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To Reject The Necessity Of Temples Is To Reject The Necessity Of God, Religion And Earthly Existence.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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To Reject The Necessity

Mahatma Gandhi

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To Reject The Necessity Of Temples Is To Reject The Necessity Of God, Religion And Earthly Existence.

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The Real Test Of Nonviolence Lies In Its Being Brought In Contact With Those Who Have Contempt For It.

True Knowledge Gives A Moral Standing And Moral Strength.

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

The Man Or The Woman Who Can Display The Nonviolence Of The Brave Can Easily Stand Against As External Invasion.

Surely, Conversion Is A Matter Between Man And His Maker Who Alone Knows His Creatures' Hearts.

God Has No Religion.

We Cannot, In A Moment, Get Rid Of Habits Of A Lifetime.

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

The First Condition Of Nonviolence Is Justice All Round, In Every Department Of Life.

Men Are Good. But They Are Poor Victims Making Themselves Miserable Under The False Belief That They Are Doing Good.

If All Simply Insist On Rights And No Duties, There Will Be Utter Confusion And Chaos.

India's Freedom Must Revolutionize The World's Outlook Upon Peace And War.

Yajna Is Duty To Be Performed, Or Service To Be Rendered, All Twenty-four Hours Of The Day.

God Of Truth And Justice Can Never Create Distinctions Of High And Low Among His Own Children.

The Greatness Of A Nation And Its Moral Progress Can Be Judged By The Way Its Animals Are Treated. I Hold That The More Helpless A Creature The More Entitled It Is To Protection By Man From The Cruelty Of Humankind.

Jesus, To Me, Is A Great World Teacher Among Others.

In A Nonviolent Army, The General And The Officers Are Elected, Or Are As If Elected, When Their Authority Is Moral And Rests Solely On The Willing Obedience Of The Rank And File.

If I Have The Belief That I Can Do It, I Shall Surely Acquire The Capacity To Do It Even If I May Not Have It At The Beginning.

Those Who Have Their Hands Dyed Deep In Blood Cannot Build A Nonviolent Order For The World.

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

I Cannot Think Of Permanent Enmity Between Man And Man, And Believing As I Do In The Theory Of Reincarnation, I Live In The Hope That If Not In This Birth, In Some Other Birth I Shall Be Able To Hug All Of Humanity In Friendly Embrace.

I Have Nothing New To Teach The World. Truth And Non-violence Are As Old As The Hills. All I Have Done Is To Try Experiments In Both On As Vast A Scale As I Could.

Nonviolence Is Not An Easy Thing To Understand, Still Less To Practice, Weak As We Are.

Cow-slaughter Can Never Be Stopped By Law.

I Must Declare That It Is Better For India Do Discard Violence Altogether Even For Defending Her Borders.

A Genuine Satyagraha Should Never Excite Contempt In The Opponent Even When It Fails To Command Regard Or Respect.

I Must Fight Unto The Death The Unholy Attempt To Impose British Methods And British Institutions On India.

Could There Be A Greater Proof Of Our Cowardice Than Fighting Amongst Ourselves?

No Sacrifice Is Worth The Name Unless It Is A Joy. Sacrifice And A Long Face Go Ill Together. Sacrifice Is 'making Sacred'. He Must Be A Poor Specimen Of Humanity Who Is In Need Of Sympathy For His Sacrifice.

Truth Is My God. Non-violence Is The Means Of Realizing Him.

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

Truth Is Like A Vast Tree Which Yields More And More Fruit The More You Nurture It. The Deeper The Search In The Mind Of Truth, The Richer The Discovery Of The Gems Buried There.

H. G. Wells Was Not The Only One To Mention Churchill And Hitler In The Same Breath: "churchill And Hitler Are Striving To Change The Nature Of Their Respective Countrymen By Forcing And Hammering Violent Methods On Them. Man May Be Suppressed In This Manner But He Cannot Be Changed. Ahimsa [non-violence In The Hindu Tradition], On The Other Hand, Can Change Human Nature And Sooner Than Men Like Churchill And Hitler."

A Democratic Organization Has To Dare To Do The Right At All Costs.

The Truth Is Far More Powerful Than Any Weapon Of Mass Destruction.

Mass Destruction

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.

God's Word Is : He Who Strives Never Perishes.

The Story Of Ramakrishna Is A Story Of Religion In Practice. His Life Enables Us To See God Face To Face.... In This Age Of Skepticism Ramakrishna Presents An Example Of A Bright And Living Faith Which Gives Solace To Thousands Of Men And Women Who Would Otherwise Have Remained Without Spiritual Light.

Priorities Lie In Your Actions

I Know That Not Only Is Swaraj Our Birthright, But It Is Our Sacred Duty To Win It.

