Epigrams C

 Epigrams  C

Calamity

» There is a divine purpose behind every physical calamity. TIG-24

Capital - Capitalism

» No doubt, capital is lifeless, but not the capitalists who are amenable to conversion. T-4-159

» I do not regard capital to be enemy of labour. T-2-257

» I am convinced that the capitalist, if he follows the Samurai of Japan, has nothing really to lose and everything to gain. T-2-380

» I can no more tolerate the yoke of Bolshevism as described by Mr. Roy * than of capitalism. XXV-531 * M. N. Roy radical humanist (1889-1954)

» What the two hands of the labourer could achieve, the capitalist would never get with all his gold and silver. T-7-33

» Labour, because it chose to remain unintelligent, either became subservient or insolently believed in damaging the capitalists’ goods and machinery or even in killing the capitalists. T-8-97

Castles In The Air

» A cave-dweller can build castles in the air, whereas a dweller in a palace like Janak* has no castles to build. MM-7

*Janak, philosopher-king of Videha, father of Sita.

Cattle

» The half-starved condition of the majority of our cattle is a disgrace to us. T-2-132

Celibacy

» Celibacy is a great help, inasmuch as it enables one to lead a life of full surrender to God.XXV-252

» What is brahmacharya? It is a way of life, which leads us to Brahma (God). T-8-1

» Brahmacharya means control of the senses in thought, word and deed. TIG-126

» Grihasthashrama is the fair fruit of brahmacharya in life for a series of years. XXVI-375

Changeless

» To me I seem to be constantly growing. I must respond to varying conditions, and yet remain changeless within. T-2-265

Character

» Character alone will have real effect on the masses. T-3-243

» Your character must be above suspicion and you must be truthful and self-controlled. XXVI-297

» What will tell in the end will be character and not a knowledge of letters. XXVI-294-5

» A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers. EWE-18

» Men of stainless character and self-purification will easily inspire confidence and automatically purify the atmosphere around them. TIG-57

» Sorrow and suffering make for character if they are voluntarily borne, but not if they are imposed. T-3-122

» A dissolute character is more dissolute in thought than in deed, and the same is true of violence. T-5-116

» If you have no character to lose, people will have no faith in you. T-3-234

» The real property that a parent can transmit to all equally is his or her character and educational facilities. T-2-367

» A vow imparts stability, ballast and firmness to one’s character. T-2-364

» If you will express the requisite purity of character in action, you cannot do it better than through the spinning wheel. T-2-377

» All your scholarship, all your study of Shakespeare and Wordsworth would be vain if at the same time you do not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions. T-2-376

» In times to come people will not judge us by the creed we profess or the label we wear or the slogans we shout, but, by our work, industry, sacrifice, honesty and purity of character. T-8-8

» Whatever may be the pros and cons of going to the public theatre, it is a patent fact that it has undermined the morals and ruined the character of many a youth in this country. T-2-352

Charkha (Spinning Wheel)

» Charkha is an instrument of service. T-2-253

» The Charkha in the hands of a poor widow brings a paltry price to her, in the hands of Jawaharlal; it is an instrument of India’s freedom. T-6-32

» The Charkha is an outward symbol of truth and nonviolence. T-5-265

» The Charkha is intended to realize the essential and living oneness of interest among India’s myriads. T-2-215

» The Charkha is the symbol of nonviolence on which all life, if it is to be real life, must be based. MM-405

» The Charkha is the symbol of sacrifice, and sacrifice is essential for the establishment of the image of the deity. T-2-277

» The Charkha supplemented the agriculture of the villagers and gave it dignity. MM-408

» Seek ye first the Charkha and its concomitants and everything else will be added unto you. T-2-263

» The Charkha, which is the embodiment of willing obedience and calm persistence, must therefore succeed before there is civil disobedience. XXV-587

» Unless the charkha adds to your ahimsa and makes you stronger every day, your Gandhism is of little avail. T-5-24

» The turning of the charkha in a lifeless way will be like the turning of the beads of the rosary with a wandering mind turned away from God. T-5-242

» I believe that the yarn we spin is capable of mending the broken warp and woof of our life. MM-405

» I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung. T-2-63

» I crave to die with my hand at the spinning wheel. MM-406

» I have called spinning the yajna of this age of India. XXVI-298

» If Gandhism means simply mechanically turning the spinning wheel, it deserves to be destroyed. T-5-242

