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To Get Rid Of The Infatuation For English Is One Of The Essentials Of Swaraj.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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To Get Rid Of

Mahatma Gandhi

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To Get Rid Of The Infatuation For English Is One Of The Essentials Of Swaraj.

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I Have Not Lost The Hope That The Masses Will Refuse To Bow To The Moloch Of War But They Will Rely Upon Their Own Capacity For Suffering To Save Their Country's Honour.

When Faced With A Choice Between Violence And Cowardice, Always Choose Violence

Do You Think I Am Superstitious? I Am A Super-atheist.

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Your Action Expresses Your Priorities.

Human Society Is A Ceaseless Growth, And Unfoldment In Terms Of Spirituality.

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

Domestic Matters Are Trifles For Us. But They Occupy The Principal Part Of My Life. They Teach Me To Know My Limitations.

If She [woman] Is Weak In Striking, She Is Strong In Suffering.

We Become Godlike To The Extent We Realize Nonviolence, But We Can Never Become Wholly God.

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

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

The Gita Distinguishes Between The Powers Of Light And Darkness And Demonstrates Their Incompatibility.

Evil Is, Good Or Truth Misplaced.

True Ahimsa Should Mean A Complete Freedom From Ill-will And Anger And Hate And An Overflowing Love For All.

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

Unity Among The Different Races And The Different Religions Of India Is Indispensable To The Birth Of National Life.

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

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

Mankind Is Notoriously Too Dense To Read The Signs That God Sends From Time To Time. We Require Drums To Be Beaten Into Our Ears, Before We Should Wake From Our Trance And Hear The Warning And See That To Lose Oneself In All, Is The Only Way To Find Oneself.

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

What Crimes, For Which We Condemn The Government As Satanic, Have Not We Been Guilty Of Towards Our Own Untouchable Brethren?

Is A Civilization Worth The Name, Which Requires, For Its Existence The Very Doubtful Prop Of A Racial Legislation And A Lynch Law?

If You Have No Character To Lose, People Will Have No Faith In You.

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

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The Rich Cannot Accumulate Wealth Without The Co-operation Of The Poor In Society.

The Privilege Of Resisting Or Disobeying A Particular Law Or Order Accrues Only To Him Who Gives Willing And Unswerving Obedience To The Laws Laid Down For Him.

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

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.

I Recall Having Read, At The Brothers' Instance, Madame Blavatsky's Key To Theosophy. This Book Stimulated In Me The Desire To Read Books On Hinduism, And Disabused Me Of The Notion Fostered By The Missionaries That Hinduism Was Rife With Superstition.

Under My Plan, The State Will Be There To Carry Out The Will Of The People, Not To Dictate To Them Or To Force Them To Do Its Will.

Service Which Is Rendered Without Joy Helps Neither The Servant Nor The Served.

Ahimsa Is The Height Of Kshatriya Dharma As It Represents The Climax Of Fearlessness.

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.

The Real Meaning Of Economic Equality Is "to Each According To His Need."

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

If India Adopted The Doctrine Of Love As An Active Part Of Her Religion And Introduced It In Her Politics. Swaraj Would Descend Upon India From Heaven. But I Am Painfully Aware That That Event Is Far Off As Yet.

In Matters Of Conscience, The Law Of The Majority Has No Place.

A Slave- Holder, Who Has Decided To Abolish Slavery, Does Not Consult His Slaves Whether They Desire Freedom Or Not.

I Know That Buddhism Is To Hinduism What Protestantism Is To Roman Catholicism, Only In A Much Stronger Light, To A Much Greater Degree.

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.

Our Struggle Does Not End So Long As There Is A Single Human Being Considered Untouchable On Account Of His Birth.

Nothing In The Shastra, Which Is Manifestly Contrary To Universal Truths And Morals, Can Stand.

He Who Runs To The Doctor, Vaidya, Or Hakim For Every Little Ailment, And Swallows All Kinds Of Vegetable And Mineral Drugs, Not Only Curtails His Life, But By Becoming The Slave Of His Body Instead Of Remaining Its Master, Loses Self-control, And Ceases To Be A Man.