Christianity In India Is Inextricably Mixed Up For The Last Hundred And Fifty Years With The British Rule.

Newspapers Today Have Almost Replaced The Bible, The Koran, The Gita And Other Religious Scriptures.

An Error Does Not Become Truth By Reason Of Multiplied Propagation, Nor Does Truth Become Error Because Nobody Sees It.

I Want Freedom For The Full Expression Of My Personality.

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?

I Cannot Teach You Violence, As I Do Not Myself Believe In It. I Can Only Teach You Not To Bow Your Heads Before Any One Even At The Cost Of Your Life.

Islam Appeals To People Because It Appeals Also To Reason.

If We Had Attained The Full Vision Of Truth, We Would No Longer Be Seekers, But Become One With God, For Truth Is God.

Celibacy Is A Great Help, Inasmuch As It Enables One To Lead A Life Of Full Surrender To God.

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

An Institution That Suffers From A Plethora Of Leaders Is Surely In A Bad Way.

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

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.

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

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

Real Education Has To Draw Out The Best From The Boys And Girls To Be Educated.

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

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

Love Has More Force Than A Besieging Army.

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

When A Man Fasts, It Is Not The Gallons Of Water He Drinks That Sustains Him, But God.

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

Life Is But An Endless Series Of Experiments.

Yajna Is Not Yajna If One Feels It To Be Burdensome Or Annoying.

Nonviolence Is The Law Of The Human Race And Is Infinitely Greater Than, And Superior To, Brute Force.

My Rama, The Rama Of Our Prayers, Is Not The Historical Rama, The Son Of Dasharatha, The King Of Ayodhya.

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

Ahimsa Is My God, And Truth Is My God.

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

True Happiness Brings More Richness Than All The Money In The World.

Satyagraha, Of Which Civil Resistance Is But A Part, Is To Me The Universal Law Of Life.

If I Were Asked To Define The Hindu Creed, I Should Simply Say: Search After Truth Through Non-violent Means. Hinduism Is A Relentless Pursuit After Truth.

In A Strictly Scientific Sense God Is At The Bottom Of Both Good And Evil.

The First Condition Of Humaneness Is A Little Humility And A Little Diffidence About The Correctness Of One's Conduct And A Little Receptiveness.

There Goes My People. I Must Follow Them, For I Am Their Leader.

The Lower Animals Are Our Brethren. I Include Among Them The Lion And The Tiger. We Do Not Know How To Live With These Carnivorous Beasts And Poisonous Reptiles Because Of Our Ignorance.

Only This Much I Knew - That Under Ideal Conditions, True Education Could Be Imparted Only By The Parents, And That Then There Should Be The Minimum Of Outside Help.

Birth And Death Are Not Two Different States, But They Are Different Aspects Of The Same State.

Violence Can Only Be Effectively Met By Nonviolence. This Is An Old Established Truth.

Man's Nature Is Not Essentially Evil. Brute Nature Has Been Know To Yield To The Influence Of Love. You Must Never Despair Of Human Nature.

I Isolate This Non-co-operation From Sinn Feinism, For It Is So Conceived As To Be Incapable Of Being Offered Side By Side With Violence.

Liberty And Democracy Become Unholy When Their Hands Are Dyed Red With Innocent Blood.

I Claim To Be A Simple Individual Liable To Err Like Any Other Fellow Mortal. I Own, However, That I Have Humility Enough To Confess My Errors And To Retrace My Steps.

God, Who Is The Embodiment Of Truth And Right And Justice, Can Never Have Sanctioned A Religion Or Practice Which Regards One - Fifth Of Our Vast Population As Untouchables.

A Language Is An Exact Reflection Of The Character And Growth Of Its Speakers.

My Own Veneration For Other Faiths Is The Same As That For My Own Faith; Therefore No Thought Of Conversion Is Possible

To End Slavery, You Must Overcome The Mental And Physical Inertia Of The Masses And Quicken Their Intelligence And Creative Faculty.

As Long As You Are Trying Your Very Best, There Can Be No Question Of Failure.

Strength Of Numbers Is The Delight Of The Timid. The Valiant In Spirit Glory In Fighting Alone.

Whatever I Do Is Out Of Love.

Renunciation Is The Central Sun, Round Which Devotion, Knowledge And The Rest Revolve Like Planets.

Sanitation Is More Important Than Independence.

To Say That God Permits Evil In The World May Not Be Pleasing To The Ear. But If He Is Held Responsible For The Good, It Follows That He Has To Be Responsible For The Evil Too.

First They Ignore You, Then They Denounce You, And Then They Say That They Knew What You Were Saying All The Time.

For The Courage Of Self-sacrifice, Woman Is Any Time Superior To Man, As I Believe Man Is To Woman For The Courage Of The Brute.

