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Of All The Animal Creations Of God, Main Is The Only Animal Who Has Been Created In Order That He May Know His Maker. Man's Aim Is Life Is Not Therefore To Add From Day To Day To His Material Prospects And To His Material Possessions, But His Predominant Calling Is, From Day To Day To Come Nearer To His Own Maker.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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Of All The Animal

Mahatma Gandhi

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Of All The Animal Creations Of God, Main Is The Only Animal Who Has Been Created In Order That He May Know His Maker. Man's Aim Is Life Is Not Therefore To Add From Day To Day To His Material Prospects And To His Material Possessions, But His Predominant Calling Is, From Day To Day To Come Nearer To His Own Maker.

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Do Not Concentrate On Showing The Misdeeds Of The Government, For We Have To Convert And Befriend Those Who Run It.

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

I Cannot Think Of Permanent Enmity Between Man And Man.

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

The Bhagavad-gita Calls On Humanity To Dedicate Body, Mind And Soul To Pure Duty And Not To Become Mental Voluptuaries At The Mercy Of Random Desires And Undisciplined Impulses.

It Has Often Occurred To Me That A Seeker After Truth Has To Be Silent.

Corruption And Hypocrisy Ought Not To Be Inevitable Products Of Democracy, As They Undoubtedly Are Today.

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

If By Strength Is Meant Moral Power, Then Woman Is Immeasurably Man's Superior

Pure Motives Can Never Justify Impure Or Violent Action.

Why Should I Need An Artist To Explain A Work Of Art To Me? Why Should It Not Speak Out To Me Itself?

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

A Principle Is A Principle And In No Case Can It Be Watered Down Because Of Our Incapacity To Live It In Practice. We Have To Strive To Achieve It, And The Striving Should Be Conscious, Deliberate And Hard.

A Man Of Truth Must Ever Be Confident, If He Has Also Equal Need To Be Diffident.

For Me The Voice Of God, Of Conscience, Of Truth Or The Inner Voice Or The Still Small Voice Mean One And The Same Thing.

The Alphabet Of Ahimsa Is Best Learnt In Domestic School And I Can Say From Experience That If We Secure Success There, We Are Sure To Do So Everywhere Else.

Untouchability Is A Hydra-headed Monster.

A Person Is Bound To Work In Obedience To And In Conformity To That Person's Own Nature.

There Is No Doubt That Our Last State Will Be Worse Than Our First, If We Surrender Our Reason Into Somebody's Keeping.

The English Language Is So Elastic That You Can Find Another Word To Say The Same Thing.

English Language

The Person Who Discovered The Law Of Love Was A Far Greater Scientist Than Any Of Our Modern Scientists. Only Our Explorations Have Not Gone Far Enough And So It Is Not Possible For Everyone To See All Its Workings.

Evil Is, Good Or Truth Misplaced.

Ahimsa Is The Strongest Force Known.

For Winning Swaraj One Requires Iron Discipline.

At The Individual Level Swaraj Is Vitally Connected With The Capacity For Dispassionate Self-assessment , Ceaseless Self Purification And Growing Self-reliance.... It Is Swaraj When We Learn To Rule Ourselves

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

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

Whatever Else India May Not Be, She Is At Least One Thing, She Is The Greatest Storehouse Of Spiritual Knowledge.

I Can Neither Serve God Nor Humanity If As An Indian I Do Not Serve India, And As A Hindu I Do Not Serve Indian Mussalmans.

Conservation Of National Sanitation Is Swaraj Work And It May Not Be Postponed For A Single Day On Any Consideration Whatsoever.

There's Enough On This Planet For Everyone's Needs But Not For Everyone's Greed.

Hunger And Poverty

Of All The Superstitions That Affect India, None Is So Great As That A Knowledge Of The English Language Is Necessary For Imbibing Ideas Of Liberty And Developing Accuracy To Thought.

Indeed One's Faith In One's Plans And Methods Is Truly Tested When The Horizon Before One Is The Blackest.

The Bomb-throwers Have Discredited The Cause Of Freedom, In Whose Name They Threw The Bombs.

