Itself Into Crystal Clearness. Our Life Is A Long And Arduous Quest After Truth.

It Is Better To Allow Our Lives To Speak For Us Than Our Words.

A Satyagrahi Is Nothing If Not Instinctively Law-abiding.

It's Not Just Words. Action Expresses Priorities.

The Canker Has So Eaten Into The Society That In Many Cases The Only Meaning Of Education Is A Knowledge Of English.

English Language

The Measure Of A Country's Greatness Should Be Based On How Well It Cares For Its Most Vulnerable Populations.

The Enlightened One Has Told You In Never-to-be-forgotten Words That This Little Span Of Life Is But A Passing Shadow, A Fleeting Thing.

A Straight Fight In An Equal Battle Takes Some Bravery, But Braver Is He Who, Knowing That He Would Have To Sacrifice Ninety-five As Against Five Of The Enemy, Faces Death.

Nothing Can So Quickly Put The Masses On Their Legs As The Spinning Wheel And All It Means.

Seeing God Face To Face Is To Feel That He Is Enthroned In Our Hearts Even As A Child Feels A Mother's Affection Without Needing Any Demonstration.

I Must Not Refrain From Saying That India Can Gain More By Waiving The Right Of Punishment.

Be The Compromise You Want To See In The World.

The Law Of Love Knows No Bounds Of Space Or Time.

It's The Action, Not The Fruit Of The Action, That's Important. You Have To Do The Right Thing. It May Not Be In Your Power, May Not Be In Your Time, That There'll Be Any Fruit. But That Doesn't Mean You Stop Doing The Right Thing. You May Never Know What Results Come From Your Action. But If You Do Nothing, There Will Be No Result.

Swaraj Does Not Depend On Jail Going. If It Did, There Are Thousands Of Prisoners In Jail Today. It Depends On Everyone Doing His Or Her Own Task.

Nonviolence Is An Attribute Of The Almighty Whose Ways Of Fulfilling Himself Are Inscrutable.

Let Us All Be Brave Enough To Die The Death Of A Martyr, But Let No One Lust For Martyrdom.

I Cannot In All Conscience Agree To Anyone Being Sent To The Gallows. God Alone Can Take Life Because He Alone Gives It . . .

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.

Cow Protection To Me Is One Of The Most Wonderful Phenomena In The Human Evolution.

Is It Not Possible For Us All To Realize That The Masses Will Never Mount To Freedom Through Murder?

A Satyagrahi Has No Other Stay But God, And He Who Has Any Other Stay Or Depends On Any Other Help Cannot Offer Satyagraha.

The Use Of Soul-force For Turning Stones Into Bread Would Have Been Considered, As It Is Still Considered, As Black Magic.

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

I Must Try To Live In Society And Yet Remain Untouched By Its Pitfalls.

Justice That Love Gives Is A Surrender, Justice That Law Gives Is A Punishment.

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

The Ideally Non-violent State Will Be An Ordered Anarchy.

We Must Always Seek To Ally Ourselves With That Part Of The Enemy That Knows What Is Right.

Self-restraint Is The Very Keystone Of The Ethics Of Vow-taking.

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.

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.

The Spinning Wheel Is The One Thing To Which All Must Turn To In The Indian Clime For The Transition Stage At Any Rate And The Vast Majority Must For All Time.

It Is Pleasant That There Will Be No Religions In Heaven.

I Literally Believe In The Possibility Of A Sudhanva Smiling Away Whilst He Was Being Drowned In Boiling Oil.

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

You Can Chain Me, You Can Torture Me, You Can Even Destroy This Body, But You Will Never Imprison My Mind.

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

A Man Who Is Swayed By Negative Emotions May Have Good Enough Intentions, May Be Truthful In Word, But He Will Never Find The Truth.

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

Man Becomes Great Exactly In The Degree In Which He Works For The Welfare Of His Fellow-men.

I Have Pinned My Faith To The Spinning Wheel. On It, I Believe, The Salvation Of This Country Depends.

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

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.

Rama Was Not Only On The Lips Of Hanuman. He Was Enthroned In His Heart. He Gave Hanuman Exhaustless Strength.

Untouchability Is A Many-headed Monster And Forms, Some Of Them So Subtle As Not To Be Easily Detected.

If Your Heart Acquires Strength, You Will Be Able To Remove Blemishes From Others Without Thinking Evil Of Them.

We Do Not Need To Proselytise Either By Our Speech Or By Our Writing. We Can Only Do So Really With Our Lives. Let Our Lives Be Open Books For All To Study.

Even A Single Lamp Dispels The Deepest Darkness.

