“I could not swallow this. I told him that, if the sheep had speech, they would tell a different tale. I felt that the cruel custom ought to be stopped. I thought of the story of Buddha, but I also saw that the task was beyond my capacity. I hold today the same opinion as I held then. To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man. But he who has not qualified himself for such service is unable to afford to it any protection. I must go through more self-purification and sacrifice, before I can hope to save these lambs from this unholy sacrifice. Today I think I must die pining for this self-purification and sacrifice. It is my constant prayer that there may be born on earth some great spirit, man or woman, fired with divine pity, who will deliver us from this heinous sin, save the lives of the innocent creatures, and purify the temple. How is it that Bengal with all its knowledge, intelligence, sacrifice, and emotion tolerates this slaughter?”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“Good travels at a snail's pace. Those who want to do good are not selfish, they are not in a hurry, they know that to impregnate people with good requires a long time.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“the old and simple truth that it is natural for men to help and to love one another, but not to torture and to kill one another, became ever clearer, so that fewer and fewer people were able to believe the sophistries by which the distortion of the truth had been made so plausible.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“Scatter her enemies, And make them fall; Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“I had always heard the merchants say that truth was not possible in business. I did not think so then, nor do I now. Even today there are merchant friends who contend that truth is inconsistent with business. Business, they say, is a very practical affair, and truth a matter of religion; and they argue that practical affairs are one thing, while religion is quite another. Pure truth, they hold, is out of the question in business; one can speak it only as far as is suitable.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“Leo Tolstoy's life has been devoted to replacing the method of violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of nonresistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence by love expressed in selfsuffering.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“The person who has the throne will not covet a position of civil or police authority.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“If we are to make progress, we must not repeat history but make new history. We must add to inheritance left by our ancestors.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“All have not the same capacity. I would allow a man of intellect to earn more, I would not cramp his talent.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“Religion which takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“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.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“I hold that it is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read
sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others'
religions as we would have them to respect our own, a friendly study of the
world's religions is a sacred duty.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi