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

-Mahatma Gandhi

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Men To Be Men

Mahatma Gandhi

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

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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.

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

Infinite Striving To Be The Best Is Man's Duty; It Is Its Own Reward. Everything Else Is In God's Hands.

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

Your Beliefs Become Your Thoughts, Your Thoughts Become Your Words, Your Words Become Your Actions, Your Actions Become Your Habits, Your Habits Become Your Values, Your Values Become Your Destiny.

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

A Genuine Fast Cleanses The Body, Mind And Soul. It Crucifies The Flesh And To That Extent Sets The Soul Free.

Men Like Me Feel That Untouchability Is No Integral Part Of Hinduism, It Is An Excrescence.

We, The English Educated Indians, Often Unconsciously Make The Terrible Mistake Of Thinking That The Microscopic Minority Of The English-speaking Indians Is The Whole Of India.

Ahimsa Is An Attribute Of The Brave. Cowardice And Ahimsa Don't Go Together Any More That Water And Fire.

Prayer Is An Impossibility Without A Living Faith In The Presence Of God Within.

Presence Of God

My Non-violence Bids Me Dedicate Myself To The Service Of The Minorities.

The Yajna Of Our Age And For Us Is The Spinning Wheel.

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

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

Whenever I See An Erring Man, I Say To Myself I Have Also Erred; When I See A Lustful Man I Say To Myself, So Was I Once; And In This Way I Feel Kinship With Everyone In The World And Feel That I Cannot Be Happy Without The Humblest Of Us Being Happy.

Earth And Heaven Are In Us

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

Our Life Is A Long And Arduous Quest After Truth And The Soul Requires Inward Restfulness To Attain Its Full Height.

For Me Every Ruler Is Alien That Defies Public Opinion.

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

Government Of The People By The People And For The People Cannot Be Conducted At The Bidding Of One Man, However Great He May Be.

The British Power Is The Overlord Without Whom Indian Princes Cannot Breathe.

What Distinguishes Man From The Brute Is His Conscious Striving To Realise The Spirit Within.

Machinery Is The Chief Symbol Of Modern Civilization; It Represents A Great Sin.

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

The Truth Is That God Is The Force. He Is The Essence Of Life. He Is Pure And Undefiled Consciousness. He Is Eternal.

It Would Be A Sad Day For India If It Has To Inherit The English Scale And The English Tastes So Utterly Unsuitable To The Indian Environment.

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.

That Religion And That Nation Will Be Blotted Out Of The Face Of The Earth Which Pins Its Faith On Injustice, Untruth Or Violence.

If We Are To Reach Real Peace In This World And If We Are To Carry On A Real War Against War, We Shall Have To Begin With Children; And If They Will Grow Up In Their Natural Innocence, We Won't Have To Struggle; We Won't Have To Pass Fruitless Idle Resolutions, But We Shall Go From Love To Love And Peace To Peace, Until At Last All The Corners Of The World Are Covered With That Peace And Love For Which Consciously Or Unconsciously The Whole World Is Hungering.

Where There Is Only A Choice Between Cowardice And Violence, I Would Advise Violence.

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

Widowhood Imposed By Religion Or Custom Is An Unbearable Yoke And Defiles The Home By Secret Vice And Degrades Religion.

The Sum Of All That Lives Is God.

Religion Is Entirely A Personal Matter. Each One Could Approach His Creator As He Liked.

Performance Of Duty And Observance Of Morality Are Convertible Terms.

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.

My Notion Of Democracy Is That Under It The Weakest Shall Have The Same Opportunities As The Strongest... No Country In The World Today Shows Any But Patronizing Regard For The Weak... Western Democracy, As It Functions Today, Is Diluted Fascism... True Democracy Cannot Be Worked By Twenty Men Sitting At The Center. It Has To Be Worked From Below, By The People Of Every Village.

The Spirit Of Democracy Cannot Be Superimposed From The Outside. It Must Come From Within.

Exploitation And Domination Of One Nation Over Another Can Have No Place In A World Striving To Put An End To All War.

Nonviolence Abhors Fear And Therefore, Secrecy.

It's More Important To Put The Own Heart In The Prayer Than To Put Other's Words With Nothing Of The Own Heart.

We Must Become The Change We Want To See.

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.

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

It Was Manly And Dignified To Rely Upon God For The Dissolution Of All Troubles. He Was The Only Infallible Help, Guide And Friend.

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

Faith... Must Be Enforced By Reason... When Faith Becomes Blind It Dies.

Khadi Mentality Means Decentralization Of The Production And Distribution Of The Necessaries Of Life.