» I have pinned my faith to the spinning wheel. On it, I believe, the salvation of this country depends. XXV-523

» In my dream, in my sleep, while eating, I think of the spinning wheel. The spinning wheel is my sword. To me it is the symbol of India’s liberty. XXV-351

» My heart is drawn backwards and forwards between the spinning wheel and books. T-2-108

» For every minute that I spin, there is in me the consciousness that I am adding to the nation’s wealth. T-3-5

» The spinning wheel and the spinning wheel alone will solve, if anything will solve, the problem of the deepening poverty of India. XXVI-292

» The spinning wheel means national consciousness and a contribution by every individual to a definite constructive national work. XXVI-49

» The spinning wheel is a symbol of nonviolence for me. T-5-290

» He who spins before the poor, inviting them to do likewise, serves God as no one else does. TIG-136

» I would like to assure those who would serve Daridranarayana that there is music, art, economy and joy in the spinning wheel. T-2-275

» The spinning wheel is not meant to oust a single man or woman from his or her occupation. T-3-5

» The spinning wheel is as much a necessity of Indian life as air and water. T-2-38

» The spinning wheel is the one thing to which all must turn to in the Indian clime for the transition stage at any rate and the vast majority must for all time. T-2-63

» The spinning wheel is itself an exquisite piece of machinery. My head daily bows in reverence to its unknown inventor. XXV-476

» The spinning wheel for us is the foundation for all public corporate life. XXV-74

» The spinning wheel is the auspicious symbol of sharir yajna, body labour. XXV-56

» There is no better way of industrializing the villages of India than the spinning wheel. T-2-246

» If you will express the requisite purity of character in action, you cannot do it better than through the spinning wheel. T-2-377

» Every woman will tell the curious that with the disappearance of the spinning wheel vanished India’s happiness and prosperity. T-2-38

» There is no "playing with truth" in the Charkha programme, for satyagraha is not predominantly civil disobedience but a quiet and irresistible pursuit of Truth. XXV-587

» The socialism that India can assimilate is the socialism of the spinning wheel. T-3-284

» The study of Indian economics is the study of the spinning wheel. XXV-561

» The yajna of our age and for us is the spinning wheel. T-2-247

» The foundation of service and your real training lie in spinning khaddar. XXVI-378-9

» The restoration of spinning to its central place in India’s peaceful campaign for deliverance from the imperial yoke gives her women a special status. T-5-206

» Without proper, careful organisation of the spinning wheel and khaddar, there is absolutely no civil disobedience. XXVI-246

» There is a vital connection between satyagraha and charkha, and the more I find that belief challenged, the more I am confirmed in it. T-5-264

» The music of the spinning wheel will be as balm to your soul. MM-405

» Every widow I have met has recognized in the wheel a dear forgotten friend. T-2-38

» It was our love of foreign cloth that ousted the wheel from its position of dignity. T-2-63

» When the wheel was accepted as part of the national flag, it was surely implied that the spinning wheel would hum in every household. T-3-300

» Hand-spinning is designed to put millions of rupees in the hands of the poor villagers. MM-409

» If hand-spinning is an effective method of making India self-supporting, it must be made part of the franchise. XXV-317

» My Swaraj takes note of bhangis, dheds, dublas and the weakest of the weak, and except the spinning wheel I know no other thing which befriends all these. XXV-564

» A plea for the spinning wheel is a plea for recognizing the dignity of labour. T-2-63

» Hunger is the argument that is driving India to the spinning wheel. T-2-63

» India as a nation can live and die only for the spinning wheel. T-2-38

» Just as there are signs by which you can recognize violence with the naked eye, so is the spinning wheel to me a decisive sign of nonviolence. T-5-277

» Nothing can so quickly put the masses on their legs as the spinning wheel and all it means. XXVI-538

» Restore the spinning wheel to its place and you will solve the problem of poverty. XXVI-292

» The cause of the spinning wheel is too great and too good to have to rest on mere hero-worship. T-2-229

» If the poet* spun for half an hour daily, his poetry would gain in richness. T-2-215 (The reference here is to poet Rabindranath Tagore).

