“When there is no desire for fruit, there is no temptation for untruth or himsa (violence). Take any instance of untruth or violence, and it will be found that at its back was the desire to attain the cherished end. But it may be freely admitted that the Gita was not written to establish ahimsa. It was an accepted and primary duty even before the Gita age. The Gita had to deliver the message of renunciation of fruit. This is clearly brought out as early as the second chapter. 26. But if the Gita believed in ahimsa or it was included in desirelessness, why did the author take a warlike illustration? When the Gita was written, although people believed in ahimsa, wars were not only not taboo, but nobody observed the contradiction between them and ahimsa.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“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; the female sex.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution. That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with a view to hurt.”
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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
“Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man and silence is necessary in order to surmount it.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“Nor is the Gita a collection of do’s and dont’s. What is lawful for one may be unlawful for another. What may be permissible at one time, or in one place, may not be so at another time, and in another place. Desire for fruit is the only universal prohibition. Desirelessness is obligatory.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“If we have lost faith in our vernaculars, it is a sign of want of faith in ourselves; it is the surest sign of decay. And no scheme of self-government, however benevolently or generously it may be bestowed upon us, will ever make us a self-governing nation, if we have no respect for the languages our mothers speak.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“The Mahabharata was not composed with the aim of describing a battle. The description of the battle serves only as a pretext.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“How heavy is the toll of sins and wrongs that wealth, power and prestige exact from man!”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“All that appears and happens about and around us is uncertain, transient.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“A vakil should know human nature. He should be able to read a man’s character from his face. And every Indian ought to know Indian history.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“(When asked what he thought of Western civilization): 'I think it would be a good idea.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
