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What Senseless Violence Does Is To Prolong The Lease Of Life Of The British Or Foreign Rule.

-Mahatma Gandhi

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What Senseless Violence Does

Mahatma Gandhi

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What Senseless Violence Does Is To Prolong The Lease Of Life Of The British Or Foreign Rule.

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If A Man Were So Placed Or Could So Place Himself As To Be Absolutely Above All Dependence On His Fellow-beings He Would Become So Proud And Arrogant As To Be A Veritable Burden And Nuisance To The World.

I Cannot Imagine Anything Nobler Or More National Than That For, Say, One Hour In The Day We Should All Do The Labor The Poor Must Do, And Thus Identify Ourselves With Them And Through Them, With All Mankind.

Hours In The Day

The Divine Music Is Incessantly Ringing Within All Of Us, But The Loud Senses Drown The Delicate Music, Which Is Unlike And Infinitely Superior To Anything We Can Perceive With Our Senses.

Ahimsa Can Be Practiced Only Towards Those That Are Inferior To You In Every Way.

It Is A Heavy Downpour Of Rain Which Drenches The Soil To Fullness; Likewise Only A Profuse Shower Of Love Can Overcome Hatred.

Evil Is, Good Or Truth Misplaced.

The Satyagrahi Should Not Have Any Hatred In His Heart Against The Opponent.

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

I Am Not Conscious Of A Single Experience Throughout My Three Months' Stay In England And Europe That Made Me Feel That After All East Is East And West Is West. On The Contrary, I Have Been Convinced More Than Ever That Human Nature Is Much The Same, No Matter Under What Clime It Flourishes, And That If You Approached People With Trust And Affection You Would Have Ten-fold Trust And Thousand-fold Affection Returned To You.

Mental Violence Has No Potency And Injures Only The Person Whose Thoughts Are Violent. It Is Otherwise With Mental Non-violence. It Has Potency Which The World Does Not Yet Know.

Man Does Not Live By Bread Alone. Many Prefer Self-respect To Food.

Real Beauty Is My Aim.

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

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

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.

Cowardice Is Not A Sign Of Belief In God.

Love Is A Rare Herb That Makes A Friend Even Of A Sworn Enemy And This Herb Grows Out Of Nonviolence.

A Nonviolent Struggle Necessarily Involves Construction On A Small Scale. It Cannot Therefore Lead To Tamas Or Darkness Or Inertia.

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

I Learnt The Lesson On Nonviolence From My Wife, When I Tried To Bend Her To My Will. Her Determined Resistance To My Will On The One Hand, And Her Quiet Submission To The Suffering My Stupidity Involved On The Other, Ultimately Made Me Ashamed Of Myself And Cured Me Of My Stupidity In Thinking That I Was Born To Rule Over Her.

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.

Only My Death Will Determine Whether I Am 'mohamed Gandhi', Jinnah's Slave, Destroyer Of The Hindu Religion Or Its Servant And Protector.

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.

Some Form Of Common Worship And A Common Place Of Worship Appear To Be A Human Necessity.

Unless You Go On Discovering New Applications Of The Law Of Nonviolence, You Do Not Profit By It.

The Story Of The Creation And Similar Things In It Did Not Impress Me Very Much, But On The Contrary Made Me Incline Somewhat Towards Atheism.

The Man Has Not The Power To Create Life. Therefore, He Has Not Either, The Right To Destroy 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.

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.

Democracy Disciplined And Enlightened Is The Finest Thing In The World. A Democracy Prejudiced, Ignorant, Superstitious, Will Land Itself In Chaos And May Be Self-destroyed.

True Education Must Correspond To The Surrounding Circumstances Or It Is Not A Healthy Growth.

Love Based Upon Indulgence Of Animal Passion, Is At Best A Selfish Affair, And Likely To Snap Under The Slightest Strain.

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

Heroes Are Made In The Hour Of Defeat. Success Is, Therefore, Well Described As A Series Of Glorious Defeats.

Education In The Understanding Of Citizenship Is A Short-term Affair If We Are Honest And Earnest.

The True Source Of Rights Is Duty.

Keep Your Values Positive, Because Your Values Become Your Destiny.

Positive Thinking

Positive Attitude

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

But You Can Wake A Man Only If He Is Really Asleep. No Effort That You Make Will Produce Any Effect Upon Him If He Is Merely Pretending Sleep.

Truth Is God, And Truth Overrides All Our Plans.

My Non-co-operation Is A Token Of My Earnest Longing For Real Heart Co-operation In The Place Of Co-operation Falsely So Called.

I Object To Violence Because When It Appears To Do Good, The Good Is Only Temporary; The Evil It Does Is Permanent.

Nonviolence Or Soul Force Does Not Need Physical Aids For Its Propagation Of Effect.

Force, Violence, Pressure, Or Compulsion With A View To Conformity, Are Both Uncivilized And Undemocratic

The Sole Aim Of Journalism Should Be Service.

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

The Propagation Of Truth And Nonviolence Can Be Done Less By Books Than By Actually Living On Those Principles.

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

It Is Easy Enough To Be Friendly To One's Friends. But To Befriend The One Who Regards Himself As Your Enemy Is The Quintessence Of True Religion. The Other Is Mere Business.

I Suggest That We Are Thieves In A Way. If I Take Anything That I Do Not Need For My Own Immediate Use, And Keep It, I Thieve It From Somebody Else. ... Nature Produces Enough For Our Wants From Day To Day, And If Only Every-body Took Enough For Himself And Nothing More, There Would Be No Pauperism In This World, There Would Be No Man Dying Of Starvation In This World. But So Long As We Have Got This Inequality, So Long We Are Thieving.

Touch-me-notism That Disfigures The Present Day Hinduism Is A Morbid Growth.

Peace Is Not The Absence Of Conflict, But The Ability To Cope With It

Passive Aggressive

A Full And Candid Admission Of One's Mistakes Should Make Proof Against Its Repetition.

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

For The Poor, The Economic Is Spiritual.

The Primary Object Of Non-co-operation Is Nowhere Stated To Be Paralysis Of The Government. The Primary Object Is Self-purification.

Far Better Than Emasculation Would Be The Bravery Of Those Who Use Physical Force. Far Better Than Cowardice Would Be Meeting One's Death Fighting.

Unless Our Hands Go Hand In Hand With Our Heads, We Will Be Able To Do Nothing Whatsoever.

True Knowledge Gives A Moral Standing And Moral Strength.

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.

Life Will Not Be A Pyramid With The Apex Sustained By The Bottom, But An Oceanic Circle Whose Centre Will Be The Individual.

The Cottage Industry Of India Had To Perish In Order That Lancashire Might Flourish.

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 Do Regard Spinning And Weaving As A Necessary Part Of Any National System Of Education.

A Soldier Fights With An Irresistible Strength When He Has Blown Up His Bridges And Burnt His Boats. Even So, It Is With A Soldier Of Ahimsa.

The Future Of India Lies In Its Villages

Faith Is Not Something To Grasp, It Is A State To Grow Into.

Though I Cannot Claim To Be A Christian In The Sectarian Sense, The Example Of Jesus Suffering Is A Factor In The Composition Of My Undying Faith In Non-violence Which Rules All My Actions, Worldly And Temporal.

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

A Seeker Of Truth Will Never Begin By Discounting His Opponent's Statement As Unworthy Of Trust.

The Turning Of The Charkha In A Lifeless Way Will Be Like The Turning Of The Beads Of The Rosary With A Wandering Mind Turned Away From God.

The Measure Of A Country's Greatness Should Be Based On How Well It Cares For Its Most Vulnerable Populations.

Great Causes Cannot Be Served By Intellectual Equipment Alone, They Call For Spiritual Effort Of Soul-force.

The Nonviolent Man Automatically Becomes A Servant Of God.

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

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?

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.

I Do Not Believe That The Spiritual Law Works On A Field Of Its Own. On The Contrary, It Expresses Itself Only Through The Ordinary Activities Of Life. It Thus Affects The Economic, The Social And The Political Fields.

As A Rule I Had A Distaste For Any Reading Beyond My School Books.

Nonviolence And Cowardice Go Ill Together. True Nonviolence Is An Impossibility Without The Possession Of Unadulterated Fearlessness.

If You Want A Change In The World, Be The Change

World Has Things Which Full Fill Man Needs, But Not Greeds.

Deeds And Seeds, Take Their Own Time To Fructify.

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

The Quest Of Truth Involves Tapas-self-suffering-sometimes Even Unto Death.

Buddha Emphasized And Re-declared The Eternal And Unalterable Existence Of The Moral Government Of This Universe. He Unhesitatingly Said That The Law Was God Himself.

The Main Purpose Of Life Is To Live Rightly, Think Rightly, Act Rightly. The Soul Must Languish When We Give All Our Thought To The Body.

I First Learned The Concepts Of Non-violence In My Marriage.

Man Has Regarded Woman As His Tool. She Has Learnt To Be His Tool And In The End Found It Is Easy And Pleasurable To Be Such, Because When One Drags Another In His Fall, The Descent Is Easy.

Nonviolence Which To Me Is The Glory Of Hinduism, Has Been Sought To Be Explained Away By Our People As Being Meant For The Sanyasis Only.

Prayer Has Not Been A Part Of My Life In The Sense That Truth Has Been.

The Khadi Spirit Means Also An Infinite Patience.

I Have Endeavored To Show That There Is No Real Service Of Humanity In The Profession Of Medicine And That It Is Injurious To Mankind.