» If we are true servants of the masses, we would take pride in spinning for their sake. T-3-300

» One hour spent in spinning should be an hour of self-development for the spinner. T-7-381

» There is no yajna (sacrifice) greater than spinning calculated to bring peace to the troubled spirit, to soothe the distracted student’s mind, to spiritualize his life. XXV-577

Chastity

» Chastity is one of the greatest disciplines without which the mind cannot attain requisite firmness. X-52

» Chastity is not a hothouse growth. T-2-249

Children

» Children wrapped up in cotton wool are not always proof against all temptation of contamination. MM-281

» Our children should not be so taught as to despise labour. EWE-20

» Basic education links children, whether of the cities or villages, to all that is best and lasting in India. EWE-24

» The law of love could be best understood and learned through little children. MM-423

» The greatest lessons in life, if we would but stoop and humble ourselves, we should learn not from the grown-up learned men, but from the so-called ignorant children. T-3-137

Christ-Christianity

» Jesus was the most active resister known perhaps to history. His was nonviolence par excellence. MGCG-301

» Once Jesus had blazed the trail, his twelve disciples could carry on his mission without his presence. MM-133

» Jesus never uttered a loftier or a grander truth than when he said that wisdom cometh out of the mouths of babes. MM-421

» Jesus, to me, is a great world teacher among others. T-4-75

» The message of Jesus has proved ineffective because the environment was unready to receive it.T-2-237

» Christianity in India is inextricably mixed up for the last hundred and fifty years with the British rule. T-2-341

» It is a first class human tragedy that people of the earth who claim to believe in the message of Jesus, whom they describe as the Prince of Peace, show little of that belief in actual practice. TIG-145

» Do not flatter yourselves with the belief that a mere recital of that celebrated verse in St. John makes a man a Christian. TIG-68

» If I had to face only the Sermon on the Mount and my own interpretation of it, I should not hesitate to say, ‘O yes, I am a Christian.' T-2-29

» I do not accept the orthodox teaching that Jesus was or is God incarnate in the accepted sense or that he was or is the only son of God. XXV-85

» I love Christianity, Islam and many other faiths – through Hinduism. BUNCH-110

» The scriptures of Christians, Mussalmans and Hindus are all replete with the teaching of ahimsa. XXV-521

» The Allah of Islam is the same as the God of Christians and the Ishwar of Hindus. T-4-252

Citizenship

» Education in the understanding of citizenship is a short-term affair if we are honest and earnest. MM-378

» The emphasis laid on the principle of spending every minute of one’s life usefully is the best education for citizenship and, incidentally, it makes basic education self-sufficient. EWE-24

Civil Disobedience

» Civil disobedience is the assertion of a right which law should give but which it denies. T-6-13

» Civil disobedience can never be in general terms, such as for independence. T-6-31

» Civil disobedience is a stimulation for the fighters and a challenge to the opponent, in the present instance, authority. T-6-31

» Civil disobedience presupposes willing obedience of our self-imposed rules, and without it civil disobedience would be a cruel joke. T-5-96

» Civil disobedience is not only the natural right of a people, especially when they have no effective voice in their own Government, but that it is also a substitute for violence or armed rebellion. T-3-153

» Civil disobedience is the inherent right of a citizen. MM-166

» Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has becomes lawless or, which is the same thing, corrupt. T-2-76

» Civil disobedience can only lead to strength and purity. T-2-76

» Civil disobedience is a preparation for mute suffering. T-2-84

» Civil disobedience means capacity for unlimited suffering, without the intoxicating excitement of killing. XXV-365

» Civil disobedience does not admit of any violence or countenancing of violence, directly or indirectly. XXVI-538

» Civil disobedience and excitement and intoxication go ill together. XXVI-246

» Individual civil disobedience was everybody’s inherent right, like the right of self-defence in normal life. T-7-34

» Mass civil disobedience was for the attainment of independence. T-7-34

» Mass civil disobedience is like an earthquake, a sort of general upheaval on the political plane. T-2-66

» Complete civil disobedience is a state of peaceful rebellion, a refusal to obey every single state-made law. T-2-52

» Aggressive civil disobedience should be confined to a vindication of the right of free speech and free association. T-2-76

» In placing civil disobedience before constructive work I was wrong and I did not profit by the Himalayan blunder that I had committed. T-5-291

» Disobedience, to be civil, has to be open and nonviolent. T-2-52

» Disobedience, to be civil, implies discipline, thought, care, attention.XXVI-246

» Disobedience that is wholly civil should never provoke retaliation. T-3-304

» Before civil disobedience can be practised on a vast scale, people must learn the art of civil or voluntary obedience. T-4-10