My Religion Teaches Me That I Should, By My Personal Conduct, Instill Into The Minds Of Those Who Might Hold Different Views The Conviction That Cow Killing Is A Sin.

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

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

Brotherhood Of Man

The Essence Of All Religions Is One. Only Their Approaches Are Different.

To A Hungry Man, A Piece Of Bread Is The Face Of God.

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

Khadi Will Be The Sun Of The Whole Industrial Solar System.

No Labour Is Too Mean For One Who Wants To Earn An Honest Penny.

Proved Right Should Be Capable Of Being Vindicated By Right Means As Against The Rude I.e. Sanguinary Means. Man May And Should Shed His Own Blood For Establishing What He Considers To Be His Right. He May Not Shed The Blood Of His Opponent Who Disputes His 'right'.

If You Christians Acted More Like Your Christ, The World Would Be A Better Place.

I Would Heartily Welcome The Union Of East And West Provided It Is Not Based On Brute Force.

Without A Belief In My Programme And Without An Acceptance Of My Condition, You Will Ruin Me, Ruin Yourselves And Ruin The Cause.

The Seeker After Truth Should Be Humbler Than The Dust. The World Crushes The Dust Under Its Feet, But The Seeker After Truth Should So Humble Himself That Even The Dust Could Crush Him. Only Then, And Not Till Then, Will He Have A Glimpse Of Truth.

Non-co-operation Means Nothing Less Than Training In Self-sacrifice.

I Call Him Religious Who Understands The Suffering Of Others.

Who Is There In The World Who Can Insult The God In The Image?

True Democracy Is Not Inconsistent With A Few Persons Representing The Spirit, The Hope And The Aspirations Of Those Whom They Claim To Represent.

Means Are Not To Be Distinguished From Ends. If Violent Means Are Used, There Will Be Bad Results.

Democracy Will Break Under The Strain Of Apron Strings. It Can Exist Only On Trust.

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

The Sanyasa Of The Gita Will Not Tolerate Complete Cessation Of Activity.

A Prayerful Study And Experience Are Essential For A Correct Interpretation Of The Scriptures.

For Me Popular Violence Is As Much An Obstruction In Our Path As The Government Violence.

A Great Man May Not Do Great Things But They Do Ordinary Things Greatly.

An Unjust Law Is Itself A Species Of Violence. Arrest For Its Breach Is More So. Now The Law Of Nonviolence Says That Violence Should Be Resisted Not By Counter-violence But By Nonviolence. This I Do By Breaking The Law And By Peacefully Submitting To Arrest And Imprisonment.

Without An Unreserved Surrender To His Grace, Complete Mastery Over Thoughts Is Impossible.

Providence Has Its Appointed Hour For Everything. We Cannot Command Results, We Can Only Strive.

Everything Happens For A Reason

If We All Discharge Our Duties, Rights Will Not Be Far To Seek.

Speed Is Irrelevant If You Are Going In The Wrong Direction.

Wrong Direction

Performance Of Duty And Observance Of Morality Are Convertible Terms.

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

There Can Be No Nonviolence Offered By The Militarily Strong.

But Success And Failure Are Of No Account. They Are God's Concern, Not Mine.

It Is Easier To Bridge The Oceans That Lie Between Continents Than It Is To Bridge The Gap Between Individuals Or The Peoples.

One Needs To Be Slow To Form Convictions, But Once Formed They Must Be Defended Against The Heaviest Odds.

He Is No God Who Merely Satisfies The Intellect, If He Ever Does.

The Simplest Acts Of Kindness Are By Far More Powerful Then A Thousand Heads Bowing In Prayer.

History Is Replete With Instances Of Men, Who, By Dying With Courage And Compassion On Their Lips Converted The Hearts Of Their Violent Opponents.

Politics Bereft Of Religion Is Absolute Dirt, Ever To Be Shunned.

The Bible Is As Much A Book Of Religion With Me As The Gita And The Koran.

My Swaraj Is To Keep Intact The Genius Of Our Civilization.

Unless Nonviolence Of The Strong Is Really Developed Among Us, There Should Be No Thought Of Civil Disobedience For Swaraj, Whether Within The States Or In British India.

