“Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“No matter how explicit the pledge, people will turn and twist the text to suit their own purpose”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“Effort is within man’s control, not the fruit thereof.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“As soon as men live entirely in accord with the law of love natural to their hearts and now revealed to them, which excludes all resistance by violence, and therefore hold aloof from all participation in violence—as soon as this happens, not only will hundreds be unable to enslave millions, but not even millions will be able to enslave a single individual. Do not resist the evil-doer and take no part in doing so, either in the violent deeds of the administration, in the law courts, the collection of taxes, or above all in soldiering, and no one in the world will be able to enslave you.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“That we should obey laws whether good or bad is a new-fangled notion. There was no such thing in former days. The people disregarded those laws they did not like and suffered the penalties for their breach.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“All that appears and happens about and around us is uncertain, transient.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“Religion which takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification; without self-purification the observance of the law of Ahimsa must remain an empty dream. God can never be realised by one who is not pure of heart. Self-purification therefore must mean purification in all the walks of life. And purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to the purification of one’s surroundings.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“The first principal of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“Your right is to work, and not to expect the fruit. The slave-owner tells the slave: ‘Mind your work, but beware lest you pluck a fruit from the garden. Yours is to take what I give.’ God has put us under restriction in the same manner. He tells us that we may work if we wish, but that the reward of work is entirely for Him to give. Our duty is to pray to Him, and the best way in which we can do this is to work with the pick-axe, to remove scum from the river and to sweep and clean our yards. This, certainly, is a difficult lesson to learn.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“(When asked what he thought of Western civilization): 'I think it would be a good idea.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“Renunciation of objects, without the renunciation of desires, is short-lived, however hard you may try.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi