A certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary,
but above a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help.
Therefore the ideal of creating an unlimited number of wants and
satisfying them seems to be a delusion and a snare.
A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it
is the prerogative of the brave.
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.
A man is but the product
of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.
A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a
sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the
ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.
A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its
people.
A policy is a temporary creed
liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued
with apostolic zeal.
A principle is
the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot
practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in
practice.
A religion that takes no account
of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no
religion.
A small body of determined
spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the
course of history.
A vow is a purely
religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken
only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness.
Action expresses priorities.
Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive
tendencies of the human frame.
Adaptability is not
imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation.
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.
All the religions of the world, while they
may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this
world but Truth.
Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed.
Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.
Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in
India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as
the blackest.
An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied
propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.
An eye for an eye makes us all blind.
An eye for eye only ends up making the whole
world blind.
An opponent is entitled
to the same regard for his principles as we would expect others to have
for ours. Non-violence demands that we should seek every opportunity to
win over opponents.
An ounce of
practice is worth more than tons of preaching.
An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its
breach is more so.
Anger and
intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.
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.
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.
Be the change that you want to see in the
world.
Before the throne of the
Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For
God alone reads our hearts.
Better far
than cowardice is killing and being killed in battle.
Between husband and wife there should be no
secrets from one another. I have a very high opinion of the marriage tie.
I hold that husband and wife merge in each other. They are one in two or
two in one.
Birth and death are not
two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state.
There is as little reason to deplore the one as there is to be pleased
over the other.
Breach of promise is a
base surrender of truth.
But for my faith in God, I
should have been a raving maniac.
Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil.
Capital in some form or other will always be needed.
Commonsense is the realised sense of
proportion.
Confession of errors is
like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter
and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.
Consciously or unconsciously, everyone of us does render some
service or another. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service
deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and it
will make not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at
large.
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.
Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.
Democracy must in essence, therefore, mean
the art and science of mobilising the entire physical, economic and
spiritual resources of all the various sections of the people in the
service of the common good of all.
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.
Don't listen to friends when the Friend
inside you says 'Do this.'
Each one
has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected
by outside circumstances.
Each one prays
to God according to his own light.
Even as
wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from
the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the
light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes.
Even if you are a minority of one, the truth
is the truth.
Every formula of every
religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason
and universal assent.
Every moment of
your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful.
Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires
must come to you.
Everyone has faith in
God though everyone does not know it. For everyone has faith in himself
and that multiplied to the nth degree is God. The sum total of all that
lives is God. We may not be God, but we are of God, even as a little drop
of water is of the ocean.
Everyone who
wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.
Evil is, good or truth misplaced.
Faith is not something to grasp, it is a
state to grow into.
Faith... must be
enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.
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.
Fear
has its use but cowardice has none.
Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For
want of valour is want of religious faith.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight
you, then you win.
For me every ruler
is alien that defies public opinion.
Freedom is never dear at
any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living
?
Freedom is not worth having if it
does not connote freedom to err.
Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive
possession of no one race or religion.
Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in
reaching it.
God is, even though the
whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It
is self-sustained.
God sometimes does
try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.
God, as Truth, has been for
me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us.
Happiness is when what you think, what you
say, and what you do are in harmony.
Hatred ever kills, love never dies such is the vast difference
between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What
is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases
hatred.
Healthy discontent is the prelude
to progress.
Honest disagreement is
often a good sign of progress.
Human
society is a ceaseless growth, an unfoldment in terms of
spirituality.
I abhor vivisection with my
whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I
count as of no consequence.
I am
prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to
kill.
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and
photographers.
I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of
the world.
I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die
unarmed.
I claim that human mind
or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called
social, political and religious. All act and react upon one
another.
I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left
lung. We are, therefore, suffering from galloping consumption. The
restoration of the wheel arrests the progress of the fell
disease.
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.
I claim to be an average
man of less than average ability. I have not the shadow of a doubt that
any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same
effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.
Mohandas
Gandhi
I claim to be no more than an
average person with less than average ability. I have not the shadow of
doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would
make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and
faith.
I do not want any patronage, as I do not give any. I am a lover
of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply
want to please my own conscience, which is God.
I do not want my house to
be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the
cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as
possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. I refuse to live in
other people's houses as an interloper, a beggar or a
slave.
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.
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.
I have found by experience that man makes his plans to be often
upset by God, but, at the same time, where the ultimate goal is the search
of truth, no matter how a man's plans are frustrated the issue is never
injurious and often better then anticipated.