I Do Believe That Where There Is A Choice Between Cowardice And Non-violence I Would Advise Violence. Thus When My Eldest Son Asked Me What He Should Have Done, Had He Been Present When I Was Almost Fatally Assaulted In 1908, Whether He Should Have Run Away And Seen Me Killed Or Whether He Should Have Used His Physical Force Which He Could And Wanted To Use, And Defended Me, I Told Him That It Was His Duty To Defend Me Even By Using Violence.

There Is No Such Thing As Slow Freedom. Freedom Is Like A Birth. Till We Are Fully Free We Are Slaves. All Birth Takes Place In A Moment.

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

The Khaddar Of My Conception Is That Handspun Cloth Entirely Takes The Place Of Mill Cloth In India.

Religion Is A Matter Of The Heart. No Physical Inconvenience Can Warrant Abandonment Of One's Own Religion.

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.

For A Firm Believer In Swadeshi, There Need Be No Pharisaical Self-satisfaction In Wearing Khadi.

Woman, I Hold, Is The Personification Of Self-sacrifice, But Unfortunately Today She Does Not Realize What A Tremendous Advantage She Has Over Man. As Tolstoy Used To Say, They Are Laboring Under The Hypnotic Influence Of Man. If They Would Realize The Strength Of Non-violence They Would Not Consent To Be Called The Weaker Sex.

The Only Way Hinduism Can Convert The Whole World To Cow-protection Is By Giving An Object-lesson In Cow-protection And All It Means.

Purity Of Personal Life Is The One Indispensable Condition For Building Up A Sound Education.

A Society Or A Nation Constructed Nonviolently Must Be Able To Withstand Attack Upon Its Structure From Without Or Within.

I May Not Unnerve Myself While I Can Struggle Against Evil.

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

Let The Gita Be To You A Mine Of Diamonds, As It Has Been To Me; Let It Be Your Constant Guide And Friend On Life's Way.

God Is Omnipresent; Even A Pebble In The Narmada Can Represent Him And Serve As An Object Of Worship.

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

Everyone Holds A Piece Of The Truth.

Government Control Gives Rise To Fraud, Suppression Of Truth, Intensification Of The Black Market And Artificial Scarcity. Above All, It Unmans The People And Deprives Them Of Initiative, It Undoes The Teaching Of Self-help.

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

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.

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.

The Golden Rule Is To Act Fearlessly Upon What One Believes To Be Right.

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

The Essence Of A Vow Does Not Consist In The Difficulty Of Its Performance But In The Determination Behind It Unflinchingly To Stick To It In The Teeth Of Difficulties.

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

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

True Art Must Be Evidence Of Happiness, Contentment And Purity Of Its Authors.

I Do Not Accept The Orthodox Teaching That Jesus Was Or Is God Incarnate In The Accepted Sense Or That He Was Or Is The Only Son Of God.

To See The Universal And All-pervading Spirit Of Truth Face To Face, One Must Be Able To Love The Meanest Of All Creation As Oneself.

He Who Trusts Has Never Yet Lost In The World. A Suspicious Man Is Lost To Himself And The Eworld.... Suspicion Is Of The Brood Of Violence. Non-violence Cannot But Trust.

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

To Forgive And Accept Injustice Is Cowardice.

I Have Been Practicing, With Scientific Precision, Nonviolence And Its Possibilities For An Unbroken Period Of Over Fifty Years.

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

This Mad Rush For Wealth Must Cease And The Labourer Must Be Assured Not Only Of A Living Wage But, Also A Daily Task That Is Not Mere Drudgery.

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.

Purest Religion Is Highest Expediency. Many Things Are Lawful But They Are Not All Expedient.

Is Not Labour, Like Learning, Its Own Reward?

God Rules Even Where Satan Seems To Hold Sway, Because The Latter Exists Only On God's Sufferance.

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

Khadi Will Cease To Have Any Value In My Eyes If It Does Not Usefully Employ The Millions.

Hinduism Has Sinned In Giving Sanction To Untouchability.

All The Dry Ethics Of The World Turn To Dust Because Apart From God They Are Lifeless.

If Britain Wins Wholly, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy And Perhaps Even Bolshevik Russia Will Disappear.

