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Self-sacrifice Of One Innocent Man Is A Million Times More Potent Than The Sacrifice Of A Million Men Who Die In The Act Of Killing Others.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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Self-sacrifice Of One Innocent

Mahatma Gandhi

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Self-sacrifice Of One Innocent Man Is A Million Times More Potent Than The Sacrifice Of A Million Men Who Die In The Act Of Killing Others.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

We Have To Be The Change We Want In The World.

Forgive And Forget, But Never Forget To Forgive. You May Find A Happier Heart Is The Key To A Happier Life.

Forgive And Forget

A Popular Government Wields A Moral Force, Which Is Infinitely Superior To The Physical Force That The Foreign Government Could Summon To Its Assistance.

Real Education Consists In Drawing The Best Out Of Yourself.

If You Take Care Of Your Immediate Surroundings, The Universe Will Take Care Of Itself.

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

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

History Has No Record Of A Nation Having Adopted Nonviolent Resistance.

Satyagraha Is A Force That Has Come To Stay. No Force In The World Can Kill It.

In India There Is A Common Saying That The Way To Swaraj Is Through Mandalay.

No Human Being Is So Bad As To Be Beyond Redemption.

That Which Is Inherent In Man Is His Virtue.

God Turns His Back On Those Who Quarrel Among Themselves.

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

All Big Things Are Made Up Of Trifles. My Entire Life Has Been Built On Trifles.

We Must Be Ever Courteous And Patient With Those Who Do Not See Eye To Eye With Us. We Must Resolutely Refuse To Consider Our Opponents As Enemies.

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

Whatever I Do Is Out Of Love.

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

Man Is The Center Of A Circle Without A Circumference, Except The One He Creates For Himself.

It Is The Law Of Love That Rules Mankind. Had Violence, I.e. Hate, Rules Us We Would Have Become Extinct Long Ago. And Yet, The Tragedy Of It Is That The So-called Civilised Men And Nations Conduct Themselves As If The Basis Of Society Was Violence.

Personally I Like To Believe That All Become Honest, The Millennium Is Round The Corner!

I Believe In Advaita, I Believe In The Essential Unity Of Man And For That Matter Of All That Lives.

Happiness, The Goal To Which We All Are Striving Is Reached By Endeavoring To Make The Lives Of Others Happy, And If By Renouncing The Luxuries Of Life We Can Lighten The Burdens Of Others.... Surely The Simplification Of Our Wants Is A Thing Greatly To Be Desired! And So, If Instead Of Supposing That We Must Become Hermits And Dwellers In Caves In Order To Practice Simplicity, We Set About Simplifying Our Affairs, Each According To His Own Convictions And Opportunity, Much Good Will Result And The Simple Life Will At Once Be Established.

You Can't Hurt Me Without My Permission.

Nonviolence Is The Summit Of Bravery.

Peace Is The Most Powerful Weapon Of Mankind.

Nature Can Provide For The Needs Of People; [she] Can't Provide For The Greed Of People.

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

Wrong Direction

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

Nothing Will Demoralize The Nation So Much As That We Should Learn To Despise Labour.

Eye For Eye And The World Will Go Blind.

If India Won Her Freedom Through Truth And Non-violence, India Would Not Only Point The Way To All The Exploited Asiatic Nations, She Would Become A Torch-bearer For The Negro Races.

If We Remain Nonviolent, Hatred Will Die As Everything Does From Disuse.

Without Prayer There Is No Inward Peace.

Everything I Have Personally Experienced, And That Also Has Been Expressed By The Leaders Of The Great Religions Points To The Fact That A Global Spirituality Already Exists And Was Intrinsically There From The Start As God (by Whatever Name) Is One And Is Indivisible - Everywhere Outside Time And Place.

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

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

Unless All The Discoveries That You Make Have The Welfare Of The Poor As The End In View, All Your Workshops Will Be Really No Better Than Satan's Workshops.

According To The Letter Of The Gita, It Is Possible To Say That Warfare Is Consistent With Renunciation Of Fruit.

Where Love Is, There God Is Also.

India Must Learn To Live Before She Can Aspire To Die For Humanity.

Ahimsa Is Nothing If Not A Well-balanced, Exquisite Consideration For One's Neighbour, And An Idle Man Is Wanting In That Elementary Consideration.

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

Running Away For Fear Of Death, Leaving One's Dear Ones, Temples Or Music To Take Care Of Themselves, Is Irreligion; It Is Cowardice.

The Golden Rule To Apply In All Such Cases Is Resolutely To Refuse To Have What Millions Cannot.

