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Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Civil rights leader

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Famous Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

“Had we adopted non-violence as the weapon of the strong, because we realised that it was more effective than any other weapon, in fact the mightiest force in the world, we would have made use of its full potency and not have discarded it as soon as the fight against the British was over or we were in a position to wield conventional weapons. But as I have already said, we adopted it out of our helplessness. If we had the atom bomb, we would have used it against the British.”

IfsWorldMadeSaidFactsUseUsedFightingStrongForceViolencePositionWeaponsBritishBombsAtomsConventionalAdoptedRealisedHelplessnessNon ViolenceDiscardedPotencyAtom Bomb
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
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“It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world's progress toward peace. ... Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man?”

IfsMenWorldWantShouldIdeasTodayChristianChristianityProgressImpossibleStyleGoes OnIndiaErrorsConversionSatisfiedElsewhereGodlyReconcileImpedimentsHindu ReligionGodly Man
Book:Christian Missions, Their Place in India
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“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.”

IfsMenWorldWayWantNeedsLongEnoughUseBodyWould BeMy OwnDyingThis WorldProduceInequalityThievesDay To DayStarvation
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
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“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.”

WorldEarthPeaceNatureEnvironmentTreeReflectionMirrorsEnvironmentalForestsWildernessSustainabilityConservationOur EnvironmentWildlifePlanet EarthSustainable DevelopmentEarth DayEnvironmental ProtectionForests And TreesWorld EnvironmentBeautiful EarthGreen LivingWildlife ConservationEco FriendlySave NatureConservingWorld Earth DayGreen TreesEnvironmental HistorySocial EnvironmentGo GreenEnvironmental SustainabilityEarth FriendlyConserving EnvironmentGreen World
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
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“I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth.”

PeopleWorldHas BeensSaidRealitySpiritualGrowsSilenceTalkingTaughtHabitDisciplineWasteBenefitsTonguePensWasting TimeSilence IsMy ThoughtsDiscernmentShieldsImpatientShynessSpiritual DisciplinesRestraining
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
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“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”

IfsMenWorldNeedsDoeBodyFoundWaitingAttitudeWonderfulMysteryDivineSourceSelf ImprovementMirrorsSupremeTendenciesWonderful ThingsOuter Worlds
Book:Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi
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“Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make, not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at large.”

IfsWorldDoeWisdomHappinessDesireGrowsLeadershipDestinyHabitStrongerPublic ServiceService To Others
Book:The Moral and Political Writings of Mahatma Gandhi: Non-Violent Resistance and Social Transformation
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“My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the strongest... no country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak... Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism... true democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village.”

PeopleMenWorldCountryShowsTodayPoliticalOpportunityPoliticsFreedomLibertyDemocracySittingWeakFunctionTwentiesRegardWesternNotionStrongestVillageFascismWorld TodayPatronizingTrue Democracy
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
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“I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world. I believe that they are all God- given and I believe that they were necessary for the people to whom these religions were revealed. And I believe that if only we could all of us read the scriptures of the different faiths from the standpoints of the followers of these faiths, we should find that they were at bottom all one and were all helpful to one another.”

PeopleIfsWorldShouldBelieveDifferentGivenI BelieveDiversityFundamentalsBottomI Believe InScriptureHelpfulFollowersStandpointDifferent Faiths
Book:All Men are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections
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“The path of self-purification is hard and steep. One has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know that I have not in me as yet that triple purity in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world's praise fails to move me, indeed it very often stings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to me to be harder far than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms.”

KnowsWorldLoveSelfHardSeemsActionMovingPassionForcePathFailingArmsSpeechHatredHarderPraiseConstantStriveCurrentsConquerPuritySpiteSubtleAttachmentConquestRise AboveOpposingSteepPurificationRepulsionHatred And Love
Book:All Men Are Brothers
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“Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation and a wicked deed dis-approbation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked always deserves respect or pity as the case may be. Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practised, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.”

MenWorldShouldMayTwoEnoughHateEvilEasySinCasesDeserveHatredDeedsSpreadPityPoisonWickedSinnerGood DeedsDoers
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
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“It is quite proper to resist and attack a system, but to resist and attack its author is tantamount to resisting and attacking oneself, for we are all tarred with the same brush, and are children of one and the same Creator, and as such the divine powers within us are infinite. To slight a single human being, is to slight those divine powers and thus to harm not only that Being, but with Him, the whole world.”

WorldHumansChildrenWholeHuman BeingsStruggleDivineInfiniteOneselfCreatorHarmDebateWhole WorldBrushesAttackingResistingDivine Power
Book:All Men Are Brothers
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“I learned from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights to be deserved and preserved came from duty well done. Thus the very right to live accrues to us only when we do the duty of citizenship of the world. From this one fundamental statement, perhaps it is easy enough to define the duties of Man and Woman and correlate every right to some corresponding duty to be first performed. Every other right can be shown to be a usurpation hardly worth fighting for.”

MenWorldFirstsWellsDoneEnoughMotherFightingEasyWiseRightsDutyMen And WomenFundamentalsHuman RightsStatementsCitizenshipWell DoneIlliterateCorrespondingWorth Fighting ForUsurpation
Book:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Supplementary volume
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