God's Word Is: 'he Who Strives Never Perishes.' I Have Implicit Faith In That Promise. Though, Therefore, From My Weakness I Fail A Thousand Times, I Shall Not Lose Faith.

God Has His Own Way Of Choosing His Instruments.

When Anything Assumes The Strength Of A Creed, It Becomes Self-sustained And Derives The Needed Support From Within.

The Highest Religion Has Been Defined By A Negative Word: Ahimsa.

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

Man's Happiness Really Lies In Contentment.

Don't Let Anybody Walk Through Your Mind With Dirty Feet.

Nonviolence Is Not A Weapon Of The Weak. It Is A Weapon Of The Strongest And Bravest.

Breach Of Promise Is No Less An Act Of Insolvency Than A Refusal To Pay One's Debt.

If Gandhism Means Simply Mechanically Turning The Spinning Wheel, It Deserves To Be Destroyed.

The Charkha Supplemented The Agriculture Of The Villagers And Gave It Dignity.

Nobody In This World Possesses Absolute Truth. This Is God's Attribute Alone. Relative Truth Is All We Know. Therefore, We Can Only Follow The Truth As We See It. Such Pursuit Of Truth Cannot Lead Anyone Astray.

Truth Should Be The Very Breath Of Our Life. When Once This State In The Pilgrim's Progress Is Reached, All Other Rules Of Correct Living Will Come Without Any Effort, And Obedience To Them Will Be Instinctive.

I Have Been Known As A Crank, Faddist, Madman. Evidently The Reputation Is Well Deserved. For Wherever I Go, I Draw To Myself Cranks, Faddists, And Madmen.

Truth Is Superior To Man S Wisdom.

I Suffer Snakes To Be Killed In The Ashram When It Is Impossible To Catch Them And Put Them Out Of Harm's Way.

Meditation Is Waiting On God.

A Non-violent Revolution Is Not A Program Of Seizure Of Power. It Is A Program Of Transformation Of Relationships, Ending In A Peaceful Transfer Of Power.

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

Non-violence ... Is The Only Thing That The Atom Bomb Cannot Destroy. I Did Not Move A Muscle When I First Heard That The Atom Bomb Had Wiped Out Hiroshima. On The Contrary, I Said To Myself, Unless Now The World Adopts Non-violence, It Will Spell Certain Suicide For Mankind.

The Function Of Violence Is To Obtain Reform By External Means, The Function Of Passive Resistance, That Is, Soul-force, Is To Obtain It By Growth From Within, Which, In Its Turn, Is Obtained By Self-suffering, Self-purification.

Passive Resistance

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

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

We Believe As Much In The Purity Of Race As We Think They Do... We Believe Also That The White Race Of South Africa Should Be The Predominating Race.

My Patriotism Is Not An Exclusive Thing. It Is All-embracing And I Should Reject That Patriotism Which Sought To Mount The Distress Or Exploitation Of Other Nationalities.

If Untouchability Lives, Humanity Must Die.

You Can Return Blow For Blow If You Are Not Brave Enough To Follow The Path Of Nonviolence.

The Sole Aim Of Journalism Should Be Service.

To Kill These (rabid) Dogs, In My Opinion, Amount To Himsa, But I Believe It To Be Inevitable If We Are To Escape Much Greater Himsa.

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

Life Is One Indivisible Whole.

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

The Path Of Truth Is As Narrow As It Is Straight. Even So Is That Of Ahimsa.

Work Without Faith Is Like An Attempt To Reach The Bottom Of A Bottomless Pit.

If I Was To Be Their Real Teacher And Guardian, I Must Touch Their Hearts, I Must Share Their Joys And Sorrows, I Must Help Them To Solve The Problems That Faced Them, And I Must Take Along The Right Channel The Surging Aspirations Of Their Youth.

Speak Only If It Improves Upon The Silence.

What Is A Man If He Is Not A Thief Who Openly Charges As Much As He Can For The Goods He Sells?

You Will Eat Not To Satisfy Your Palate But Your Hunger. A Self-indulgent Man Lives To Eat; A Self-restrained Man Eats To Live.