If We Know How Much Passive Violence We Perpetrate Against One Another, We Will Understand Why There Is So Much Physical Violence Plaguing Societies And The World.

It Is My Great Misfortune That I Have To Measure Your Love By The Money Gifts You Give For Daridranarayana.

The Very Essence Of Democracy Is That Every Person Represents All The Varied Interests Which Compose The Nation.

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.

My Modesty Has Prevented Me From Declaring From The House Top That The Message Of Non-co-operation, Nonviolence And Swadeshi Is A Message To The World.

Intolerance Is Itself A Form Of Violence And An Obstacle To The Growth Of A True Democratic Spirit.

Only Living Things Bring Living Joy To The Soul And Must Elevate It.

Nonviolence Means An Ocean Of Compassion. It Means Shedding From Us Every Trace Of Ill Will For Others. It Does Not Mean Abjectness Or Timidity, Or Fleeing In Fear. It Means, On The Contrary, Firmness Of Mind And Courage, A Resolute Spirit.

Spiritual Force Is Like Any Other Force At The Service Of Man.

The Only Safe And Honorable Course For A Self-respecting Man Is To Do What I Have Decided To Do, That Is, To Submit Without Protest To The Penalty Of Disobedience ... Not For Want Of Respect For Lawful Authority, But In Obedience To The Higher Law Of Our Being, The Voice Of Conscience.

The Commerce Between India And Africa Will Be Of Ideas And Services, Not Of The Manufactured Goods Against Raw Materials After The Fashion Of The Western Exploiters.

Truthful Movements Spontaneously Attract To Themselves All Manner Of Pure And Disinterested Help.

The Swaraj Of My Dream Recognizes No Race Or Religious Distinctions.

My Plea Is For Banishing The English Language As A Cultural Usurper, As We Successfully Banished The Political Rule Of The English Usurper.

My Conception Of Dominion Status Implies Present Ability To Severe The British Connection If I Wish To.

Prayer Can Come In Only When Fasting Has Done Its Work. It Can Make Fasting Easy And Bearable.

Even Ramanama Is By Itself Lifeless, But It Has Become A Living Symbol Of The Deity Because Millions Of People Have Consecrated It.

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

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

The Britisher Is The Top Dog And The Indian The Underdog In His Own Country.

Every Living Faith Must Have Within Itself The Power Of Rejuvenation If It Is To Live

I Know That In Embarking On Non-violence I Shall Be Running What Might Be Termed A Mad Risk. But The Victories Of Truth Have Never Been Won Without Risks.

Since Satyagraha Is A Method Of Conversion And Conviction, It Seeks Never To Use The Slightest Coercion.

Truth And Untruth Often Co-exist; Good And Evil Often Are Found Together

Outward Appearance Is Nothing To Him If It Is Not An Expression Of The Inner.

It Is No Easy Task To Do Away With A Thing That Is Established. We, Therefore, Say That The Non-beginning Of A Thing Is Supreme Wisdom.

Power Is Of Two Kinds: One Is Obtained By The Fear Of Punishment And The Other By Acts Of Love.

A Life Without Vows Is Like A Ship Without An Anchor Or Like An Edifice That Is Built On Sand Instead Of A Solid Rock.

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

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

My Faith Runs So Very Much Faster Than My Reason That I Can Challenge The Whole World And Say, 'god Is, Was And Ever Shall Be'.

The Force Of The Spirit Is Ever Progressive And Endless. Its Full Expression Makes It Unconquerable In The World.

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

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

Adversity Is The Mother Of Progress.

I Learnt From Hussein How To Achieve Victory While Being Oppressed.

I Believe In The Absolute Oneness Of God And Therefore Of Humanity. What Though We Have Many Bodies? We Have But One Soul. . . . I Know God Is Neither In Heaven Nor Down Below, But In Everyone.

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

A Religious Act Cannot Be Performed With The Aid Of The Bayonet Or The Bomb.

If God Holds Me To Be A Pure Instrument For The Spread Of Nonviolence In Place Of The Awful Violence Now Ruling The Earth, He Will Give Me The Strength And Show Me The Way.

I Refuse To Believe That The Tendency Of Human Nature Is Always Downward.

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

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

I Regard Myself As A Soldier, Though A Soldier Of Peace.

Non-cooperatio N With Evil Is A Sacred Duty.

An Ideal Sanctified By The Sacrifices Of Such Master Spirits As Lenin Cannot Go In Vain, The Noble Example Of Their Renunciation Will Be Emblazoned For Ever And Quicken And Purify The Ideal As Time Passes.