What Is Impossible With Man Is Child's Play With God.

The Force Of Nonviolence Is Infinitely More Wonderful And Subtle Than The Material Forces Of Nature, Like Electricity.

The Nonviolent Man Automatically Becomes A Servant Of God.

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.

I Have Made The World's Faith In God My Own And As My Faith Is Effaceable, I Regard That Faith As Amounting To Experience.

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

The Meaning Of Prayer Is That I Want To Evoke That Divinity Within Me.

If You Approached People With Trust And Affection You Would Have Ten-fold Trust And Thousand-fold.

Who Can Deny That Much That Passes For Science And Art Today Destroys The Soul Instead Of Uplifting It And Instead Of Evoking The Best In Us, Panders To Our Basest Passions?

I Believe In Trusting. Trust Begets Trust. Suspicion Is Foetid And Only Stinks. He Who Trusts Has Never Yet Lost In The World.

My Love Of The British Is Equal To That Of My Own People.

As A Splendid Palace Deserted By Its Inmates Looks Like A Ruin, So Does A Man Without Character, All His Material Belongings Notwithstanding.

All Compromise Is Based On Give And Take, But There Can Be No Give And Take On Fundamentals. Any Compromise On Mere Fundamentals Is A Surrender. For It Is All Give And No Take.

I Regard The Constituent Assembly As The Substitute Ofsatyagraha. It Is Constructive Satyagraha.

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.

When There Is No Desire For Fruit, There Is Also No Temptation For Untruth Or Himsa.

Satyagraha And Civil Disobedience And Fasts Have Nothing In Common With The Use Of Force, Veiled Or Open.

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

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

Political Power Means The Capacity To Regulate National Life Through National Representatives.

Satyagraha Can Rid Society Of All Evils, Political, Economic And Moral.

For Me The Only Certain Means Of Knowing God Is Nonviolence, Ahimsa, Love.

I Shall Never Know God If I Do Not Wrestle With And Against Evil, Even At The Cost Of Life Itself.

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.

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

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.

To Say That A Single Human Being, Because Of His Birth, Becomes An Untouchable, Unapproachable Or Invisible Is To Deny God.

If You Must Kill English Officials, Why Not Kill Me Instead?

What Do I Think Of Western Civilization? I Think It Would Be A Very Good Idea.

In The Case Of The Indian Villager, An Age-old Culture Is Hidden Under Entrustment Of Crudeness.

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

The Khadi Spirit Means Also An Infinite Patience.

There Is Not A Moment When I Do Not Feel The Presence Of A Witness Whose Eye Misses Nothing And With Whom I Strive To Keep In Tune.

Once One Assumes An Attitude Of Intolerance, There Is No Knowing Where It Will Take One. Intolerance, Someone Has Said, Is Violence To The Intellect And Hatred Is Violence To The Heart.

We Should Meet Abuse By Forbearance. Human Nature Is So Constituted That If We Take Absolutely No Notice Of Anger Or Abuse, The Person Indulging In It Will Soon Weary Of It And Stop.

My Ahimsa Is My Own. I Am Not Able To Accept In Its Entirety The Doctrine Of Non-killing Of Animals.

No Indian Who Aspires To Follow The Way Of True Religion Can Afford To Remain Aloof From Politics.

Lady Is The Buddy Of Man, Skilled With Equivalent Mental Limit.

The One Religion Is Beyond All Speech.

Drink Is Not A Fashion In India, As It Is In The West.

The Satyagrahi Strives To Reach Reason Through The Heart. The Method Of Reaching The Heart Is To Awaken Public Opinion.

God Has Enabled Man To Distinguish Between His Sister, His Mother, His Daughter And His Wife.

My Idea Of Village Swaraj Is That Is A Complete Republic, Independent Of Its Neighbors For Its Own Vital Wants, And Yet Interdependent For Many Others Which Dependence Is A Necessity.

I Have Known Only One Way Of Carrying On Missionary Work, Viz., By Personal Example And Discussion With Searchers For Knowledge.