Calling Them Devadasis We Insult God Himself In The Name Of Religion.

My Commitment Is To Truth Not Consistency.

Passive Resistance Is A Method Of Securing Rights By Personal Suffering; It Is The Reverse Of Resistance By Arms.

Passive Resistance

The Safest Rule Of Conduct Is To Claim Kinship When We Want To Do Service And Not To Insist On Kinship When We Want To Assert A Right.

A Satyagrahi Must Ceaselessly Strive To Realize And Live Truth. And He Must Never Contemplate Hurting Anyone By Thought, Word Or Deed.

If We Will Take Care Of Today, God Will Take Care Of The Morrow.

Man Can Only Conceive God Within The Limitation Of His Own Mind.

Do Not Crave To Know The Views Of Others, Nor Base Your Intent Thereon. To Think Independently For Yourself Is A Sign Of Fearlessness.

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.

A Man Is But The Product Of His Thoughts What He Thinks, He Becomes.

Start Changing Yourself If You Want To Change The Life Around You.

Change Yourself

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

Love Is The Subtlest Force In The World.

All Good Thoughts And Ideas Mean Nothing Without Action

Many People, Especially Ignorant People, Want To Punish You For Speaking The Truth, For Being Correct, For Being You. Never Apologize For Being Correct, Or For Being Years Ahead Of Your Time. If You’re Right And You Know It, Speak Your Mind. Speak Your Mind. Even If You Are A Minority Of One, The Truth Is Still The Truth.

Speak Your Mind

What Has Appealed To Me Most In Tolstoy's Life Is That He Practiced What He Preached And Reckoned No Cost Too Great In His Pursuit Of Truth.

That Which Impels Man To Do The Right Thing Is God.

Human Language Can But Imperfectly Describe God's Ways.

Equality Of Sexes Does Not Mean Equality Of Occupations.

My Religion Has No Geographical Limits.

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

Salvation Of The Gita Is Perfect Peace.

Prayer Presupposes Faith. No Prayer Is In Vain. Prayer Is Like Any Other Action.

All Your Scholarship, All Your Study Of Shakespeare And Wordsworth Would Be In Vain, If At The Same Time You Do Not Build Your Character, And Attain Mastery Over Your Thoughts And Actions.

Love Transcends All Animosity And Is Never Partial.

Ethically They Had Arrived At The Conclusion That Man's Supremacy Over Lower Animals Meant Not That The Former Should Prey Upon The Latter, But That The Higher Should Protect The Lower, And That There Should Be Mutual Aid Between The Two As Between Man And Man. They Had Also Brought Out The Truth That Man Eats Not For Enjoyment But To Live.

An Opponent Is Entitled To The Same Regard For His Principles As We Would Expect Others To Have For Ours. Non-violence Demands That We Should See Every Opportunity To Win Over Opponents.

Spiritual Instruments Suffer In Their Potency When Their Use Is Taught Through Non-spiritual Messages Which Are Self-propagating.

Men In Prison Are "civilly Dead" And Have No Claim To Any Say In Policy.

Religion To Be True Must Satisfy What May Be Termed Humanitarian Economics, That Is, Where The Income And The Expenditure Balance Each Other.

The Spirit Of Democracy... Requires Change Of The Heart... Requires The Inculcation Of The Spirit Of Brotherhood.

Prayer Is The Key Of The Morning And The Bolt Of The Evening.

Peace Is Unattained By Part Performance Of Conditions, Even As A Chemical Combination Is Impossible Without Complete Fulfillment Of The Conditions Of Attainment Thereof.

We Indians Are One As No Two Englishmen Are.

Ahimsa Is My God, And Truth Is My God.

Love And Exclusive Possession Can Never Go Together.

The Whole Of India Was The Home Of Every Indian Who Considered Himself As One And Behaved As Such, No Matter To What Faith He Belonged.

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.

My Experience Teaches Me That Truth Can Never Be Propagated By Doing Violence.

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

Prayer Is Either Petitional Or, In Its Wider Sense, Inward Communion.

It Is My Own Firm Belief That The Strength Of The Soul Grows In Proportion As You Subdue The Flesh.

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