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Violence Becomes Imperative When An Attempt Is Made To Assert Rights Without Any Reference To Duties.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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Violence Becomes Imperative When

Mahatma Gandhi

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Violence Becomes Imperative When An Attempt Is Made To Assert Rights Without Any Reference To Duties.

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My Greatest Weapon Is Mute Prayer.

If You Want To Change The World, Start With Yourself.

Celebration Of Life

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

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

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.

To Forgive And Accept Injustice Is Cowardice.

The Meticulous Care For The Rights Of The Least Among Us Is The Sin Qua Non Of Nonviolence.

A Dissolute Character Is More Dissolute In Thought Than In Deed. And The Same Is True Of Violence. Our Violence In Word And Deed Is But A Feeble Echo Of The Surging Violence Of Thought In Us.

The Future Depends On What We Do In The Present.

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

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.

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.

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

True Prayer Is Not A Prelude To Inaction.

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

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

Evil Is, Good Or Truth Misplaced.

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

You May Have Occasion To Possess Or Use Material Things, But The Secret Of Life Lies In Never Missing Them.

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

India Is Essentially A Karmabhumi (land Of Duty) In Contradistinction To Bhogabhumi (land Of Enjoyment).

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

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.

Nonviolence Has Come Among Men And It Will Live. It Is The Harbinger Of The Peace Of The World.

Destruction Is Not The Law Of Humans. Man Lives Freely Only By His Readiness To Die, If Need Be, At The Hands Of His Brother, Never By Killing Him. Every Murder Or Other Injury, No Matter For What Cause, Committed Or Inflicted On Another Is A Crime Against Humanity.

The Khadi Spirit Means Also An Infinite Patience.

My Only Sanction Is The Love And Affection In Which You Hold Me. But It Has Its Weaknesses, As It Has Its Strengths.

In My Humble Opinion, Non-cooperation With Evil Is As Much A Duty As Is Cooperation With Good. But In The Past, Non-cooperation Has Been Deliberately Expressed In Violence To The Evildoer. I Am Endeavoring To Show My Countrymen That Violent Non-cooperation Only Multiplies Evil And That Evil Can Only Be Sustained By Violence. Withdrawal Of Support Of Evil Requires Complete Abstention From Violence. Non-violence Implies Voluntary Submission To The Penalty For Non-cooperation With Evil.

To A Man With An Empty Stomach Food Is God

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.

Though God May Be Love, God Is Truth Above All.

Non-co-operation Is A Nation's Determination To Improve.

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

Prayer Is Not Asking. It Is A Longing Of The Soul. It Is Daily Admission Of One's Weakness. It Is Better In Prayer To Have A Heart Without Words Than Words Without A Heart.

Love Never Claims, It Ever Gives.

In A Democratic Scheme, Money Invested In The Promotion Of Learning Gives A Tenfold Return To The People Even As A Seed Sown In Good Soil Returns A Luxuriant Crop.

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

People Become What They Expect Themselves To Become

Every Reform Means Awakening. Once Truly Awakened, The Nation Will Not Be Satisfied With Reform Only In One Department Of Life.

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

A Living Faith Cannot Be Manufactured By The Rule Of Majority

I Look Upon Air-power For Destruction As A Terrible Crime Against Humanity.

It Is Better To Resist Oppression By Violent Means Than To Submit, But It Is Best Of All To Resist By Nonviolent Means.

In Matters Concerning Religion, I Consider Myself Not A Child But An Adult With 35 Years Of Experience.

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

Democracy Demands Patient Instruction On It Before Legislation.

The Willing Sacrifice Of The Innocents Is The Most Powerful Retort To Insolent Tyranny That Has Yet To Be Conceived By God Or Man.

Punishment Is God's. He Alone Is The Infallible Judge.

Non-violence And Cowardice Are Contradictory Terms. Non-violence Is The Greatest Virtue, Cowardice The Greatest Vice. Non-violence Springs From Love, Cowardice From Hate. Non-violence Always Suffers, Cowardice Would Always Inflict Suffering. Perfect Non-violence Is The Highest Bravery. Non-violent Conduct Is Never Demoralising; Cowardice Always Is.

Tolerance Gives Us Spiritual Insight, Which Is As Far From Fanaticism As The North Pole Is From The South.

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.

To Know Music Is To Transfer It To Life.

It Is Possible To Live In Peace.

God Alone Knows Absolute Truth.

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.

There Is Only One God For Us All, Whether We Find Him Through The Koran, The Zend-avesta, The Tolmud, Or The Gita.