Decentralization

Cow-protection Can Only Be Secured By Cultivating Universal Friendliness, I.e. Ahimsa.

The Only Tyrant I Accept In This World Is The Still Voice Within.

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

Mass Civil Disobedience Was For The Attainment Of Independence.

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.

The True Measure Of Any Society Can Be Found In How It Treats Its Most Vulnerable Members

The Only Tyrant I Accept In This World Is The 'still Small Voice' Within Me. And Even Though I Have To Face The Prospect Of Being A Minority Of One, I Humbly Believe I Have The Courage To Be In Such A Hopeless Minority.

A Person Who Is Worried About The Outcome Of His Work Does Not See His Goal; He Sees Only His Opposition And The Obstacles Before Him.

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.

I Still Believe That Man, Not Having Been Given The Power Of Creation, Does Not Posses The Right Of Destroying The Meanest Creature That Lives. The Perogative Of Destruction Belongs Solely To The Creator Of All That Lives.

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

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

Prosecution Of The Constructive Programme Means Constructing The Structure Of Swaraj.

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

Love And Exclusive Possession Can Never Go Together.

At The Centre Of Nonviolence Is A Force Which Is Self-acting.

Faith Is A Function Of The Heart.

Naked Violence Repels Like The Naked Skeleton Shorn Of Flesh, Blood And The Velvety Skin.

All Satyagraha And Fasting Is A Species Of Tyaga. It Depends For Its Effects Upon An Expression Of Wholesome Public Opinion Shorn Of All Bitterness.

I Shall Content Myself With Merely Declaring My Firm Conviction That, For The Seeker Who Would Live In Fear Of God And Who Would See Him Face To Face, Restraint In Diet Both As To Quantity And Quality Is As Essential As Restraint In Thought And Speech.

I Was A Coward. I Used To Be Haunted By The Fear Of Thieves, Ghosts And Serpents. I Did Not Dare To Stir Out Of Doors At Night. Darkness Was A Terror To Me. It Was Almost Impossible For Me To Sleep In The Dark, As I Would Imagine Ghosts Coming From One Direction, Thieves From Another And Serpents From A Third. I Could Not Therefore Bear To Sleep Without A Light In The Room.

I Have No Weapon But Nonviolence.

It Is Wrong And Immoral To Seek To Escape The Consequences Of One's Acts.

In This Age Of The Rule Of Brute Force, It Is Almost Impossible For Anyone To Believe That Any One Else Could Possibly Reject The Law Of The Final Supremacy Of Brute Force.

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

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

Do Not Flatter Yourselves With The Belief That A Mere Recital Of That Celebrated Verse In St. John Makes A Man A Christian.

Man Can Only Describe God In His Own Poor Language.

People In A Democracy Should Be Satisfied With Drawing The Government's Attention To A Mistake, If Any.

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

Hinduism Has Absorbed The Best Of All The Faiths Of The World And In That Sense Hinduism Is Not An Exclusive Religion.

The English Peace Is The Peace Of The Grave.

The Fight Of Satyagraha Is For The Strong In Spirit, Not The Doubter Or The Timid. Satyagraha Teaches Us The Art Of Living As Well As Dying.

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

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

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

Seven Blunders Of The World That Lead To Violence.

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

There Are Two Days In The Year That We Can Not Do Anything, Yesterday And Tomorrow

Forgiveness Is Choosing To Love.

Choosing To Love

Satyagraha Is An Attribute Of The Spirit Within.

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

I Felt That God Could Be Realized Only Through Service. And Service For Me Was The Service Of India, Because It Came To Me Without My Seeking, Because I Had An Aptitude For It.

God Has Given Us Only A Limited Sphere Of Action And A Limited Vision.

Live As If You Were To Die Tomorrow. Learn As If You Were To Live Forever.

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

To Benefit By Others' Killing And To Delude Oneself Into The Belief That One Is Being Very Religions And Nonviolent Is Sheer Self-deception.

The Instruments For The Quest For Truth Are As Simple As They Are Difficult.

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

Non-co-operation Is Protest Against An Unwitting And Unwilling Participation In Evil.

Seven Deadly Sins Wealth Without Work Pleasure Without Conscience Science Without Humanity Knowledge Without Character Politics Without Principle Commerce Without Morality Worship Without Sacrifice.

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

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

Our Peaceful Non-co-operation Must Be Constructive, Non-destructive. Poison Should Not Emerge From The Throes Of Love.

If I Preach Against The Modern Artificial Life Of Sensual Enjoyment, And Ask Men And Women To Go Back To The Simple Life Epitomized In The Charkha, I Do So Because I Know That Without An Intelligent Return To Simplicity, There Is No Escape From Our D.