My Varnashram Dharma Teaches Me That There Must Be Some Significance In The Fact Of My Being Born In India Instead Of In Europe.

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

A Coward Is Less Than A Man. He Does Not Deserve To Be A Member Of A Society Of Men And Women

Nonviolence Is The First Article Of My Faith. It Is Also The Last Article Of My Creed.

My Life Is An Indivisible Whole, And All My Attitudes Run Into One Another; And They All Have Their Rise In My Insatiable Love For Mankind.

Those Who Think Religion Has Nothing To Do With Politics Understand Neither Religion Or Politics... The Things That Will Destroy Us Are: Politics Without Principles, Pleasures Without Conscience, Knowledge Without Character, Business Without Morality.

Knowledge And Devotion, To Be True, Have To Stand The Test Of Renunciation Of The Fruits Of Action.

I Do Not Regard Killing Or Assassination Or Terrorism As Good In Any Circumstances Whatsoever.

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.

Tolstoy's So-called Inconsistencies Were A Sign Of His Development And His Passionate Regard For Truth.

The Moment There Is Suspicion About A Person's Motives, Everything He Does Becomes Tainted.

Faith Is Like The Himalaya Mountains Which Cannot Possibly Change.

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

God Is Not A Person. God Is An Eternal Principle.

The Man Has Not The Power To Create Life. Therefore, He Has Not Either, The Right To Destroy It.

I Believe It To Be Perfectly Possible For An Individual To Adopt The Way Of Life Of The Future. . . Without Having To Wait For Others To Do So.

Hate The Sin And Not The Sinner' Is A Precept Which, Though Easy Enough To Understand, Is Rarely Practiced, And That Is Why The Poison Of Hatred Spreads In The World.

It Is Degrading Both For Man And Woman That Woman Should Be Called Upon Or Induced To Forsake The Hearth And Shoulder The Rifle For The Protection Of That Hearth.

We Are Less Than Atoms, I Say, Because The Atom Obeys The Law Of Its Being, Whereas We In The Insolence Of Our Ignorance Deny The Law Of Nature. But I Have No Argument To Address To Those Who Have No Faith.

I Hold That The World Is Sick Of Armed Rebellions.

It Hurts Me To Think That People In Their Rush For Everything Modern Despise All Their Ancient Traditions And Ignore Them In Their Lives.

I Have Endeavored To Show That There Is No Real Service Of Humanity In The Profession Of Medicine And That It Is Injurious To Mankind.

If The Commander-in-chief Will Look Beyond The Defence Forces, He Will Discover That The Real India Is Not Military But Peace-loving.

Marriage Is Not An Act Of Services. It Is A Comfort Man Or Woman Seeks For Himself Or Herself.

The Purpose Of Life Is Undoubtedly To Know Oneself. We Cannot Do It Unless We Learn To Identify Ourselves With All That Lives. The Sum-total Of That Life Is God.

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

One Who Uses Coercion Is Guilty Of Deliberate Violence. Coercion Is Inhuman.

It Is Through Truth & Non-violence That I Can Have Some Glimpse Of God. Truth & Non-violence Are My God. They Are The Obverse And Reverse Of The Same Coin.

In Fact, It Is More Correct To Say That Truth Is God, Than To Say That God Is Truth.

I Believe In The Fundamental Truth Of All Great Religions Of The World.

To Safeguard Democracy The People Must Have A Keen Sense Of Independence, Self-respect, And Their Oneness.

No Government On Earth Can Make Men, Who Have Realized Freedom In Their Hearts, Salute Against Their Will.

When You Know The Truth, The Truth Makes You A Soldier.

In Order To Get Meat, We Have To Kill. And We Are Certainly Not Entitled To Any Other Milk Except The Mother's Milk In Our Infancy.

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

Freedom Of India Will Demonstrate To All The Exploited Races Of The Earth That Their Freedom Is Very Near.

Men To Be Men Must Be Able To Trust Their Womenfolk, Even As The Latter Are Compelled To Trust Them.

Nonviolence Becomes Meaningless If Violence Is Permitted For Self-defence.

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

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

A Devotee Of Rama May Be Said To Be The Same As The Steadfast One (sthitaprajnya) Of The Gita.

Indeed The Very Word, Nonviolence, A Negative Word, Means That It Is An Effort To Abandon The Violence That Is Inevitable In Life.

There Is No Time Limit For A Satyagrahi Nor Is There A Limit To His Capacity For Suffering.

Concentrate On Your Task.

I Recognise No God Except The God That Is To Be Found In The Hearts Of The Dumb Millions.

A Clear Victory Of Satyagraha Is Impossible So Long As There Is Ill Will.

A Semi-starved Nation Can Have Neither Religion Nor Art Nor Organization.