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

Decency Requires That When A Programme Is Approved By The Majority, All Should Carry It Out Faithfully.

Constant Development Is The Law Of Life, And A Man Who Always Tries To Maintain His Dogmas In Order To Appear Consistent Drives Himself Into A False Position.

If It Had Not Been For The Christians That I Have Known I Might Have Been A Christian.

I Have No Secret Methods. I Know No Diplomacy Save That Of Truth. I Have No Weapon But Non-violence.

Find Purpose. The Means Will Follow.

The Cause Is Everything. Those Even Who Are Dearest To Us Must Be Shunted For The Sake Of The Cause.

One Hour Spent In Spinning Should Be An Hour Of Self-development For The Spinner.

Imperialism Is A Negation Of God. It Does Ungodly Acts In The Name Of God.

The Central Fact Of Hinduism Is Cow Protection.

God Accepts The Sacrifice Of The Pure In Heart.

My Effort Should Never Be To Undermine Another's Faith But To Make Him A Better Follower Of His Own Faith.

Ahimsa Is An Attribute Of The Brave. Cowardice And Ahimsa Don't Go Together Any More That Water And Fire.

If That Is The Law Of Life We Must Work It Out In Daily Exisitance. Wherever There Are Wars, Wherever We Are Confronted With An Opponent, Conquer By Love. I Have Found That The Certain Law Of Love Has Answered In My Own Life As The Law Of Destruction Has Never Done.

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.

Civilization Is That Mode Of Conduct Which Points Out To Man The Path Of Duty. Performance Of Duty And Observance Of Morality Are Convertible Terms. To Observe Morality Is To Attain Mastery Over Our Mind And Our Passions. So Doing, We Know Ourselves.

There Can Be No Rule Of God In The Present State Of Iniquitous Inequalities In Which A Few Roll In Riches And The Masses Do Not Get Enough To Eat.

Nonviolence Of The Strong Is Infinitely Braver Than Their Violence.

Duly Enlightened Gandhi's Head By Mall Of The 'free Press Journal,' Bombay, In 1932watches May Disagree, But Let Us Not.

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

True Suffering Does Not Know Itself And Never Calculates.

It Is Easy Enough To Say, I Do Not Believe In God. For God Permits All Things To Be Said Of Him With Impunity. He Looks At Our Acts. And Any Breach Of His Law Carries With It, Not Its Vindictive, But It Purifying, Compelling Punishment.

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.

Seven Deadly Sins Wealth Without Work Pleasure Without Conscience Science Without Humanity Knowledge Without Character Politics Without Principle Commerce Without Morality Worship Without Sacrifice.

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

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

My Fast Is A Matter Between God And Myself.

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

Ahimsa Is The Eradication Of The Desire To Injure Or To Kill.

There Is No Fundamental Cleavage Between Hindus And Mussalmans. We Have Lived In The Same Land As Brothers For Generations And What Has Been Possible All These Years Will Certainly Be Possible In The Future.

Begin Your Day With Prayer, And Make It So Soulful That It May Remain With You Until The Evening.

I Have Recognized That The Nation Has The Right, If It So Wills, To Vindicate Her Freedom Even By Actual Violence.

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

"be The Change You Want To See In The World"...and, If You Can't Be That Change, Then Either Get Out Of The Way Of The Person Who Wants To Be That Change Or Support The Individual With Your Financial Resources.

The Various Religions Are Like Different Roads Converging On The Same Point. What Difference Does It Make If We Follow Different Routes, Provided We Arrive At The Same Destination?

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

I Would Not Flinch From Sacrificing Even A Million Lives For India's Liberty.

Whenever You Have Truth It Must Be Given With Love, Or The Message And The Messenger Will Be Rejected.

Fear Of Death Makes Us Devoid Both Of Valour And Religion. For Want Of Valour Is Want Of Religious Faith.

Soul-force Comes Only Through God's Grace And Never Descends Upon A Man Who Is A Slave To Lust.

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

Whilst The Bihar Calamity Damages The Body, The Calamity Brought About By Untouchability Corrodes The Very Soul.

The Need Of The Moment Is Not One Religion, But Mutual Respect And Tolerance Of The Devotees Of The Different Religions.

For Satyagraha And Its Offshoots, Non-co-operation And Civil Resistance, Are Nothing But New Names For The Law Of Suffering.

I Hold That The World Is Sick Of Armed Rebellions.

True Ahimsa Lay In Running Into The Mouth Of Himsa.

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

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

Make Injustice Visible.

All Truths, Not Merely Ideas, But Truthful Faces, Truthful Pictures Or Songs, Are Highly Beautiful.

Labour Has Its Unique Place In A Cultured Human Family.

Fearlessness Is The First Requisite Of Spirituality. Cowards Can Never Be Moral.

God Has Been Described By All The Scriptures Of The World As Protector And Saviour Of The Sinner.

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.

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

Freedom Of India Will Demonstrate To All The Exploited Races Of The Earth That Their Freedom Is Very Near.

We Are All Very Imperfect And Weak Things, And If We Are To Destroy All Whose Ways We Do Not Like, There Will Be Not A Man Left Alive.

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.

We Must Become The Change We Want To See.

War Is An Unmitigated Evil. But It Certainly Does One Good Thing. It Drives Away Fear And Brings Bravery To The Surface.

I Believe That The Yarn We Spin Is Capable Of Mending The Broken Warp And Woof Of Our Life!

I Know, To Banish Anger Altogether From One's Breast Is A Difficult Task. It Cannot Be Achieved Through Pure Personal Effort. It Can Be Done Only By God's Grace.

I Am The Only One, Whom You May Find It Hard To Get Rid Of, For I Have Always Counted Myself As A Woman.

We Do Want To Drive Out The Beast In Man, But We Do Not Want On That Account To Emasculate Him.

The Right To Err, Which Means The Freedom To Try Experiments, Is The Universal Condition Of All Progress.

No Man Has Ever Been Able To Describe God Fully. The Same Holds True Of Ahimsa.

I Believe That A Man Is The Strongest Soldier For Daring To Die Unarmed.

Be The Change You Are Trying To Create.

Ahimsa And Love Are One And The Same Thing.

Non-co-operation Enables Us To Show That In Everything That Matters We Can Be Independent Of The Government.

If I Were Over Full Of Pity For The Cow, I Should Sacrifice My Life To Save Her But Not Take My Brother's.

The Foundation Of Service And Your Real Training Lie In Spinning Khaddar.

The Only Way Love Punishes In By Suffering.

India Is Less Manly Under The British Rule Than She Ever Was Before.

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

Democracy Demands Patient Instruction On It Before Legislation.

Why Worry One's Head Over A Thing That Is Inevitable? Why Die Before One's Death?

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

Non-violence Requires A Double Faith, Faith In God And Also Faith In Man.

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.

Boycott Brought About Anyhow Of British Cloth Cannot Yield The Same Results As Such Boycott Brought About By Hand-spinning And Khaddar.

My Heart Is Drawn Backwards And Forwards Between The Spinning Wheel And Books.

Surely Islam Has Nothing To Fear From Criticism Even If It Be Unreasonable.

Man Should Earnestly Desire The Well - Being Of All God's Creations And Pray That We May Have The Strength To Do So.

Are Creeds Such Simple Things Like The Clothes Which A Man Can Change At Will And Put On At Will? Creeds Are Such For Which People Live For Ages And Ages.

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

Do Not Flatter Yourselves With The Belief That A Mere Recital Of That Celebrated Verse In St. John Makes A Man A Christian.

We Cry For Cow Protection In The Name Of Religion, But We Refuse Protection To The Human Cow In The Shape Of The Girl-widow.

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

The Message Of Jesus Has Proved Ineffective Because The Environment Was Unready To Receive It.

There's No God Higher Than Truth.

I Am Just Not Thinking Of India's Deliverance. It Will Come, But Will It Be Worth If England And France Fall, Or If They Come Out Victorious Over Germany Ruined And Humbled?

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

The Sum Total Of Karma Is God.

Let Hundreds Like Me Perish, But Let Truth Triumph.

Man Cannot Be Transformed From Bad To Good Overnight.

I Own No Property And Yet I Feel That I Am Perhaps The Richest Man In The World.

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

Who Can Make A More Effective Appeal To The Heart Than Woman?

What Kind Of Victory Is It When Someone Is Left Defeated? What Difference Does It Make To The Dead, The Orphans, And The Homeless, Whether The Mad Destruction Is Wrought Under The Name Of Totalitarianism Or The Holy Name Of Liberty And Democracy. What Is A War Criminal? Was Not War Itself A Crime Against God And Humanity, And, Therefore, Were Not All Those Who Sanctioned, Engineered And Conducted Wars, War Criminals? The Weak Can Never Forgive. Forgiveness Is The Attribute Of The Strong. Non-cooperation With Evil Is A Sacred Duty.

To Die Without Killing Is The Badge Of A Satyagrahi.

A Man Like Me Cannot But Believe That This Earthquake Is A Divine Chastisement Sent By God For Our Sins.

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

Democracy, Disciplined And Enlightened, Is The Finest Thing In The World.

It Is Very Significant That Some Of The Most Thoughtful And Cultured Men Are Partisans Of A Pure Vegetable Diet

Civil Disobedience Means Capacity For Unlimited Suffering, Without The Intoxicating Excitement Of Killing.

Every Man Has An Equal Right To The Necessaries Of Life Even As Birds And Beasts Have.

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