» Active nonviolence is necessary for those who will offer civil disobedience but the will and proper training are enough for the people to co-operate with those who are chosen for civil disobedience. T-5-281

» Non co-operation and civil disobedience are but different branches of the same tree called satyagraha. XXV-489

» The Charkha, which is the embodiment of willing obedience and calm persistence, must therefore succeed before there is civil disobedience. XXV-587

» Satyagraha does not begin and end with civil disobedience. T-5-69

» Satyagraha, of which civil resistance is but a part, is to me the universal law of life. T-3-298

» When neglect of the call means a denial of God, civil disobedience becomes a peremptory duty. T-2-52

» Indeed, a civil resister offers resistance only when peace becomes impossible. T-3-218

» Ours is a civil fight, and imprisonment as a civil prisoner has got to be earned by the strict observance of the programme. T-5-261

» If they are truly nonviolent, they must also realize that civil disobedience is an impossibility till the preliminary work of construction is done. XXV-365

» For satyagraha and its offshoots, non co-operation and civil resistance are nothing but new names for the law of suffering. T-2-5

» The privilege of resisting or disobeying a particular law or order accrues only to him who gives willing and unswerving obedience to the laws laid down for him. T-5-99

Civilization

» Civilizations have come and gone and, in spite of our vaunted progress, I am tempted to ask again and again, 'To what purpose?' T-2-29

» Civilization is not an incurable disease, but it should never be forgotten that the English people are at present afflicted by it. X-21

» Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty. X-37

» Civilization, in the real sense of the term, consists not in the multiplication but in the deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants. MM-189

» This civilization is such that one has only to be patient and it will be self-destroyed. X-21

» Is a civilization worth the name, which requires, for its existence the very doubtful prop of a racial legislation and a lynch law? T-7-141

» Modern civilization has taught us to convert night into day and golden silence into brazen din and noise. TIG-60

» The truest test of civilization, culture and dignity is character and not clothing. XXVI-258

» Further march of civilization seems to employ increasing domination of man over beast, together with a growingly humane method of using them. MM-426

» The British Government in India constitutes a struggle between the modern civilization, which is the kingdom of Satan, and the ancient civilization, which is the Kingdom of God. X-189

» I want co-operation between nations for the salvaging of civilization, but co-operation presupposes free nations worthy of co-operation. MM-316

» Civilization based on nonviolence must be different from that organised on violence. T-5-209

Civil Resistance

» In mass civil resistance leadership is essential; in individual civil resistance every resister is his own leader. T-3-310

Cleanliness

» It does not require money to be neat, clean and dignified. MM-356

» Members of a family will keep their house clean, but they will not be interested in the neighbour’s. T-4-17

Coercion

» Coercion cannot but result in chaos in the end. T-7-61

» The man who uses coercion is guilty of deliberate violence. Coercion is inhuman. T-7-61

» Since satyagraha is a method of conversion and conviction, it seeks never to use the slightest coercion. XXVI-267

» My method is conversion, not coercion; it is self-suffering, not the suffering of the tyrant. T-2-327

Communism-Bolshevism

» Communism, as I have understood it, is a natural corollary of socialism. MM-256

» The socialistic conception of the West was born in an environment reeking with violence. MM-251

» Our socialism or communism should be based on nonviolence and on harmonious co-operation of labour and capital, landlord and tenant. MM-255

» I claim to be a foremost communist although I make use of cars and other facilities offered to me by the rich. MM-248

» I can no more tolerate the yoke of Bolshevism (as described by Mr. Roy*) than of capitalism. XXV-531

*M. N. Roy- Radical Humanist

Compromise

» The essential condition of a compromise is that there should be nothing humiliating and nothing panicky about it. T-3-67

Compulsion

» Compulsion means submission of protestants to the thing they oppose under pain of being fined or imprisoned. XXV-316

Concentration

» Counting beads with the name of Allah on one’s lips whilst the mind wanders in all directions is worse than useless. TIG-52

Conduct

» The safest rule of conduct is to claim kinship when we want to do service, and not to insist on kinship when we want to assert a right. MM-418

» I am painfully aware of the fact that conduct everywhere falls far short of belief. T-2-294

Confession

» Confession of error is like a broom that sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface cleaner than before. T-2-84