Satyagraha Is A Process Of Educating Public Opinion, Such That It Covers All The Elements Of The Society And In The End Makes Itself Irresistible.

What I Want To Achieve, What I Have Been Striving And Pining For These Thirty Years, Is Self-realization, That Is, To See God Face To Face.

I Want Co-operation Between Nations For The Salvaging Of Civilization, But Co-operation Presupposes Free Nations Worthy Of Co-operation.

The Only Virtue I Want To Claim Is Truth And Nonviolence.

There Can Be No Nonviolence Offered By The Militarily Strong.

I Regard Duryodhana And His Party As The Baser Impulses In Man, And Arjuna And His Party As The Higher Impulses.

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.

God's Time Never Stops.

Consciously Or Unconsciously, Every One Of Us Does Render Some Service Or Other. If We Cultivate The Habit Of Doing This Service Deliberately, Our Desire For Service Will Steadily Grow Stronger, And Will Make, Not Only For Our Own Happiness, But That Of The World At Large.

No Matter How Explicit The Pledge, People Will Turn And Twist The Text To Suit Their Own Purpose

It Is No Non-violence If We Merely Love Those That Love Us. It Is Non-violence Only When We Love Those That Hate Us.

We Are Merely Instruments Of The Almighty's Will And Therefore Ignorant Of What Helps Us Forward And What Acts As An Impediment. We Must Thus Rest Satisfied With The Knowledge Only Of The Means And If These Are Pure, We Can Fearlessly Leave The End To Take Care Of Itself.

The Very Word Islam Means Peace, Which Is Nonviolence.

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

Nonviolence Is A Plant Of Slow Growth, It Grows Imperceptibly But Surely.

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

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

Public Opinion Alone Can Keep A Society Pure And Healthy.

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

With Me The Connection Between The Cosmic Phenomena And Human Behaviour Is A Living Faith That Draws Me Nearer To God, Humbles Me And Makes Me Readier For Facing Him.

We Must Treat Arrest As The Normal Condition Of The Life Of A Non-co-operator.

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

That I Want To Destroy British Imperialism Is Another Matter, But I Want To Do So By Converting Those Who Are Associated With It.

Ahimsa Is The Highest Duty. Even If We Cannot Practice It In Full, We Must Try To Understand Its Spirit And Refrain As Far As Is Humanly Possible From Violence.

Hand-spinning Is Designed To Put Millions Of Rupees In The Hands Of The Poor Villagers.

Intellect Takes Us Along In The Battle Of Life To A Certain Limit, But At The Crucial Moment It Fails Us. Faith Transcends Reason. It Is When The Horizon Is The Darkest And Human Reason Is Beaten Down To The Ground That Faith Shines Brightest And Comes To Our Rescue.

Urbanization In India Is A Slow But Sure Death For Her Villages And Villagers.

Hinduism Is Not A Codified Religion.

Untouchability Of Foreign Cloth Is As Much A Virtue With All Of Us As Untouchability Of The Suppressed Classes Must Be A Sin With Every Devout Hindu.

A Rose Will Smell As Sweet By Any Other Name, But It Must Be The Rose Of Liberty That I Want And Not The Artificial Product.

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

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

True Education Is That Which Proves Useful In Life And Makes You Industrious.

Real Beauty Is My Aim.

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

Freedom Is Not Worth Having If It Does Not Connote Freedom To Err.

The History Of The World Is Full Of Men Who Rose To Leadership, By Sheer Force Of Self-confidence, Bravery And Tenacity.

Self Confidence

If Our Ahimsa Is Not Of The Brave But Of The Weak, And If It Will Bend The Knee Before Himsa, Gandhism Deserves To Be Destroyed.

I Have Always Felt That The True Text-book For The Pupil Is His Teacher

Champions Are Made From Something They Have Deep Inside Of Them-a Desire, A Dream, A Vison.

Change Yourself - You Are In Control.

Change Yourself

Coercion Cannot But Result In Chaos In The End.

I Simply Want To Tell The Story Of My Experiments With Truth...as My Life Consists Of Nothing But Those Experiments.

Salvation Of The Gita Is Perfect Peace.

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

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

The Test Of Friendship Is Assistance In Adversity, And That Too, Unconditional Assistance, Co-operation Which Needs Consideration Is As A Commercial Contract And Not Friendship. Conditional Co-operation Is Like Adulterated Cement Which Does Not Bind.

What Better Book Can There Be Than The Book Of Humanity.