God Is Continuously In Action, Without Resting For A Single Moment.

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

Let Us Remember That We Are All Indians Eating Indian Grain And Salt, And Living On The Dumb Indian Masses.

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

As Human Beings, Our Greatness Lies Not So Much In Being Able To Remake The World - That Is The Myth Of The Atomic Age - As In Being Able To Remake Ourselves.

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

A Living Faith In God Means Acceptance Of The Brotherhood Of Mankind.

The Man Of Prayer Will Be At Peace With Himself And With The Whole World.

There Is No Principle Worth The Name If It Is Not Wholly Good.

True Material Welfare Is Never Inconsistent With Performance Of Religious Obligations.

Love Is The Humblest Yet The Most Powerful Force That The Human Being Has.

No Displeasure, Even Of The Dearest Friends, Can Put Me Off The Duty I See Clearly In Front Of Me.

If Patience Is Worth Anything, It Must Endure To The End Of Time. And A Living Faith Will Last In The Midst Of The Blackest Storm.

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

It Is Poor Faith That Needs Fair Weather For Standing Firm. That Alone Is True Faith That Stands The Foulest Weather.

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

Those Who Are Truthful, Nonviolent And Brave Do Not Cease To Be So Because Of The Stupidity Of Their Leader.

Every Moment Of My Existence Is Dedicated To The Winning Of Swaraj By Means Of Truth And Nonviolence.

The Highest Truth Needs No Communicating, For It Is By Its Very Nature Self-propelling. It Radiates Its Influence Silently As The Rose Its Fragrance Without The Intervention Of A Medium.

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

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

When The Panchayat Raj Is Established, Public Opinion Will Do What Violence Can Never Do.

Interdependence Is And Ought To Be As Much The Ideal Of Man As Self-sufficiency. Man Is A Social Being.

Nobody In This World Possesses Absolute Truth.

Ahimsa Is My God, And Truth Is My God.

The Eternal Duel Between Ormuzd And Ahriman, God And Satan, Is Raging In My Breast, Which Is One Among Their Billion Battlefields.

I Would Rather Drown Myself In The Waters Of The Sabarmati Than Harbour Hate Or Animosity In My Heart.

We Must Break Through The Provincial Crust If We Are To Reach The Core Of All-india Nationalism.

No Empire Intoxicated With The Red Wine Of Power And The Plunder Of Weaker Races Has Yet Lived Long In This World.

The Gita Is Not An Aphoristic Work, It Is A Great Religious Poem.

Great Religious

In Order To Get Meat, We Have To Kill. And We Are Certainly Not Entitled To Any Other Milk Except The Mother's Milk In Our Infancy.

I Do Not Consider Hitler To Be As Bad As He Is Depicted. He Is Showing An Ability Which Is Amazing And He Seems To Be Gaining His Victories Without Much Bloodshed.

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

I Do All The Evil I Can Before I Learn To Shun It? Is It Not Enough To Know The Evil To Shun It? If Not, We Should Be Sincere Enough To Admit That We Love Evil Too Well To Give It Up.

Hesitating To Act Because The Whole Vision Might Not Be Achieved, Or Because Others Do Not Yet Share It, Is An Attitude That Only Hinders Progress.

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

Ours Is One Continual Struggle Against A Degradation Sought To Be Inflicted Upon Us By The Europeans, Who Desire To Degrade Us To The Level Of The Raw Kaffir Whose Occupation Is Hunting, And Whose Sole Ambition Is To Collect A Certain Number Of Cattle To Buy A Wife With And, Then, Pass His Life In Indolence And Nakedness.

Happiness Eludes Us If We Run After It.

There Is No Hope For The Aching World Except Through The Narrow And Straight Path Of Nonviolence.

I Have Even Seen The Writings Suggesting That I Am Playing A Deep Game, That I Am Using The Present Turmoil To Foist My Fads On India, And Am Making Religious Experiments At India's Expense. I Can Only Answer That Satyagraha Is Made Of Sterner Stuff. There Is Nothing Reserved And Nothing Secret In It.

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.

There Would Be Nothing To Frighten You If You Refused To Be Afraid.

Tolerance Is The Only Thing That Will Enable Persons Belonging To Different Religions To Live As Good Neighbours And Friends.

If Your Heart Acquires Strength, You Will Be Able To Remove Blemishes From Others Without Thinking Evil Of Them.

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

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

If My Nonviolence Is To Be Contagious And Infectious, I Must Acquire Greater Control Over My Thoughts.

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

Total Nonviolent Non-cooperation Has No Place In Popular Raj, Whatever Its Level May Be.