» Prayer is a confession of one’s unworthiness and weakness. TIG-48

» Indeed, the errors and my prompt confessions have made me surer, if possible, of my insight into the implications of truth and ahimsa. T-2-2

Conscience

» Conscience can reside only in a delicately tuned breast. XXV-24

» For me the Voice of God, of Conscience, of Truth, or the Inner Voice or ‘the still small Voice’ mean one and the same thing. TIG-29

Constructive Programme

» Remember that no political programme can stand without the constructive programme. T-4-156

Contentment

» I would like people to compete with me in my contentment. It is the richest treasure I have won. XXVI-662

Control

» If my nonviolence is to be contagious and infectious, I must acquire greater control over my thoughts. MM-277

Conversion

» Conversion is a matter of the heart and reason. An appeal to the heart and reason can only be made through conduct. XXVI-342

» Conversion without a clean heart is a denial of God and religion. T-4-79

» Conversion without cleanness of heart can only be a matter of sorrow, not joy, to a godly person. T-4-79

» Surely conversion is a matter between man and his Maker who alone knows His creatures’ hearts. T-4-79

» I believe in conversion of mankind, not its destruction. XXV-531

Co-operation

» I was a co-operator too in the sense that I non-co-operated for co-operation, and even then I said that if I could carry the country forward by co-operation I should co-operate. T-4-155

» My non-co-operation is a token of my earnest longing for real heart co-operation in the place of co-operation falsely so called. T-2-382

» Non-co-operation with evil is as much a duty as co-operation with good. T-2-45

» At times, non-co-operation becomes as much a duty as co-operation. T-5-276

» Nonviolent action without the co-operation of the heart and the head cannot produce the intended result. T-5-132

» The nation’s non-co-operation is an invitation to the Government to co-operate within on its own terms, as is every nation’s right and every good government’s duty.T-2-46

» A government builds its prestige upon the apparently voluntary association of the governed. T-2-45

» Drops in separation could only fade away, drops in co-operation made the ocean, which carried on its broad bosom the ocean greyhounds. T-8-97

» A drop torn from the ocean perishes without doing any good. T-7-343

Copyright

» Copyright is not a natural thing. It is a modern institution, perhaps desirable to a certain extent. T-2-223

» Writings in the journals which I have the privilege of editing must be common property. T-2-223

Correction

» Error ceases to be error when it is corrected. T-5-245

Corruption

» Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today. T-3-301

Cottage Industry

» The cottage industry of India had to perish in order that Lancashire might flourish. T-3-71

Courage

» Human dignity demands the courage to defend oneself. XXVI-220

» Ahimsa calls for the strength and courage to suffer without retaliation, to receive blows without returning any. T-7-75

Cow

» The cow to me is a sermon on pity. XXVI-545

» The cow is the purest type of sub-human life. MM-387

» Mother cow is as useful dead as when she is alive. MM-387

» Mother cow expects from us nothing but grass and grain. MM-387

» Mother cow is in many ways better than the mother who gave us birth. MM-387

» Man, through the cow, is enjoined to realize his identity with all that lives. T-2-51

» Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world. T-2-51

» Cow protection to me is one of the most wonderful phenomena in the human evolution.T-2-51

» We cry for cow protection in the name of religion, but we refuse protection to the human cow in the shape of the girl widow. T-2-277

» Cow protection can only be secured by cultivating universal friendliness, i.e. ahimsa. XXV-520

» Cow protection means protection of the weak, the helpless, the dumb and the deaf. XXVI-545

» Cow protection to me is infinitely more than mere protection of the cow. XXVI-545

» The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection. MM-388

» Cow preservation is an article of faith in Hinduism. T-3-290

» The only way Hindus can convert the whole world to cow protection is by giving an object-lesson in cow protection and all it means. XXV-436

» My religion teaches me that I should, by my personal conduct, instill into the minds of those who might hold different views, the conviction that cow-killing is a sin. XXV-518

» By ahimsa we will be able to save the cow and also win the friendship of the English. XXV-520

» When I see a cow, it is not an animal to eat; it is a poem of pity for me and I worship it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world. XXV-459

» If I were overfull of pity for the cow, I should sacrifice my life to save her but not to take my brother’s. X-30

» Cow-slaughter and man-slaughter are in my opinion two sides of the same coin. XXV-519

» Cow-slaughter can never be stopped by law. MM-388

» The cow can be saved only if buffalo-breeding is given up. T-2-267

» It is no part of religion to breed buffaloes or, for that matter, cows. T-2-267