If We All Discharge Our Duties, Rights Will Not Be Far To Seek. If Leaving Duties Unperformed We Run After Rights, They Will Escape Us Like A Will-o'-the-wisp.

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

The Greatest Help You Can Give Me Is To Banish Fear From Your Hearts.

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

Civil Disobedience Is The Only Nonviolent Escape From The Soul-destroying Heat Of Violence.

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

I Would Bend The Knee Before The Poorest Scavenger, The Poorest Untouchable In India For Having Participated In Crushing Him For Centuries; I Would Even Take The Dust Off His Feet.

Education Without Courage Is Like A Wax Statue - Beautiful To Look At But Bound To Melt At The First Touch Of A Hot Stuff.

Half-a-dozen Or Twenty Cities Of India Alone Working Together Cannot Bring Swaraj.

Working Together

The More I Study Hindu Scriptures, And The More I Discuss Them With Brahmins, The More I Feel Convinced That Untouchability Is The Greatest Blot Upon Hinduism.

I Cannot Conceive Of A Greater Loss Than The Loss Of One's Self-respect.

Unexampled Bravery, Born Of Nonviolence, Coupled With Strict Honesty Shown By A Fair Number Of Muslims, Is Sure To Infect The Whole Of India.

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

By Using Violence To Subjugate One Another We Are Using Violence Against Our Own Souls.

I Believe That A Party Wishing Equality For India Does Exist In Britain. But It Is An Insignificant Minority, And While I Honour And Like Their Opinion I Cannot Be Enthused Over It, For I Know That Those Who Shape Policy And Dominate Are Otherwise Inclined. For Me, Therefore, It Is Only The Secretary Of State Who Counts.

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

Without Satyagraha Carried Out In The Proper Spirit, There Is No Victory, No Swaraj.

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.

True Love Is Boundless Like The Ocean And, Swelling Within One, Spreads Itself Out And, Crossing All Boundaries And Frontiers, Envelops The Whole World.

The Most Practical, The Most Dignified Way Of Going On In The World Is To Take People At Their Word, When You Have No Positive Reason To The Contrary.

Love Never Claims, It Ever Gives.

The Only Difference Between Man And Man All The World Over Is One Of Degree, And Not Of Kind, Even As There Is Between Trees Of The Same Species. Where In Is The Cause For Anger, Envy Or Discrimination?

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.

A Slave Has Not The Freedom Even To Do The Right Thing.

Wildlife Is Decreasing In The Jungles, But It Is Increasing In The Towns.

Culture Of The Mind Must Be Subservient To The Heart.

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

No Confirmed Satyagrahi Is Dismayed By Dangers, Seen Or Unseen, From His Opponent's Side.

In Any Case, The Fear Of Subservience Is Quite Imaginary.

I Believe That Religious Education Must Be The Sole Concern Of Religious Associations.

Nonviolence, When It Becomes Active, Travels With Extraordinary Velocity, And Then It Becomes A Miracle.

Dignity Of Human Nature Requires That We Must Face The Storms Of Life.

A Satyagrahi Cannot Go To Law For A Personal Wrong.

The Measure Of A Society Can Be How Well Its People Treat Its Animals

For Me, Rama And Rahim Are One And The Same Deity. I Acknowledge No Other God But The One God Of Truth And Righteousness.

Even As A Tree Has A Single Trunk, But Many Branches And Leaves, There Is One Religion But Any Number Of Faiths.

That Prince Is Acceptable To Me Who Becomes A Prince Among His People's Servants.

It Was Our Love Of Foreign Cloth That Ousted The Wheel From Its Position Of Dignity.

You Can Judge A Society By The Way It Treats It's Animals

Purification Is Never For The Selfishly Idle, It Accrues Only To The Selflessly Industrious.

Non-violence Should Never Be Used As A Shield For Cowardice. It Is A Weapon For The Brave.

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?

A Born Democrat Is A Born Disciplinarian.

Journalism Should Never Be Prostituted For Selfish Ends Or For The Sake Of Merely Earning A Livelihood Or, Worse Still, For Amassing Money.

Without Action, You Aren't Going Anywhere.

Kaffirs Are As A Rule Uncivilized - The Convicts Even More So. They Are Troublesome, Very Dirty And Live Almost Like Animals.

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

In Swaraj, Based On Ahimsa, People Need Not Know Their Rights, But It Is Also Necessary For Them To Know Their Duties.

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

There Are People In The World So Hungry, That God Cannot Appear To Them Except In The Form Of Bread.

India Has An Unbroken Tradition Of Nonviolence From Times Immemorial.

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