I have learned through
bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat
conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be
transmitted into a power that can move the world.
I have not the shadow of a
doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would
make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith. Work without
faith is like an attempt to reach the bottom of a bottomless
pit.
I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit
of service and sacrifice.
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 like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your
Christians are so unlike your Christ.
I look only to the good
qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe
into the faults of others.
I may live without air and
water, but not without Him. You may pluck out my eyes, but that cannot
kill me. You may chop off my nose but that will not kill me. But blast my
belief in God, and I am dead.
I
object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only
temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
I reject any religious
doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with
morality.
I saw that nations like individuals could only be made through
the agony of the Cross and in no other way. Joy comes not out of
infliction of pain on others but out of pain voluntarily borne by
oneself.
I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it
means getting along with people.
I want to see India free in
my life-time. But God may not consider me fit enough to see the dream of
my life fulfilled. Then I shall quarrel, not with Him but with
myself.
I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we
should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation,
woman, the object of our lust.
I worship God as Truth
only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him. I am prepared
to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest. Even if
the sacrifice demanded my very life, I hope I may be prepared to give
it.
I
would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based
on brute force.
If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also
under certain conditions is equally a duty.
If I had no sense of humor,
I would long ago have committed suicide.
If I seem to take part in
politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of
a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I
wish therefore to wrestle with the snake.
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.
If we are to teach real
peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we
shall have to begin with the children.
Imitation is the sincerest
flattery.
In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
In matters of conscience,
the law of the majority has no place.
In nature there is
fundamental unity running through all the diversity we see about us.
Religions are given to mankind so as to accelerate the process of
realisation of fundamental unity.
In prayer it is better to
have a heart without words than words without a
heart.
In the attitude of silence
the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and
deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and
arduous quest after Truth.
Increase of material
comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever
conduce to moral growth.
Indeed one's faith in one's
plans and methods is truly tested when the horizon before one is the
blackest.
Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be
doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to
the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.
Infinite striving to be the
best is man's duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God's
hands.
Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as
self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.
Intolerance betrays want of
faith in one's cause.
Intolerance is itself a
form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic
spirit.
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.
It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves
honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
It is any day better to
stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one's belly,
in order to be able to save one's head.
It is better to be violent,
if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of
nonviolence to cover impotence.
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.
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 its
purifying, compelling punishment.
It is foolish to think that
by fleeing one can trick the dread god of death. Let us treat him as a
beneficent angel rather than a dread god. We must face and welcome him
whenever he comes.
It is good to see ourselves
as others see us. Try as we may. We are never able to know ourselves fully
as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only if we are
not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might
have to say.
It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and
silver.
It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in
proportion as you subdue the flesh.
It is the law of love that
rules mankind. Had violence, i.e. hate, ruled us we should have become
extinct long ago. And yet, the tragedy of it is that the so-called
civilized men and nations conduct themselves as if the basis of society
was violence.
It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the
quantity.
It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy
to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might
err.
It would conduce to national progress and save a great deal of
time and trouble if we cultivated the habit of never supporting the
resolutions either by speaking or voting for them if we had not either the
intention or the ability to carry them out.
Just as a man would not
cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to
live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may
be.
Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives
is a punishment.
Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he
adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be
compared.
Let no one charge me with ever having abused or encouraged
weakness or surrendered on matters of principle. But I have said, as I say
again, that every trifle must not be dignified into a
principle.
Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but
let no one lust for martyrdom.
Live as if you were to die
tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Love never claims, it ever
gives. Love ever suffers, never resents never revenges
itself.
Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for
the welfare of his fellow-men.
Man can never be a woman's
equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed
her.
Man falls from the pursuit of the
ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his
daily wants. Man's happiness really lies in
contentment.
Man lives freely
only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother,
never by killing him.
Man should forget his anger
before he lies down to sleep.
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.
Manliness consists in
making circumstances subserve to ourselves.
Measures must always in a
progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect
instruments, working for their fulfilment.
Men often become what they
believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me
incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the
ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the
beginning.
Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to
it. It comes without seeking and is retained without
effort.
Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of
all morality.
Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman
has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our
hearts.
Must 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.
My
life is my message.
My religion is based on
truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of
realising Him.
No
culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.
No religion which is narrow
and which cannot satisfy the test of reason, will survive the coming
reconstruction of society in which the values will have changed and
character, not possession of wealth, title or birth will be the test of
merit.
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.
Nobody can hurt me without my permission.
Non-cooperation with evil
is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.
Non-violence and truth are
inseparable and presuppose one another.
Non-violence is not a
garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it
must be an inseparable part of our being.
Non-violence is not a
garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it
must be inseparable part of our very being.
Non-violence is the article
of faith.
Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind.
It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the
ingenuity of man.
Non-violence requires a
double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.
Non-violence, which is the
quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the
brain.
One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and
one's Maker and no one else's.
Only he can take great
resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of
God.
Peace is its own reward.
Poverty is the worst form
of violence.
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of
punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a
thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear
of punishment.
Prayer is a
confession of one's own unworthiness and weakness.
Prayer is not an old
woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most
potent instrument of action.
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.
Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the
evening.
Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot
command results, we can only strive.
Purity of personal life is
the one indispensable condition for building up a sound
education.
Religion is a matter
of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one's
own religion.
Religion is more than life. Remember that his own religion is
the truest to every man even if it stands low in the scales of
philosophical comparison.
Satisfaction lies in the
effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full
victory.
Self-respect knows no considerations.
Service which is rendered
without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other
pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is
rendered in a spirit of joy.
Spiritual relationship is
far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from
spiritual is body without soul.
Strength does not come from
physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable
will.
Suffering cheerfully endured, ceases to be suffering and is
transmuted into an ineffable joy.
Suffering has its
well-defined limits. Suffering can be both wise and unwise, and when the
limit is reached, to prolong it would be not unwise but the height of
folly.
Surely conversion is a matter between man and his Maker who
alone knows his creatures' hearts. A conversion without a clean heart is,
in my opinion, a denial of God and Religion. Conversion without
cleanliness of heart can only be a matter of sorrow, not joy, to a godly
person.
That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own
sake.
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the
service of others.
The difference between what
we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the
world's problem.
The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are
different.
The good man is the friend of all living
things.
The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals
are treated.
The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by
the still small voice of conscience.
The law an eye for an eye
makes the whole world blind.
The law of sacrifice is
uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of
the bravest and the most spotless.
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.
The moment there is
suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes
tainted.
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice
within.
The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one's
opponent.
The real ornament of woman is her character, her
purity.
The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be
adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of
heart.
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the
strong.
The world is touched by
sacrifice. It does not then discriminate about the merits of a cause. Not
so God - He is all seeing. He insists on the purity of the cause and on
adequate sacrifice thereof.
There are people in the
world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of
bread.
There is a higher court
than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes
all other courts.
There is a sufficiency in
the world for man's need but not for man's greed.
There is more to life than
increasing its speed.
There is no one without
faults, not even men of God. They are men of God not because they are
faultless, but because they know their own faults, they strive against
them, they do not hide them, and are ever ready to correct
themselves.
There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly
good.
There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who
has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything
whatsoever.
There should be truth in thought, truth in speech, and truth in
action. To the man who has realised this truth in perfection, nothing else
remains to be known because all knowledge is necessarily included in
it.
Those who know how to think need no
teachers.
Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not
know what religion is.
Though we may know Him by a
thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.
To believe in something,
and not to live it, is dishonest.
To forgive is not to
forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that the
one that must be loved is not a friend. There is no merit in loving an
enemy when you forget him for a friend.
To give pleasure to a
single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in
prayer.
To me art in order to be truly great must, like the beauty of
Nature, be universal in its appeal. It must be simple in its presentation
and direct in its expression, like the language of
Nature.
Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the
cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines
clear.
Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Truth stands, even if there
be no public support. It is self-sustained.
Unwearied ceaseless effort
is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible
experience.
Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it
is momentary.
Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace
to the world and to India herself.
Violent men have not been
known in history to die to a man. They die up to a
point.
We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our
writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open
books for all to study.
We may have our private
opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of
hearts?
We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in
thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make
strong progress towards it.
We must become the change
we want to see in the world.
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.
We win justice quickest
by rendering justice to the other party.
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 or democracy?
What do I think of Western
civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.
What is true of the
individual will be to-morrow true of the whole nation if individuals will
but refuse to lose heart and hope.
Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most
important that you do it.
When I admire the wonders
of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of
the creator.
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of
truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and
for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think
of it, always.
When restraint and
courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes
irresistible.
Where love is, there God is also.
Where there is love there is life.
Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental
capacities. She has the right to participate in the minutest details in
the activities of man, and she has an equal right of freedom and liberty
with him.
You can chain me, you can
torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my
mind.
You don't have to burn books to
destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
You must be the change you wish to see in the
world.
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.