» Nowhere in the world you find such skeletons of cows and bullocks as you do in our cow-worshipping India. XXV-518

Coward-Cowardice

» Cowardice is incompatible with divine wisdom. T-3-270

» Cowardice is no sign of belief in God. T-4-252

» Better by far than cowardice is killing and being killed in battle. MOG-17

» Could there be a greater proof of our cowardice than fighting amongst ourselves? T-7-167

» No police or military in the world can protect people who are cowards. T-7-255

» There can be no friendship between cowards, or cowards and brave men. XXV-436

» It was the cowards who died many times before their death. T-7-110

» It is better to be charged with cowardice and weakness than to be guilty of denial of our oath and sin against God. T-2-85

» Nonviolence is the virtue of the manly. The coward is innocent of it. XXV-138

» Nonviolence and cowardice go ill together. T-5-131

» Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice. T-2-131

» Nonviolence should never be used as a shield for cowardice. It is a weapon of the brave. T-7-30

» To change one’s religion under the threat of force was no conversion, but rather cowardice. T-7-274

» To retaliate against the relatives of the co-religionists of the wrong-doer is a cowardly act. MM-399

» I can no more preach nonviolence to a cowardly man than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes. T-2-131

» Far better than emasculation would be the bravery of those who use physical force. Far better than cowardice would be meeting one’s death fighting. T-4-237

» I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour. T-2-4

» The truth is that cowardice itself is violence of a subtle type and therefore dangerous and far more difficult to eradicate than the habit of physical violence. XXV-437

» Running away for fear of death, leaving one’s dear ones, temples or music to take care of themselves, is irreligion; it is cowardice. XXV-138

» Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. T-2-4

» Ahimsa is an attribute of the brave. Cowardice and ahimsa don't go together any more than water and fire. T-5-189

» For thousands to do to death a few hundreds is no bravery. It is worse than cowardice. It is unworthy of nationalism, of any religion. T-7-252

Creator

» Religion is the tie that binds one to one’s Creator, and whilst the body perishes, as it has to, religion persists even after death. T-4-41

» When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator. T-2-160

Crime

» Crime is like a disease, like any other malady, and is a product of the prevalent social system. MM-160

» Surrender is no mitigation of the crime. It may easily be simple bravado. XXV-442

Criticism

» Healthy, well-informed, balanced criticism is the ozone of public life. T-4-206

» Volunteers should regard criticism as the food on which they live. XXV-600

» I would like to say that even the teaching of the Koran cannot be exempt from criticism. XXVI-226

» Intolerance of criticism, even of what one may prize as dear as life itself, is not conducive to the growth of public corporate life.XXVI-234

» Surely, Islam has nothing to fear from criticism even if it is unreasonable. XXVI-227

Cruel

» God cannot be so cruel and unjust as to make distinctions of high and low between man and man, and woman and woman. T-3-234

Culture

» A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people. T-5-10

» Mutual courtesy and respect is the foundation of culture. T-3-258

» No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive. EWE-20

» It is my firm opinion that no culture has treasures as rich as ours has. MM-430

» The truest test of civilization, culture and dignity is character and not clothing. XXVI-258

» The ideal is a synthesis of the different cultures that have come to stay in India, that have influenced Indian life, and that, in their turn, have themselves been influenced by the spirit of the soil. T-2-23

» I claim to represent all the cultures, for my religion, whatever it may be called, demands the fulfillment of all the cultures. T-5-272

Epigrams

Abstinence

» Abstinence is forgiveness only when there is power to punish; it is meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless creature. T-2-4

Abuse

» The best way of losing a cause is to abuse your opponent and to trade upon his weakness. T-51

Action

» Action for one's own self binds, action for the sake of others delivers from bondage. T-2-278

» My Gita tells me that evil can never result from good action. XXV-520

» What is faith worth if it is not translated into action? T-5-180

Administration

» You assist an administration most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil administration never deserves such allegiance. T-3-26

Advaita

» I believe in advaita, I believe in the essential unity of man and, for that matter, of all that lives. XXV-390

Affliction

» Every affliction has its own rich lesson to teach, if we would learn it. T-8-24

Africa

» The commerce between India and Africa will be of ideas and services, not of manufactured goods against raw materials after the fashion of the Western exploiters.T-7-46

Aggressor

» The aggressor always had a purpose behind his attack; he wanted something to be done, some object to be surrendered by the defender.  T-8-86

Agriculture

» To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.MM-364

» Weeding is as necessary to agriculture as sowing. MM-182

» Agricultural colleges to be worthy of the name must be self-supporting. EWE-26

Ahimsa

» Ahimsa is the highest ideal. It is meant for the brave, never for the cowardly T-7-128.

» Ahimsa is the eradication of the desire to injure or to kill.XIV-463

» Ahimsa is not a matter of mere dietetics: it transcends it.MM-117

» Ahimsa is the highest duty. Even if we cannot practice it in full, we must try to understand its spirit and refrain as far as is humanly possible from violence. T-7-61

» Ahimsa means infinite love, which again means infinite capacity for suffering. MM-295

» Ahimsa is an attribute of the brave. Cowardice and ahimsa don't go together any more than water and fire. T-5-83

» Ahimsa in theory no one knows. It is as indefinable as God.T-5-248

» The highest religion has been defined by a negative word: ahimsa. MM-425

» Ahimsa is one of the world’s great principles, which no power on earth can wipe out.MM-147

» Dharma is one and one only. Ahimsa means moksha, and moksha is the realization of Truth.MOG-117

» Love and ahimsa are matchless in their effect. TIG-57

» Love in the sense of ahimsa has only a limited number of votaries in the world. T-3-144

» Ahimsa is the attribute of the soul, and therefore, to be practised by everybody in all the affairs of life. MM-24

» Ahimsa is the strongest force known. T-5-307

» Ahimsa is the height of Kshatriya dharma as it represents the climax of fearlessness. XXV-563

» The fullest application of ahimsa does make life impossible. XXVI-335

» The most distinctive and largest contribution of Hinduism to India’s culture is the doctrine of ahimsa. T-2-341

» True ahimsa should mean a complete freedom from ill-will and anger and hate and an overflowing love for all. T-2-318

» Ahimsa and love are one and the same thing. TIG-19

» Ahimsa and Truth are so intertwined that it is practically impossible to disentangle and separate them. TIG-37

» Ahimsa is my God, and Truth is my God. MM-24

» Truth and ahimsa will never be destroyed.T-5-245

» The principle of ahimsa is hurt by every evil thought, by undue haste, by lying, by hatred, by wishing ill to anybody. TIG-36

» Ahimsa calls for the strength and courage to suffer without retaliation, to receive blows without returning any. T-7-75

» Ahimsa can be practiced only towards those that are inferior to you in every way. XIV-463

» Ahimsa was preached to man when he was in full vigor of life and able to look his adversaries straight in the face. XIV-476

» The greater the realization of truth and ahimsa, the greater the illumination. XXV-521

» The path of Truth is as narrow as it is straight. Even so is that of ahimsa. TIG-36

» Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer and anything that does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of truth and hammered with ahimsa, reject as non-Hindu. XXVI-374

» The removal of untouchability is one of the highest expressions of ahimsa. T-4-239

» Cow-protection can only be secured by cultivating universal friendliness, i.e. ahimsa. XXV-520

» Ahimsa is a science. The word ‘failure’ has no place in the vocabulary of science. T-5-81

» Ahimsa magnifies one’s own defects, and minimizes those of the opponent. It regards the mote in one’s own eye as a beam and the beam in the opponent’s eye as a mote. T-5-91

» Ahimsa must be placed before everything else while it is professed. Then alone it becomes irresistible. T-5-127

» Ahimsa must express itself through acts of selfless service of the masses. T-5-81

» Ahimsa is no mere theory with me, but it is a fact of life based on extensive experience. T-7-402

» My ahimsa is my own. I am not able to accept in its entirety the doctrine of non-killing of animals. MM-429

» What is it but my ahimsa that draws thousands of women to me in fearless confidence? T-5-291

» Truth is my religion and ahimsa is the only way of its realization. T-4-250

» Truth and ahimsa demand that no human being may debar himself from serving any other human being, no matter how sinful he may be. XXVI-374

» One who hooks his fortune to ahimsa, the law of love, daily lessens the circle of destruction and to that extent promotes life and love. T-4-33

» My anekantavada is the result of the twin doctrines of satya and ahimsa. TIG-12

» When two nations are fighting, the duty of a votary of ahimsa is to stop the war. TIG-40

