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In The Application Of The Method Of Non-violence, One Must Believe In The Possibility Of Every Person, However Depraved, Being Reformed Under Humane And Skilled Treatment.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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In The Application Of

Mahatma Gandhi

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In The Application Of The Method Of Non-violence, One Must Believe In The Possibility Of Every Person, However Depraved, Being Reformed Under Humane And Skilled Treatment.

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Service Which Is Rendered Without Joy Helps Neither The Servant Nor The Served. But All Other Pleasures And Possessions Pale Into Nothingness Before Service Which Is Rendered In A Spirit Of Joy.

Every Truth Is Self-acting And Possesses Inherent Strength.

Remember There Is Always A Limit To Self-indulgence, None To Restraint... Civilization , In The Real Sense Of The Term, Consists Not In The Multiplication But In The Deliberate And Voluntary Restriction Of Wants. This Alone Promotes Real Happiness And Contentment , And Increases The Capacity For Service .

Where There Is Truth, There Also Is Knowledge Which Is True.

One Who Hooks His Fortune To Ahimsa, The Law Of Love, Daily Lessens The Circle Of Destruction And To That Extent Promotes Life And Love.

When I See A Cow, It Is Not An Animal To Eat, It Is A Poem Of Pity For Me And I Worship It And I Shall Defend Its Worship Against The Whole World.

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

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.

All The Religions Of The World, While They May Differ In Other Respects, Unitedly Proclaim That Nothing Lives In This World But Truth.

I May Fight The British Ruler, But I Do Not Hate The English Or Their Language. In Fact, I Appreciate Their Literary Treasures.

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.

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

The Goal Ever Recedes From Us. The Greater The Progress The Greater The Recognition Of Our Unworthiness. Satisfaction Lies In The Effort, Not In The Attainment. Full Effort Is Full Victory.

Let Us Fear God And We Shall Cease To Fear Man.

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.

Your Action Expresses Your Priorities.

I Claim That In Losing The Spinning Wheel We Lost Our Left Lung. We Are, Therefore, Suffering From Galloping Consumption. The Restoration Of The Wheel Arrests The Progress Of The Fell Disease.

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

Good Government Is No Substitute For Self-government.

There Is No Such Thing As 'gandhism', And I Do Not Want To Leave Any Sect After Me.

The Dry Knowledge Of The Three R's Is Not Even Now, It Can Never Be, A Permanent Part Of The Villagers' Life.

To Know Music Is To Transfer It To Life.

What God May Have Enabled Me To Do Is But A Repayment Of Debt, And He Who Repays A Debt Deserves No Praise.

Man And His Deed Are Two Distinct Things. Whereas A Good Deed Should Call Forth Approbation And A Wicked Deed Dis-approbation, The Doer Of The Deed, Whether Good Or Wicked Always Deserves Respect Or Pity As The Case May Be. Hate The Sin And Not The Sinner Is A Precept Which Though Easy Enough To Understand Is Rarely Practised, And That Is Why The Poison Of Hatred Spreads In The World.

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.

I Am Prepared To Die, But There Is No Cause For Which I Am Prepared To Kill.

Public Opinion Alone Can Keep A Society Pure And Healthy.

Think Of The Poorest Person You Know And See If Your Next Act Will Be Of Any Use To Him.

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

As Soon As We Become One With The Ocean In The Shape Of God, There Is No More Rest For Us, Nor Indeed Do We Need Rest Any Longer.

A Civilization Based On Nonviolence Must Be Different From That Organized For Violence.

Truth Is My God. I Can Only Search Him Through Nonviolence And In On Other Way.

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

Diversity There Certainly Is In The World, But It Means Neither Inequality Nor Untouchability.

Touch-me-notism That Disfigures The Present Day Hinduism Is A Morbid Growth.

Imperfect Men Have No Right To Judge Other Imperfect Men.

To Ignore The Mussalman Grievance As If It Was Not Felt Is To Postpone Swaraj.

If We Have Listening Ears, God Speaks To Us In Our Own Language, Whatever That Language Be

Restraint Never Ruins One's Health. What Ruins It,is Not Restraint But Outward Suppression. A Really Self-restrained Person Grows Every Day From Strength To Strength And From Peace To More Peace. The Very First Step In Self-restraint Is The Restraint Of Thoughts.

My Religion Has No Geographical Limits.

Englishmen Must Learn To Be Brahmins, Not Banias.

English Language

There Are Many Causes I Would Die For. There Is Not A Single Cause I Would Kill For.

Where There Is Fear There Is No Religion.

I Have Mentally Become A Woman In Order To Steal Into Her Heart.

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

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

To My Mind, The Life Of A Lamb Is No Less Precious Than That Of A Human Being.