Schools And Colleges Are Really A Factory For Turning Out Clerks For The Government.

Men Often Become What They Believe Themselves To Be. If I Believe I Cannot Do Something,it Makes Me Incapable Of Doing It. When I Believe I Can,i Acquire The Ability To Do It Even If I Didn’t Have It In The Beginning.’"mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence Does Not Admit Of Running Away From Danger... . Between Violence And Cowardly Flight I Can Only Prefer Violence To Cowardice.

Dharma Is One And One Only. Ahimsa Means Moksha, And Moksha Is The Realization Of Truth.

The Nonviolence I Teach Is Active Nonviolence Of The Strongest. But The Weakest Can Partake In It Without Becoming Weaker.

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

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

Non-cooperation Is A Measure Of Discipline And Sacrifice, And It Demands Respect For The Opposite Views.

Man Is Not To Drown Himself In The Well Of The Shastras, But He Is To Dive In Their Broad Ocean And Bring Out Pearls.

A Man Who Throws Himself On God Ceases To Fear Man

Mother Cow Is As Useful Dead As When She Is Alive.

It Ill Becomes Us To Invoke In Our Daily Prayers The Blessings Of God, The Compassionate, If We In Turn Will Not Practice Elementary Compassion Toward Our Fellow Creatures.

There Is As Much Need For A Change Of Heart Among The Hindus And Mussalmans As There Is Among The British, Before A Proper Settlement Is Arrived At.

The Nonviolent Man Automatically Becomes A Servant Of God.

If Untouchability Lives, Hinduism Perishes And Even India Perishes, But If Untouchability Is Eradicated From The Hindu Heart, Root And Branch, Then Hinduism Has A Definite Message For The World.

God Is Always The Upholder Of Justice.

Non-cooperation With Evil Is As Much A Duty As Is Cooperation With Good.

If I Could Persuade Myself That I Could Find Him In A Himalayan Cave I Would Proceed There Immediately.

If You Think The World Is All Wrong, Remember That It Contains People Like You.

A Leader Is Useless When He Acts Against The Promptings Of His Own Conscience.

A Man Of Faith Does Not Bargain Or Stipulate With God.

God's Time Never Stops.

Can A General Fight On The Strength Of Soldiers, Who, He Knows, Have No Faith In Him?

The Woman Who Knows And Fulfils Her Duty Realizes Her Dignified Status.

Swaraj, Without Any Qualifying Clause, Includes That Which Is Better Than The Best One Can Conceive Or Have Today.

For Hindus To Expect Islam, Christianity Or Zoroastrianism To Be Driven Out Of India Is As Idle A Dream As It Would Be For Mussalmans To Have Only Islam Of Their Imagination Rule The World.

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

A Life Of Sacrifice Is The Pinnacle Of Art, And Is Full Of True Joy.

Inspirational Life

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.

I Would Far Rather That Hinduism Died Than That Untouchability Lived.

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.

President Means Chief Servant

God Chooses As His Instrument The Humblest And Weakest Of His Creatures To Fulfill Himself.

If All Christians Acted Like Christ, The Whole World Would Be Christian.

Buddhism In One Long Prayer.

Let The Jews Who Claim To Be The Chosen Race Prove Their Title By Choosing The Way Of Non-violence For Vindicating Their Position On Earth. Every Country Is Their Home, Including Palestine, Not By Aggression But By Loving Service

Truth Is What The Voice Within Tells You.

Find Yourself By Losing Yourself For Others.

Finding Yourself

Losing Yourself

Man Should Forget His Anger Before He Lies Down To Sleep.

The Inner Voice Is Something Which Cannot Be Described In Words. But Sometimes We Have A Positive Feeling That Something In Us Prompts Us To Do A Certain Thing. The Time When I Learnt To Recognise This Voice Was, I May Say, The Time When I Started Praying Regularly.

A Satyagrahi Loves His So-called Enemy Even As He Loves His Friend. He Has No Enemy.

Bullies Are Always To Be Found Where There Are Cowards.

Democracy Is A Great Institution And, Therefore, It Is Liable To Be Greatly Abused.

God Has His Own Way Of Choosing His Instruments.

Yes I Am, I Am Also A Muslim, A Christian, A Buddhist, And A Jew.

Man Cannot Breathe With Borrowed Lungs.

Intolerance Is A Species Of Violence And Therefore Against Our Creed.

Unless We Learn The Lesson Of Nonviolence Fully, We Shall Never Do Away With The Deadly Feuds Which Have Been The Curse Of The Frontier People.

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

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

Ahimsa And Love Are One And The Same Thing.

Peace Between Countries Must Rest On The Solid Foundation Of Love Between Individuals.

My Idea Of Society Is That While We Are Born Equal, Meaning That We Have A Right To Equal Opportunity, All Have Not The Same Capacity.