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

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

Non-co-operators Will Make A Serious Mistake If They Seek To Convert People To Their Creed By Violence.

A Man Who Is Swayed By Negative Emotions May Have Good Enough Intentions, May Be Truthful In Word, But He Will Never Find The Truth.

When You Know The Truth, The Truth Makes You A Soldier.

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.

Human Beings, Who Are Almost Unique In Having The Ability To Learn From The Experience Of Others, Are Also Remarkable For Their Apparent Disinclination To Do So. You Must Not Lose Faith In Humanity. Humanity Is An Ocean If A Few Drops Of The Ocean Are Dirty, The Ocean Does Not Become Dirty.

Virtue Lies In Being Absorbed In One's Prayers In The Presence Of Din And Noise.

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

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

A Semi-starved Nation Can Have Neither Religion Nor Art Nor Organization.

Man Often Becomes What He Believes Himself To Be. If I Keep On Saying To Myself That I Cannot Do A Certain Thing, It Is Possible That I May End By Really Becoming Incapable Of Doing It. On The Contrary, 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.

I Have Described Swaraj As Ramarajya And Ramarajya Is An Impossibility Unless We Have Thousands Of Sitas.

Just As One Must Learn The Art Of Killing In The Training For Violence, So One Must Learn The Art Of Dying In The Training For Non-violence. Violence Does Not Mean The Emancipation From Fear, But Discovering The Means Of Combating The Cause Of Fear. Nonviolence, On The Other Hand, Has No Cause For Fear. The Votary Of Nonviolence Has To Cultivate The Capacity For Sacrifice Of The Highest Type In Order To Be Free From Fear. He Recks Not If He Should Lose His Land, His Wealth, His Life.

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

Purity Of Life Is The Highest And Truest Art.

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

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.

A Rabbit That Runs Away From The Bull-terrier Is Not Particularly Non-violent.

Of All The Black Crimes That Humanity Is Committing Against The Great Creation, Vivisection Is The Blackest.

A Nonviolent Life Is An Act Of Self-examination And Self-purification, Whether By An Individual, Group Or Nation.

I Do Not Regard Flesh-food As Necessary For Us At Any Stage And Under Any Clime In Which It Is Possible For Human Beings Ordinarily To Live, I Hold Flesh-food To Be Unsuited To Our Species.

Vegetarian Health

We May Stumble And Fall But Shall Rise Again; It Should Be Enough If We Did Not Run Away From The Battle.

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

It Is The Duty Of A Non-co-operator To Preach Disaffection Towards The Existing Order Of Things. Non-co-operators Are But Giving Disciplined Expression To A Nation's Outraged Feelings.

If It Is By Force That We Wish To Achieve Swaraj, Let Us Drop Nonviolence And Offer Such Violence As We May.

Seeming Failure Is Not Of The Law Of Satyagrahabut Of Incompetence Of The Satyagrahi By Whatever Cause Induced.

Hinduism Is A Living Organism Liable To Growth And Decay Subject To The Laws Of Nature. One And Indivisible At The Root, It Has Grown Into A Vast Tree With Innumerable Branches. The Changes In The Season Affect It. It Has Its Autumn And Its Summer, Its Winter And Its Spring. It Is, And Is Not, Based On Scriptures. It Does Not Derive Its Authority From One Book. Non Violence Has Found The Highest Expression And Application In Hinduism.

Today The Cities Dominate And Drain The Villages So That They Are Crumbling To Ruin.

Let Us All Be Brave Enough To Die The Death Of A Martyr, But Let No One Lust For Martyrdom.

The Cow To Me Is A Sermon On Pity.

I Realized The True Function Of A Lawyer Was To Unite Parties Riven Asunder. The Lesson Was So Indelibly Burnt Into Me That A Large Part Of My Time During The Twenty Years Of My Practice As A Lawyer Was Occupied In Bringing About Private Compromises Of Hundreds Of Cases. I Lost Nothing Thereby -- Not Even Money, Certainly Not My Soul.

The Votaries Of Nonviolence Cannot Harbour Violence Even In Thought, Let Alone The Question Of Doing It.

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

I Have Discovered That Man Is Superior To The System He Propounds.

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

Be The Change You Are Trying To Create.

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

My Personal Religion Peremptorily Forbids Me To Hate Anybody.

Where There Is Fear There Is No Religion.

You Assist An Administration Most Effectively By Obeying Its Orders And Decrees.

I Will Not Have The Power Of Nonviolence To Be Underestimated In Order To Cover My Limitations Or Weaknesses.