Satyagraha Is A Law For Universal Application. Beginning With The Family, Its Use Can Be Extended To Every Other Circle.

It's Not Just Words. Action Expresses Priorities.

Doubt Is Invariably The Result Of Want Or Weakness Of Faith.

Swadeshism Is Not A Cult Of Hatred. It Is A Doctrine Of Selfless Service That Has Its Roots In The Purest Ahimsa, I.e. Love.

A Worker's Capital Is Inexhaustible, Incapable Of Being Stolen, And Bound To Pay Him A Generous Dividend All The Time.

The Dignity Of Man Requires Obedience To A Higher Law, To The Strength Of The Spirit.

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

Wherever Flaxseeds Become A Regular Food Item Among The People, There Will Be Better Health.

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

The Seeker After Truth Should Be Humbler Than The Dust.

Simplicity Is The Essence Of Universality.

Character Alone Will Have Real Effect On The Masses.

You Are No Satyagrahi If You Remain Silent Or Passive Spectators While Your Enemy Is Being Done To Death.

If There Ever Is To Be A Republic Of Every Village In India, Then I Claim Verity For My Picture In Which The Last Is Equal To The First Or, In Other Words, No One Is To Be The First And None The Last.

Every Expression Of Truth Has In It The Seeds Of Propagation, Even As The Sun Cannot Hide Its Light.

Waiting On God Means Increasing Purity.

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.

We Indians Are One As No Two Englishmen Are.

The Mantram Becomes One's Staff Of Life And Carries One Through Every Ordeal. Each Repetition Has A New Meaning, Carrying You Nearer And Nearer To God.

Retreat Itself Is Often A Plan Of Resistance And May Be A Precursor Of Great Bravery And Sacrifice. Every Retreat Is Not Cowardice Which Implies Fear To Die.

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

Nothing Is Of A Permanent Nature.

There Is Little That Separates Humans From Other Sentient Beings - We All Feel Joy, We All Deeply Crave To Be Alive And To Live Freely, And We All Share This Planet Together.

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

Restraint Never Ruins One's Health.

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

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

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

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

Satyagraha Is A Purely Spiritual Weapon.

It Is Better To Be Violent, If There Is Violence In Our Hearts, Than To Put On The Cloak Of Nonviolence To Cover Impotence.

I Do Not Wish My House To Be Walled And My Windows Stuffed. I Want All Cultures To Blow Freely Through My Dwelling.

Purity Of Life Is The Highest And Truest Art.

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

I Call Him Religious Who Understands The Suffering Of Others.

If One Has No Affection For A Person Or A System, One Should Feel Free To Give The Fullest Expression To His Disaffection So Long As He Does Not Contemplate, Promote, Or Incite Violence.

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.

What May Appear As Truth To One Person Will Often Appear As Untruth To Another Person. But That Need Not Worry The Seeker. When There Is Honest Effort, It Will Be Realised That What Appears To Be Different Truths Are Like Apparently Different Countless Leaves Of The Same Tree.

I Have Naturally Formed The Habit Of Restraining My Thoughts. A Thoughtless Word Hardly Ever Escaped My Tongue Or Pen. Experience Has Taught Me That Silence Is Part Of The Spiritual Discipline Of A Votary Of Truth. We Find So Many People Impatient To Talk. All This Talking Can Hardly Be Said To Be Of Any Benefit To The World. It Is So Much Waste Of Time. My Shyness Has Been In Reality My Shield And Buckler. It Has Allowed Me To Grow. It Has Helped Me In My Discernment Of Truth.

No Police Officer Could Compel A Satyagrahi To Give Evidence Against A Person Who Has Confessed To Him. A Satyagrahi Would Never Be Guilty Of A Betrayal Of Trust.

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

Hindu Religious Literature, Indeed All Religious Literature, Is Full Of Illustrations To Prove The Truth.

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

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.

If We Are True Servants Of The Masses, We Would Take Pride In Spinning For Their Sake.

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

Confession Of One's Guilt Purifies And Uplifts. Its Suppression Is Degrading And Should Always Be Avoided.