Concentrate On Your Task.

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.

The Truest Test Of Civilization, Culture And Dignity Is Character And Not Clothing.

Hitler Is A Scourge Sent By God To Punish Men For Their Iniquities.

Wherever You Are You Will Always Be In My Heart.

Long Distance Relationship

Civilizations Have Come And Gone And, In Spite Of Our Vaunted Progress, I Am Tempted To Ask Again And Again, 'to What Purpose?'

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

The One Condition For Fighting For Peace And Liberty Is To Acquire Self-restraint.

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

An Education Which Does Not Teach Us To Discriminate Between Good And Bad, To Assimilate The One And Eschew The Other, Is A Misnomer

That Which You Look Upon As Your Own You May Keep Only So Long As The World Allows You To Own It.

After Long Study And Experience, I Have Come To The Conclusion That (1) All Religions Are True; (2) All Religions Have Some Error In Them; (3) All Religions Are Almost As Dear To Me As My Own Hinduism, In As Much As All Human Beings Should Be As Dear To One As One's Own Close Relatives.

A Soldier Fights With An Irresistible Strength When He Has Blown Up His Bridges And Burnt His Boats. Even So, It Is With A Soldier Of Ahimsa.

It Is Man's Social Nature Which Distinguishes Him From The Brute Creation. If It Is His Privilege To Be Independent, It Is Equally His Duty To Be Inter-dependent. Only An Arrogant Man Will Claim To Be Independent Of Everybody Else And Be Self-contained.

Seeming Failure Is Not Of The Law Of Satyagrahabut Of Incompetence Of The Satyagrahi By Whatever Cause Induced.

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.

The Purification Required Is Not Of Untouchables But Of The So-called Superior Castes.

Every Worthwhile Accomplishment, Big Or Little, Has Its Stages Of Drudgery And Triumph: A Beginning, A Struggle, And A Victory.

Prayer Has Not Been A Part Of My Life In The Sense That Truth Has Been.

History Is A Record Of Perpetual Wars, But We Are Now Trying To Make New History.

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

No Man Loses His Freedom Except Through His Own Weakness.

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.

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

I Desire No Honour If I Have To Conceal My Religious Beliefs In Order To Have It.

They Might Kill Me But They Cannot Kill Gandhism. If Truth Can Be Killed, Gandhism Can Be Killed.

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.

A Personal Selfish Prayer Is Bad Whether Made Before An Image Or An Unseen God.

Liberty Never Meant The License To Do Anything At Will.

Of All The Black Crimes That Humanity Is Committing Against The Great Creation, Vivisection Is The Blackest.

A Policy Is A Temporary Creed Liable To Be Changed, But While It Holds Good It Has Got To Be Pursued With Apostolic Zeal.

Silence Becomes Cowardice When Occasion Demands Speaking Out The Whole Truth And Acting Accordingly.

I Regard Untouchability As Such A Grave Sin As To Warrant Divine Chastisement.

If We Could All Give Our Own Definitions Of God, There Would Be As Many Definitions As There Are Men And Women.

When There Is War, The Poet Lays Down The Lyre, The Lawyer His Law Reports, The Schoolboy His Books.

The Only Praise I Would Like And Treasure Is The Promotion Of The Activities To Which My Life Is Dedicated.

Indolence Is A Delightful But Distressing State; We Must Be Doing Something To Be Happy.

In Battling Against Untouchability, And In Dedicating Myself To That Battle, I Have No Less An Ambition Than To See A Full Regeneration Of Humanity.

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

Real Beauty Is My Aim.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Flattery.

It Is Possible For A Single Individual To Defy The Whole Might Of An Unjust Empire To Save His Honor, His Religion, His Soul And Lay The Foundation For The Empire's Fall Or Its Regeneration.

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

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

I Object To Violence Because When It Appears To Do Good, The Good Is Only Temporary; The Evil It Does Is Permanent.

God Is Continuously In Action, Without Resting For A Single Moment.

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

Khadi Has Been Conceived As The Foundation And The Image Of Ahimsa. A Real Khadi-wearer Will Not Utter An Untruth. A Real Khadi-wearer Will Harbour No Violence, No Deceit, No Impurity.

The True Democrat Is He Who With Purely Nonviolent Means Defends His Liberty And, Therefore, His Country's And Ultimately That Of The Whole Of Mankind.

The Spirit Of Non-violence Necessarily Leads To Humility. Non-violence Means Reliance On God, The Rock Of Ages. If We Would Seek His Aid, We Must Approach Him With A Humble And Contrite Heart.

Truth Is Self-evident, Nonviolence Is Its Maturest Fruit. It Is Contained In Truth, But Is Not Self-evident.