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

I Call Myself A Sanatani Eternal Hindu, Because I Believe In The Vedas, The Upanishads, The Puranas, And All That Goes By The Name Of Hindu Scripture, And Therefore In Avataras And Rebirth.

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.

I Will Suffer The Agony If That Is To Be My Lot.

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

My Work Will Be Finished If I Succeed In Carrying Conviction To The Human Family That Every Man Or Woman, However Weak In Body, Is The Guardian Of His Or Her Self-respect And Liberty.

Mere Brave Speech Without Action Is Letting Off Useless Steam.

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

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

Be The Compromise You Want To See In The World.

Death Is At Any Time Blessed But It Is Twice Blessed For A Warrior Who Dies For His Cause, That Is, Truth.

When We Fear God, Then We Shall Fear No Man, However High-placed He May Be.

Persistent Questioning And Healthy Inquisitiveness Are The First Requisite For Acquiring Learning Of Any Kind.

I Have Had The Hardihood To Say That Swaraj Could Not Be Granted Even By God.

He Who Gives Up Action Falls. He Who Gives Up The Reward Rises. But Renunciation Of Fruit In No Way Means Indifference To The Result.

In Doing Something, Do It With Love Or Never Do It At All.

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

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.

Let Not The 12 Million Negroes Be Ashamed Of The Fact That They Are The Grandchildren Of Slaves. There Is Dishonor In Being Slave-owners.

Far More Indispensable Then Food For The Physical Body Is Spiritual Nourishment For The Soul. One Can Do Without Food For A Considerable Time, But A Man Of The Spirit Cannot Exist For A Single Second Without Spiritual Nourishment.

To A True Artist Only That Face Is Beautiful Which, Quite Apart From Its Exterior, Shines With The Truth Within The Soul.

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

Whenever You Take A Step Forward, You Are Bound To Disturb Something. You Disturb The Air As You Go Forward, You Disturb The Dust, The Ground. You Trample Upon Things. When A Whole Society Moves Forward, This Trampling Is On A Much Bigger Scale; And Each Thing That You Disturb, Each Vested Interest Which You Want To Remove, Stands As An Obstacle.

That Which Looks For Mercy From An Opponent Is Not Non-violence.

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

You Cannot Stop Big Wars If You Carry On Little Wars Yourselves.

I Shall Die, But I Will Not Kill.

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

Even The Most Sublime Ideas Sound Ridiculous If Heard Too Often. Be The Change That You Want To See In The World.

That Service Is The Noblest Which Is Rendered For Its Own Sake.

Service To Others

I Do Not Want To Foresee The Future. I Am Concerned With Taking Care Of The Present. God Has Given Me No Control Over The Moment Following.

If Everyone Will Try To Understand The Core Of His Own Religion And Adhere To It, And Will Not Allow False Teachers To Dictate To Him, There Will Be No Room Left For Quarrelling.

There Is No Need Of A Teacher For Those Who Know How To Think.

Purity Of Mind And Idleness Are Incompatible.

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

Whatever Can Be Useful To Those Starving Millions Is Beautiful To My Mind.

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.

It Is Health That Is Real Wealth And Not Pieces Of Gold And Silver.

Once Jesus Had Blazed The Trail, His Twelve Disciples Could Carry On His Mission Without His Presence.

Truth Is Superior To Man S Wisdom.

I Worship The God That Is Truth Or Truth Which Is God Through The Service Of These Millions.

Spiritual Relationship Is Far More Precious Than Physical. Physical Relationship Divorced From Spiritual Is Body Without Soul.

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.

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

Presence Of God

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

God Is, Even Though The Whole World Deny Him. Truth Stands, Even If There Be No Public Support. It Is Self-sustained.

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

And Everyone Who Wills Can Hear The Voice. It Is Within Every One. But Like Everything Else It Requires Previous And Definite Preparation.

Culture Of The Mind Must Be Subservient To The Heart.

Hinduism Is Like The Ganga, Pure And Unsullied At Its Source But Taking In Its Course The Impurities In The Way. Even Like The Ganga It Is Beneficent In Its Total Effect. It Takes A Provincial Form In Every Province, But The Inner Substance Is Retained Everywhere.

Learning Takes Us Through Many States Of Life, But It Fails Utterly In The Hour Of Danger And Temptation. Then Faith Alone Saves.

I Care So Deeply About This Matter That I'm Willing To Take On The Legal Penalties, To Sit In This Prison Cell, To Sacrifice My Freedom, In Order To Show You How Deeply I Care. Because When You See The Depth Of My Concern, And How Civil I Am In Going About This, You're Bound To Change Your Mind About Me, To Abandon Your Rigid, Unjust Position, And To Let Me Help You See The Truth Of My Cause.

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