The Moment The Slave Resolves That He Will No Longer Be A Slave, His Fetters Fall. Freedom And Slavery Are Mental States.

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

My Respectful Study Of Other Religions Has Not Abated My Reverence For Or My Faith In The Hindu Scriptures.

Of All The Evils For Which Man Has Made Himself Responsible, None Is So Degrading, So Shocking, Or So Brutal As His Abuse Of The Better Half Of Humanity; To Me, The Female Sex Is Not The Weaker Sex.

I Know That I Can Never Be Alone As God Is There With Me.

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.

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

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

The Votary Of Ahimsa Has Only One Fear, That Is, Of God.

The Seeker After Truth Should Be Humbler Than The Dust.

The Law Which Governs All Life Is God.

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

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

Presence Of God

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

Indeed, The Test Of Orderliness In A Country Is Not The Number Of Millionaires It Owns, But The Absence Of Starvation Among Its Masses.

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

We Hindus And Mohamedans Would Have To Blame Our Folly Rather Than The English, If We Allowed Them To Put Us Asunder.

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.

What Is It But My Ahimsa That Draws Thousands Of Women To Me In Fearless Confidence?

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

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

Much That We Hug Today As Knowledge Is Ignorance Pure And Simple. It Makes The Mind Wander And Even Reduces It To A Vacuity.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Flattery.

However Virile The English Language May Be, It Can Never Become The Language Of The Masses Of India.

You Can Chain Me, You Can Torture Me, You Can Even Destroy This Body, But You Will Never Imprison My Mind.

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

In This Instance Of The Fire-arms, The Asiatic Has Been Most Improperly Bracketed With The Native. The British Indian Does Not Need Any Such Restrictions As Are Imposed By The Bill On The Natives Regarding The Carrying Of Fire-arms. The Prominent Race Can Remain So By Preventing The Native From Arming Himself. Is There A Slightest Vestige Of Justification For So Preventing The British Indian?

Mankind Has To Get Out Of Violence Only Through Non-violence.

Live Every Day Like It Is Your Last And Learn Everyday Like You Will Live Forever

I Understood . . . That Those Who Desired Salvation Should Act Like The Trustee Who, Though Having Control Over Great Possessions, Regards Not An Iota Of Them As His Own.

I Came To The Conclusion Long Ago That All Religions Were True And That Also That All Had Some Error In Them, And While I Hold By My Own Religion, I Should Hold Other Religions As Dear As Hinduism. So We Can Only Pray, If We Were Hindus, Not That A Christian Should Become A Hindu; But Our Innermost Prayer Should Be That A Hindu Should Become A Better Hindu, A Muslim A Better Muslim, And A Christian A Better Christian.

My Purpose Is To Describe Experiments In The Science Ofsatyagraha And Not At All To Describe How Good I Am.

The Panoplied Warrior Of Truth And Nonviolence Is Ever And Incessantly Active.

Swaraj Can Only Be Achieved Through An All-round Consciousness Of The Masses.

It Is Through Truth & Non-violence That I Can Have Some Glimpse Of God. Truth & Non-violence Are My God. They Are The Obverse And Reverse Of The Same Coin.

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

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.

No Charter Of Freedom Will Be Worth Looking At Which Does Not Ensure The Same Measure Of Freedom For The Minorities As For The Majority.

Satan's Successes Are The Greatest When He Appears With The Name Of God On His Lips.

To Me I Seem To Be Constantly Growing. I Must Respond To Varying Conditions, Yet Remain Changeless Within.

He Who Trifles With Truth Cuts At The Root Of Ahimsa [non-violence]. He Who Is Angry Is Guilty Of Himsa.

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

It Is Knowledge That Ultimately Gives Salvation.

Whenever You Are Confronted With An Opponent. Conquer Him With Love.

Ravana Was A Rakshasa But This Rakshasi Of Untouchability Is Even More Terrible Than Ravana.

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

Victory Attained By Violence Is Tantamount To A Defeat For It Is Momentary.

Victory And Defeat

Prayer Has Been The Saviour Of My Life. Without It I Should Have Been A Lunatic Long Ago.

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 Law Of Love Could Be Best Understood And Learned Through Little Children.

You Have The Choice To Create The Life Your Heart Is Yearning To Live.

If We Are To Stand The Final Heat Of The Battle, We Must Learn To Stand Our Ground In The Face Of Cavalry Or Baton Charges And Allow Ourselves To Be Trampled Under Horses' Hooves, Or Be Bruised With Baton Charges.

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

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