Hinduism Has Become A Conservative Religion And, Therefore, A Mighty Force Because Of The Swadeshi Spirit Underlying It.

If The People Resolve And Carry Out This Programme Of Boycott And Swadeshi, They Would Not Have To Wait For Swaraj Even For A Year.

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

The World Is Big Enough To Satisfy Everyones Needs, But Will Always Be Too Small To Satisfy Everyones Greed

Birth-control Through Self-restraint Is The Most Desirable, Sensible And Totally Harmless Method.

Complete Civil Disobedience Is A State Of Peaceful Rebellion, A Refusal To Obey Every Single State-made Law.

I Would Like To Bury Myself In An Indian Village, Preferably In A Frontier Village.

I Want To Realize Brotherhood Or Identity Not Merely With The Beings Called Human, But I Want To Realize Identity With All Life, Even With Such Things As Crawl Upon Earth.

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

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

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

It Is A First Class Human Tragedy That People Of The Earth Who Claim To Believe In The Message Of Jesus, Whom They Describe As The Prince Of Peace, Show Little Of That Belief In Actual Practice.

The Ideal Is A Synthesis Of The Different Cultures That Have Come To Stay In India, That Have Influenced Indian Life, And That, In Their Turn, Have Themselves Been Influenced By The Spirit Of The Soil.

Anything Which Is A Hindrance To The Fight Of The Soul Is A Delusion And A Snare, Even Like The Body Which Often Does Hinder You In The Path Of Salvation.

Why, Of All Places In Johannesburg, The Indian Location Should Be Chosen For Dumping Down All Kaffirs Of The Town, Passes My Comprehension. Of Course, Under My Suggestion, The Town Council Must Withdraw The Kaffirs From The Location. About This Mixing Of The Kaffirs With The Indians I Must Confess I Feel Most Strongly. I Think It Is Very Unfair To The Indian Population, And It Is An Undue Tax On Even The Proverbial Patience Of My Countrymen.

The Press Is Called The Fourth Estate. It Is Definitely A Power, But, To Misuse That Power Is Criminal.

Ahimsa Can Be Practiced Only Towards Those That Are Inferior To You In Every Way.

God The Compassionate And The Merciful, Tolerance Incarnate, Allows Mammon To Have His Nine Days' Wonder.

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

There Are No Good-byes, Where Ever You'll Be, You'll Be In My Heart.

The Only Things That Separates Us From The Brute, With Which We Have So Much In Common, Is The Capacity To Distinguish Between Right And Wrong.

Religion Should Be Dearer Than Life Itself.

It Is A Sad Thing That Our Schoolboys Look Upon Manual Labour With Disfavour, If Not Contempt.

... We Have To Learn To Use That Force (love) Among All That Lives, And In The Use Of It Consists Our Knowledge Of God. Where There Is Love There Is Life; Hatred Leads To Destruction.

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

Every Home Is A University And The Parents Are The Teachers.

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.

A Nonviolent Life Is An Act Of Self-examination And Self-purification, Whether By An Individual, Group Or Nation.

The Power We Call God Defies Description.

Not Those Who Shout 'satyagraha', 'satyagraha' Will Do Satyagraha, But Those Who Will Work For It.

Whilst I May Not Actually Help Anyone To Retaliate, I Must Not Let A Coward Seek Shelter Behind Nonviolence So-called. Not Knowing The Stuff Of Which Nonviolence Is Made, Many Have Honestly Believed That Running Away From Danger Every Time Was A Virtue Compared To Offering Resistance, Especially When It Was Fraught With Danger To One's Life. As A Teacher Of Nonviolence I Must, So Far As It Is Possible For Me, Guard Against Such An Unmanly Belief.

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

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.

All The Four Stages In A Man's Life Are Devised By The Seers In Hinduism For Imposing Discipline And Self-restraint.

Responsibility Will Mellow And Sober The Youth And Prepare Them, For The Burden They Must Discharge.

It Is Poor Faith That Needs Fair Weather For Standing Firm. That Alone Is True Faith That Stands The Foulest Weather.

It Is A Heavy Downpour Of Rain Which Drenches The Soil To Fullness; Likewise Only A Profuse Shower Of Love Can Overcome Hatred.

Be Truthful, Gentle, And Fearless.

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.

My Ahimsa Would Not Tolerate The Idea Of Giving A Free Meal To A Healthy Person Who Has Not Worked For It In Some Honest Way.

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

The Most Distinctive And Largest Contribution Of Hinduism To India's Culture Is The Doctrine Of Ahimsa.

To Prevent The Workers From Going To Their Work By Standing In Front Of Them Is Pure Violence And Must Be Given Up.

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.

At The Moment The British Common-wealth Is A Commonwealth Of White Nation.