The Way Of Mutual Strife And Exclusiveness Is The Only Way To Perdition And Slavery.

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

As Soon As We Lose The Moral Basis, We Cease To Be Religious. There Is No Such Thing As Religion Over-riding Morality.

I Do Believe That, Where There Is Only A Choice Between Cowardice And Violence, I Would Advise Violence. I Would Rather Have India Resort To Arms In Order To Defend Her Honour Than That She Should, In A Cowardly Manner, Become Or Remain A Helpless Witness To Her Own Dishonour. But I Believe That Nonviolence Is Infinitely Superior To Violence, Forgiveness Is More Manly Than Punishment.

No Sacrifice Is Worth The Name Unless It Is A Joy. Sacrifice And A Long Face Go Ill Together. Sacrifice Is 'making Sacred'. He Must Be A Poor Specimen Of Humanity Who Is In Need Of Sympathy For His Sacrifice.

A Country That Is Governed By Its National Army Can Never Be Morally Free And, Therefore, Its So-called Weakest Member Can Never Rise To His Full Moral Height.

The Art Of Dying Bravely And With Honour Does Not Need Any Special Training, Save A Living Faith In God.

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

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

I Abhor Vivisection With My Whole Soul. All The Scientific Discoveries Stained With Innocent Blood I Count As Of No Consequence.

The Whole Existence Of Man Is A Ceaseless Duel Between The Forces Of Life And Death.

If Untouchability Lives, Humanity Must Die.

Let No One Charge Me With Ever Having Abused Or Encouraged Weakness Or Surrendered On Matters Of Principle. But I Have Said, As I Say Again, That Every Trifle Must Not Be Dignified Into A Principle.

Means To Be Means Must Always Be Within Our Reach, And So Ahimsa Is Our Supreme Duty.

I Learnt The Lesson On Nonviolence From My Wife, When I Tried To Bend Her To My Will. Her Determined Resistance To My Will On The One Hand, And Her Quiet Submission To The Suffering My Stupidity Involved On The Other, Ultimately Made Me Ashamed Of Myself And Cured Me Of My Stupidity In Thinking That I Was Born To Rule Over Her.

A Government Builds Its Prestige Upon The Apparently Voluntary Association Of The Governed.

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

There Is A Higher Court Than Courts Of Justice And That Is The Court Of Conscience. It Supercedes All Other Courts.

Nonviolence Is An Intensely Active Force When Properly Understood And Used.

Celibacy Is A Great Help, Inasmuch As It Enables One To Lead A Life Of Full Surrender To God.

That Which Looks For Mercy From An Opponent Is Not Non-violence.

Experience Gained In Two Schools Under My Control Has Taught Me That Punishment Does Not Purify, If Anything, It Hardens Children.

By Ram Raj I Do Not Mean Hindu Raj. I Mean By Ram Raj, Divine Raj, The Kingdom Of God.

For Me To Dominate The Congress In Spite Of These Fundamental Differences Is Almost A Species Of Violence Which I Must Refrain From.

Cow Preservation Is An Article Of Faith In Hinduism.

Nonviolent Non-co-operation With Evil Means Co-operation With All That Is Good.

To Remove Untouchability Is A Penance That Caste Hindus Owe To Hinduism And To Themselves.

An Unjust Law In Itself Is An Act Of Violence.

Just As A Man Would Not Cherish Living In A Body Other Than His Own, So Do Nations Not Like To Live Under Other Nations, However Noble And Great The Latter May Be.

Nonviolence Cannot Be Learnt By Staying At Home.

Nonviolence, In Its Dynamic Condition Means Conscious Suffering.

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

All My Actions Have Their Rise In My Inalienable Love Of Mankind.

Nonviolence Does Not Require Any Outside Or Outward Training.

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

Heroes Are Made In The Hour Of Defeat. Success Is, Therefore, Well Described As A Series Of Glorious Defeats.

Modern Civilization Has Taught Us To Convert Night Into Day And Golden Silence Into Brazen Din And Noise.

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

God Forbid That India Should Ever Become A Military Nation, Which Would Be A Menace To The Peace Of The World, And Yet If Things Went On As They Were Doing, What Hope Was There For India And, Therefore, For The World?

To Give Pleasure To A Single Heart By A Single Act Is Better Than A Thousand Heads Bowing In Prayer.

Fear Is Not A Disease Of The Body; Fear Kills The Soul.

Yajna Having Come To Us With Our Birth, We Are Debtors All Our Lives, And Thus For Ever Bound To Serve The Universe.