There Is Already Enough Superstition In Our Country. No Effort Should Be Spared To Resist Further Addition In The Shape Of Gandhi Worship.

Truth Is As Hard As Adamant And Tender As A Blossom.

Violence Will Prevail Over Violence, Only When Someone Can Prove To Me That Darkness Can Be Dispelled By Darkness

An Awakened People Who Rely Upon Their Nonviolent Strength Are Independent In The Face Of Any Conceivable Combination Of The Armed Powers.

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

I Believe That It Is Impossible To End Hatred With Hatred.

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

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

Ahimsa Is My God, And Truth Is My God.

Nonviolent Attainment Of Self-government Presupposes A Non-violent Control Over The Violent Elements In The Country.

We Must Be The World We Want To Create.

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

If Non-violence Is The Law Of Our Being, The Future Is With Women.

Women Empowerment

Contraceptives Are An Insult To Womanhood.

Whenever You Are In Doubt, Or When The Self Becomes Too Much With You, Apply The Following Test. Recall The Face Of The Poorest And The Weakest Man Whom You May Have Seen, And Ask Yourself If The Step You Contemplate Is Going To Be Of Any Use To Him. Will He Gain Anything By It? Will It Restore Him To A Control Over His Own Life And Destiny? In Other Words, Will It Lead To Swaraj For The Hungry And Spiritually Starving Millions?

The World Is Touched By Sacrifice. It Does Not Then Discriminate About The Merits Of A Cause. No So God - He Is All Seeing. He Insists On The Purity Of The Cause And On Adequate Sacrifice Thereof.

The Pursuit Of Truth Does Not Permit Violence On One's Opponent.

Faith Is Like The Himalaya Mountains Which Cannot Possibly Change.

It Was Not Through Democratic Methods That Britain Bagged India.

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

What Is Truth? A Difficult Question; But I Have Solved It For Myself By Saying That It Is What The 'voice Within' Tells You.

Difficult Questions

Every Truth Is Self-acting And Possesses Inherent Strength.

To Deprive A Man Of His Natural Liberty And To Deny To Him The Ordinary Amenities Of Life Is Worse Then Starving The Body; It Is Starvation Of The Soul, The Dweller In The Body.

Those Who Cannot Renounce Attachment To The Results Of Their Work Are Far From The Path.

Religion Is More Than Life. Remember That His Own Religion Is The Truest To Every Man Even If It Stands Low In The Scales Of Philosophical Comparison.

Basic Education Links The Children, Whether Of The Cities Or The Villages, To All That Is Best And Lasting In India.

The Sacred Thread And The Tuft Of Hair Without A Pure Heart And A Spirit Of Toleration Do Not Make A Hindu.

I Am Not Fighting Machinery As Such, But The Madness Of Thinking That Machinery Saves Labor. Men Save Labor Until Thousands Of Them Are Without Work And Die Of Hunger On The Streets. I Want To Secure Employment And Livelihood Not Only To Part Of The Human Race, But For All. I Will Not Have The Enrichment Of A Few At The Expense Of The Community. At Present The Machine Is Helping A Small Minority To Live On The Exploitation Of The Masses. The Motive Force Of This Minority Is Not Humanity Or Love Of Their Kind, But Greed And Avarice.

I May Have Become Christian, Were It Not For Christians.

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.

Through Khadi We Teach The People The Art Of Civil Obedience To An Institution Which They Have Built Up For Themselves.

If It Is Possible For The Human Tongue To Give The Fullest Description Of God, I Have Come To The Conclusion That God Is Truth.

It Is My Conviction That Nothing Enduring Can Be Built On Violence. The Only Safe Way To Overcome An Enemy Is To Make Of That Enemy A Friend.

Peace Is Its Own Reward.

If God Is Vast And Boundless As The Ocean, How Can A Tiny Drop Like Man Imagine What He Is?

The Greatness Of The Human Being Is Not In The Reincarnation Of The World But In The Reincarnation Of Ourselves.

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.

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

Nonviolent Defence Presupposes Recklessness About One's Life And Property.

Waiting On God Means Increasing Purity.

Unless The Charkha Adds To Your Ahimsa And Makes You Stronger Every Day, Your Gandhism Is Of Little Avail.

"be The Change You Want To See In The World"...and, If You Can't Be That Change, Then Either Get Out Of The Way Of The Person Who Wants To Be That Change Or Support The Individual With Your Financial Resources.

No Two Men Are Absolutely Alike, Not Even Twins, Yet There Is Much That Is Indispensably Common To All Mankind.

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

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

Mine Is Not A Religion Of The Prison-house. It Has Room For The Least Among God's Creation.