There Can Be No Nonviolence Offered By The Militarily Strong.

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

Jesus Is Ideal And Wonderful, But You Christians - You Are Not Like Him.

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

It Is My Firm Faith That Man Is By Nature Going Higher.

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

Renunciation Which Is Natural Does Not Herald Its Coming By The Blowing Of Trumpets. It Comes In Imperceptibly Without Letting Anyone Notice It.

The Vedas Are As Indefinable As God And Hinduism.

A Swaraj Government Means A Government Established By The Free Joint Will Of Hindus, Mussalmans And Others.

God Cannot Be So Cruel And Unjust As To Make The Distinctions Of High And Low Between Man And Man, And Woman And Woman.

It Is A Travesty Of True Religion To Consider One's Own Religion As Superior And Other's As Inferior.

I Have Also Seen Children Successfully Surmounting The Effects Of An Evil Inheritance. That Is Due To Purity Being An Inherent Attribute Of The Soul.

Love Is The Basis Of Our Friendship As It Is Of Religion.

Life Is An Aspiration. Its Mission Is To Strive After Perfection, Which Is Self-realization. The Ideal Must Not Be Lowered Because Of Our Weaknesses Or Imperfections.

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

Woman Is, By Habit Or Nature, Queen Of The Household. She Is Not Designed To Organize On A Large Scale.

I Worship God As Truth Only. I Have Not Yet Found Him, But I Am Seeking After Him.

The Collectors Of Revenue And The Policeman Are The Only Symbols By Which Millions In India's Villages Know British Rule.

The Enemy Is Fear. We Think It Is Hate; But, It Is Fear.

Love Never Claims, It Ever Gives.

You Can't Shake Hands With A Closed Fist.

There Are Innumerable Definitions Of God Because His Manifestations Are Innumerable.

The Greatness Of A Person Lies In His Heart, Not In His Head; That Is Intellect.

Compassion Is A Muscle That Gets Stronger With Use.

Whatever I Do Is Out Of Love.

A Satyagrahi Is Dead To His Body Even Before The Enemy Attempts To Kill Him.

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.

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

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

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

Be The Change You're Trying To Create

God Will Not Be God, If He Allowed Himself To Be The Object Of Proof By His Creatures.

India Will Not Be A Helpless Partner In Her Own Exploitation And Foreign Domination.

If We Are To Create Peace In Our World, We Must Begin With Our Children.

Violence Begins With The Fork.

Democracy Necessarily Means A Conflict Of Will And Ideas, Involving Sometimes A War Of The Knife Between Different Ideas.

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

Civil Disobedience Is A Preparation For Mute Suffering.

The Wise Are Unaffected Either By Death Or Life. These Are But Faces Of The Same Coin.

To Bear All Kinds Of Tortures Without A Murmur Of Resentment Is Not Possible For A Human Being Without The Strength That Comes From God.

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

I Cannot Picture To Myself A Time When All Mankind Will Have One Religion.

Whatever One Does Cheerfully Is Good For Health.

My Religion Enables Me, Obliges Me To Imbibe All That Is Good In All The Great Religions Of The Earth.

See The Good In People And Help Them.

It Is Possible To Reason Out The Existence Of God To A Limited Extent.

Truth Is Not Truth Merely Because It Is Ancient. Nor Is Truth Necessarily To Be Regarded With Suspicion Because It Is Ancient.

Independence Means Voluntary Restraints And Discipline, Voluntary Acceptance Of The Rule Of Law.

To Get Swaraj Is To Get Rid Of Our Helplessness.

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 Greatest Menace To The World Today Is The Growing, Exploiting, Irresponsible Imperialism.

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

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

To A Pure Heart All Hearts Are Pure.

The Moral To Be Legitimately Drawn From The Supreme Tragedy Of The Bomb Is That It Will Not Be Destroyed By Counter Bombs Even As Violence Cannot Be By Counter-violence.

As The State Is A Soulless Machine, It Can Never Be Weaned From Violence To Which It Owes Its Very Existence.

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