A Satyagrahi Is Sometimes Bound To Use Language Which Is Capable Of Two Meanings, Provided Both The Meanings Are Obvious And Necessary And There Is No Intention To Deceive Anyone.

As Soon As We Lose The Moral Basis, We Cease To Be Religious. There Is No Such Thing As Religion Over-riding Morality. Man, For Instance, Cannot Be Untruthful, Cruel Or Incontinent And Claim To Have God On His Side.

Great Causes Cannot Be Served By Intellectual Equipment Alone, They Call For Spiritual Effort Of Soul-force.

Prayer Is No Mere Exercise Of Words Or Of The Ears, It Is No Mere Repetition Of Empty Formula.

A Customer Is The Most Important Visitor On Our Premises. He Is Not Dependent On Us. We Are Dependent On Him. He Is Not An Interruption In Our Work. He Is The Purpose Of It. He Is Not An Outsider In Our Business. He Is Part Of It. We Are Not Doing Him A Favor By Serving Him. He Is Doing Us A Favor By Giving Us An Opportunity To Do So.

In The Very Act Of My Non-co-operation, I Am Seeking Their Co-operation In My Campaign.

The Force Of Love Is The Same As The Force Of The Soul Or Truth.

A Mind Not Set On God Is Given To Wandering And Lacks The Quality Of A Temple Of Worship.

There Is Enough For The Need Of Everyone In This World, But Not For The Greed Of Everyone.

I Well Remember How The Thoughts I Had Up To The Time Of My Discharge From The Jail On Every Occasion Were Modified Immediately After Discharge, And After Getting First-hand Information Myself. Somehow Or Other The Jail Atmosphere Does Not Allow You To Have All The Bearings In Your Mind.

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.

By Ahimsa We Will Be Able To Save The Cow And Also Win The Friendship Of The English.

Real Power Does Not Consist In The Ability To Inflict Capital Punishment Upon The Subjects, But In The Will And The Ability To Protect The Subjects Against The World.

I Believe In Equality For Everyone, Except Reporters And Photographers.

Literacy In Itself Is No Education.

Hatred Ever Kills, Love Never Dies. Such Is The Vast Difference Between The Two. What Is Obtained By Love Is Retained For All Time. What Is Obtained By Hatred Proves A Burden In Reality For It Increases Hatred." - By Mohandas K. Gandhi -

One's Own Religion Is After All A Matter Between Oneself And One's Maker And No One Else's.

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

Good Government Is No Substitute For Self-government.

Restore The Spinning Wheel To Its Place And You Will Solve The Problem Of Poverty.

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

World Has Things Which Full Fill Man Needs, But Not Greeds.

Whoever Is Victor, There Should Be, After The War, A Commonwealth Of All Nations.

Exploitation Of The Poor Can Be Extinguished Not By Effecting The Destruction Of A Few Millionaires, But By Removing The Ignorance Of The Poor And Teaching Them To Non-cooperate With Their Exploiters.

The Call Of The Spinning Wheel Is The Noblest Of All. Because It Is The Call Of Love. And Love Is Swaraj.

There Is Every Reason For Being Cautious About Founding New Universities Till India Has Digested Her Newly Acquired Freedom.

Nonviolence Is Not A Cloistered Virtue, Confined Only To The Rishi And The Cave-dweller.

I Believe In The Fundamental Truth Of All Great Religions Of The World. I Believe That They Are All God- Given And I Believe That They Were Necessary For The People To Whom These Religions Were Revealed. And I Believe That If Only We Could All Of Us Read The Scriptures Of The Different Faiths From The Standpoints Of The Followers Of These Faiths, We Should Find That They Were At Bottom All One And Were All Helpful To One Another.

It Is The Quality Of Our Work Which Will Please God And Not The Quantity.

Quality Not Quantity

I Would Ask You To Come In Khadi, For Khadi Links You With The Fallen And The Down-trodden.

Nirvana Is The Utter Extinction Of All That Is Base In Us, All That Is Vicious In Us. Nirvana Is Not Like The Black, Dead Peace Of The Grave, But The Living Peace, The Living Happiness Of A Soul Which Is Conscious Of Itself And Conscious Of Having Found Its Own Abode In The Heart Of The Eternal.

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.

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

Nowhere In The World Would You Find Such Skeletons Of Cows And Bullocks As You Do In Our Cow-worshipping India.

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

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

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.

Though I Cannot Claim To Be A Christian In The Sectarian Sense, The Example Of Jesus Suffering Is A Factor In The Composition Of My Undying Faith In Non-violence Which Rules All My Actions, Worldly And Temporal.

To Shirk Taking Of Vows Betrays Indecision And Want Of Resolution.

If You Want To Change The World, Start With Yourself.

Celebration Of Life

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