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

The Method Of Satyagraha Requires That The Satyagrahi Should Never Lose Hope, So Long As There Is The Slightest Ground Left For It.

Never Lose Hope

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

I Do Not Want A Kingdom, Or Heaven; What I Want Is To Remove The Trouble Of The Oppressed, The Poor, And The Needy.

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

Always Aim At Complete Harmony Of Thought And Word And Deed. Always Aim At Purifying Your Thoughts And Everything Will Be Well.

More Caution And Perhaps More Restraint Are Necessary In Breaking A Fast Than In Keeping It.

God Sometimes Does Try To The Uttermost Those Whom He Wishes To Bless.

The End Is Inherent In The Means.

It Is Unwise To Be Too Sure Of One's Own Wisdom.

The Koran Says That There Can Be No Heaven For One Who Sheds The Blood Of An Innocent Neighbour.

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.

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

I Want Freedom For The Full Expression Of My Personality.

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

I Have Discovered That Man Is Superior To The System He Propounds.

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

Man In The Flesh Is Essentially Imperfect. He May Be Described As Being Made In The Image Of God But Is Far From Being God.

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

Disobedience That Is Wholly Civil Should Never Provoke Retaliation.

If God Is Not A Personal Being For Me Like My Earthly Father, He Is Infinitely More.

Truth Is My Religion And Ahimsa Is The Only Way Of Its Realization.

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.

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

My Errors Have Been Errors Of Calculation And Judging Men, Not In Appreciating The True Nature Of Truth And Ahimsa Or In Their Application.

I Know, To Banish Anger Altogether From One's Breast Is A Difficult Task. It Cannot Be Achieved Through Pure Personal Effort. It Can Be Done Only By God's Grace.

A Man Or A Woman Who Serves The Country With All His Or Her Heart Stands On Par With The Tallest Congress-man.

The Scriptures Of Christians, Mussalmans And Hindus Are All Replete With The Teaching Of Ahimsa.

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

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

Swaraj As Conceived By Me Does Not Mean The End Of Kingship.

Insistence On Truth Can Come Into Play When One Party Practices Untruth Or Injustice. Only Then Can Love Be Tested. True Friendship Is Put To The Test Only When One Party Disregards The Obligation Of Friendship.

Freedom From All Attachment Is The Realization Of God As Truth.

External Fears Cease Of Their Own Accord When Once We Have Conquered These Traitors Within The Camp.

Execution Of The Constructive Programme In Its Entirety Means More Than Swaraj. It Means Ram Raj, Khudai Sultanat Or The Divine Kingdom.

An Unjust Law Is Itself A Species Of Violence. Arrest For Its Breach Is More So.

One Thing We Have Endeavoured To Observe Most Scrupulously, Namely, Never To Depart From The Strictest Facts And, In Dealing With The Difficult Questions That Have Arisen During The Year, We Hope That We Have Used The Utmost Moderation Possible Under The Circumstances.

Difficult Questions

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

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

It Is Better To Be Charged With Cowardice And Weakness Than To Be Guilty Of Denial Of Our Oath And Sin Against God.

I Call Myself A Labourer Because I Take Pride In Calling Myself A Spinner, Weaver, Farmer And Scavenger.

I Call The Lancashire Trade Immoral, Because It Was Raised And Is Sustained On The Ruin Of Millions Of India's Peasants.

Ahimsa Is A Science. The Word 'failure' Has No Place In The Vocabulary Of Science.

It Was Not Through Democratic Methods That Britain Bagged India.

Civilization Is Not An Incurable Disease, But It Should Never Be Forgotten That The English People Are At Present Afflicted By It.

The Golden Way Is To Be Friends With The World And To Regard The Whole Human Family As One.

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

There Is No School Equal To A Decent Home And No Teacher Equal To A Virtuous Parent.

We May Attack Systems. We Must Not Attack Men.

Measures Must Always In A Progressive Society Be Held Superior To Men, Who Are After All Imperfect Instruments, Working For Their Fulfilment.

Progressive Society

If People Knew The Working Of The Law Of Truth And Nonviolence, Then They Would Themselves Regulate The Matter Of Its Shortage.

God Accepts The Sacrifice Of The Pure In Heart.

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.

Prayer Is A Confession Of One's Own Unworthiness And Weakness.

Duly Enlightened Gandhi's Head By Mall Of The 'free Press Journal,' Bombay, In 1932watches May Disagree, But Let Us Not.

Khaddar Is An Activity That Can Absorb All The Time Of All Available Men And Women And Grown-up Children, If They Have Faith.

The Law Is God. Anything Attributed To Him Is Not A Mere Attribute. He Is Truth, Love, Law And A Million Things That Human Ingenuity Can Name.

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