It Is Any Day Better To Stand Erect With A Broken And Bandaged Head Then To Crawl On One's Belly, In Order To Be Able To Save One's Head.

Religious Truth, Or For That Matter Any Truth, Requires A Calm And Meditative Atmosphere For Its Percolation.

A Friendship That Exacts Oneness Of Opinion And Conduct Is Not Worth Much.

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

Rama, Allah And God Are To Me Convertible Terms.

I Have Felt That The Gita Teaches Us That What Cannot Be Followed In Day-to-day Practice Cannot Be Called Religion.

Animal Experimentation Is The Blackest Of All The Black Crimes That A Man Is At Present Committing... We Should Be Able To Refuse To Live If The Price Of Living Be The Torture Of Sentient Beings... I Abhor [animal] Experimentation With My Whole Soul. All The Scientific Discoveries Stained With Innocent Blood I Count As Of No Consequence... The Greatness Of A Nation And Its Moral Progress Can Be Judged By The Way Its Animals Are Treated.

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

To Conceal Ignorance Is To Increase It. An Honest Confession Of It, However, Gives Ground For The Hope That It Will Diminish Some Day Or The Other.

Man Has The Supreme Knack Of Deceiving Himself; The Englishman Is Supremest Among Men.

Cow Preservation Is An Article Of Faith In Hinduism.

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

Active Nonviolence Of The Brave Puts To Flight Thieves, Dacoits, Murderers, And Prepares An Army Of Volunteers Ready To Sacrifice Themselves In Quelling Riots, In Extinguishing Fires And Feuds, And So On.

My Interest In India's Freedom Will Cease If She Adopts Violent Means, For Their Fruit Will Not Be Freedom But Slavery In Disguise.

Khaddar Is An Attempt To Revise And Reverse The Process And Establish A Better Relationship Between The Cities And Villages.

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.

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

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

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.

The Spinning Wheel Is As Much A Necessity Of Indian Life As Air And Water.

Roving Dogs Do Not Indicate The Civilisation Or Compassion Of The Society. They Betray On The Country The Ignorance And Lethargy Of Its Members.

Action Expresses Priorities.

There Is A Power Now Slumbering Within Us, Which Is Awakened Would Do To Evil What Light Does To Darkness.

While Everything Around Me Is Ever Changing, Ever Dying, There Is Underlying That Change A Living Power That Is Changeless, That Holds All Together, That Creates, Dissolves And Recreates.... For I Can See In The Midst Of Death, Life Persists, In The Midst Of Untruth, Truth Persists, In The Midst Of Darkness Light Persists.

My Religion Teaches Me That A Promise Once Made Or A Vow Once Taken For A Worthy Object May Not Be Broken.

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

Is Not Education The Art Of Drawing Out Full Manhood Of The Children Under Training?

The Restoration Of Spinning To Its Central Place In India's Peaceful Campaign For Deliverance From The Imperial Yoke Gives Her Women A Special Status.

Aggressive Civil Disobedience Should Be Confined To A Vindication Of The Right Of Free Speech And Free Association.

None, While In Flesh, Can Be Entirely Free From Himsa, Because One Never Completely Renounces The Will To Live.

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

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

Hindu-muslim Unity, Khaddar And Removal Of Untouchability Are To Me The Foundation Of Swaraj.

Forgiveness Is Choosing To Love. It Is The First Skill Of Self-giving Love.

Positive Thinking

Prayer Is Not Asking. It Is A Longing Of The Soul.

Every Moment Of My Life I Realize That God Is Putting Me On My Trial.

The Removal Of Untouchability Is A Question Of The Purification Of Hinduism.

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

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

And He Who Would Be Friends With God Must Remain Alone, Or Make The Whole World His Friend

Nonviolence And Cowardice Go Ill Together. True Nonviolence Is An Impossibility Without The Possession Of Unadulterated Fearlessness.

Charkha Is An Instrument Of Service.

No Swaraj Government With Any Pretension To Being A Popular Government Can Possibly Be Organised And Maintained On A War-footing.

I Reject Any Religious Doctrine That Does Not Appeal To Reason And Is In Conflict With Morality.

Work For Swaraj Fails To Appeal To Us Because We Have No Music In Us.

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

In The East, As In The West, Newspapers Are Fast Becoming People's Bible, Koran, Zend-avesta And Gita All Rolled Into One.

Never Has Man Reached His Destination By Persistence In Deviation From The Straight Path.

If All Were Nonviolent, There Would Be No Anarchy And There Would Be No Question Of Anybody Being Armed For Meeting Aggression From Without.

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