» My ahimsa would not tolerate the idea of giving a free meal to a healthy person who has not worked for it in some honest way. MM-194

» Ahimsa and Truth are my two lungs. I cannot live without them. MM-425

» My errors have been errors of calculation and judging men, not in appreciating the true nature of truth and ahimsa or in their application. T-2-204

» Indeed, these errors and my prompt confessions have made me surer, if possible, of my insight into the implications of truth and ahimsa. T-2-204

» All my experiments in Ahimsa have taught me that nonviolence in practice means common labour with the body. T-5-225

» Whatever strength the masses have is due entirely to ahimsa, however imperfect or defective its practice might have been. T-7-147

» True ahimsa should wear a smile even on a deathbed brought about by an assailant. It is only with that ahimsa that we can befriend our opponents and win their love. T-5-243

» If our ahimsa is not of the brave but of the weak, and if it will bend the knee before himsa, Gandhism deserves to be destroyed. T-5-242

» The alphabet of ahimsa is best learnt in domestic school and I can say from experience that if we secure success there, we are sure to do so everywhere else. T-5-304

» A votary of ahimsa always prays for ultimate deliverance from the bondage of the flesh. MM-425

» A steadfast pursuit of ahimsa is inevitably bound to truth-not violence. MM-118

» I see a clear breach of ahimsa even in driving away monkeys; the breach would be proportionately greater if they have to be killed. T-2-322

» A votary of ahimsa cannot subscribe to the utilitarian formula (of the greatest good of the greatest number). He will strive for the greatest good of all and die in the attempt to realize that ideal. TIG-139

» Woman is the incarnation of ahimsa. (Ahimsa means infinite love, which again means infinite capacity for suffering.) T-5-227

» Woman is more fitted than man to make explorations and take bolder action in ahimsa. MM-294

» Unless the charkha adds to your ahimsa and makes you stronger every day, your Gandhism is of little avail.T-5-242

» Khadi has been conceived as the foundation and the image of ahimsa. A real khadi-wearer will not utter an untruth. A real khadi-wearer will harbour no violence, no deceit, no impurity.T-4-21

» In Swaraj, based on ahimsa, people need not know their rights, but it is also necessary for them to know their duties. MM-135

» No power on earth can subjugate you when you are armed with the sword of ahimsa. It ennobles both the victor and the vanquished. T-7-11

» The votary of ahimsa has only one fear, that is, of God. MM-12

» A votary of ahimsa must cultivate the habit of unremitting toil, sleepless vigilance, ceaseless self-control. T-5-80

» It is against the spirit of ahimsa to overawe even one person into submission. T-7-388

» The richest grace of ahimsa will descend easily upon the owner of hard discipline. MM-127

» Love, otherwise ahimsa, sustains this planet of ours. MM-127

» In an atmosphere of ahimsa, one has no scope to put his ahimsa to the test. It can be tested only in the face of himsa. T-5-90

» A soldier fights with an irresistible strength when he has blown up his bridges and burnt his boats. Even so, it is with a soldier of ahimsa. T-5-127

» Man lives freely by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him. MM-122

» The strength to kill is not essential for self-defence; one ought to have the strength to die. T-3-3

» If the lambs of the world had been willingly led, they would have long ago saved themselves from the butcher’s knife. T-2-52

» If the circulation of blood theory could not have been discovered without vivisection, the human kind could well have done without it. MM-426

» The scriptures of Christians, Mussalmans and Hindus are all replete with the teaching of ahimsa. XXV-521

» By ahimsa we will be able to save the cow and also win the friendship of the English. XXV-520

Anekantavad

» My anekantavad is the result of the twin doctrine of satya and ahimsa. TIG-12

Anger

» Fasts could not be undertaken out of anger. Anger was a short madness. T-8-5

» True ahimsa should mean a complete freedom from ill-will and anger and hate and an overflowing love for all. T-2-318

» The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before the rising sun of suffering without anger and without malice. XXVI-159

Angle

» Rectify one angle of a square and the other angles will be automatically right. MM-91

Appeasement

» A friendly approach is not one of appeasement. An appeasement is possible between enemies. T-8-4

» In no case can there be any appeasement at the cost of honour. Real appeasement is to shed all fear and do what is right at any cost. T-7-29

Armaments

» If the mad race for armaments continues, it is bound to result in a slaughter such as has never occurred in history. MM-4

» For India to enter into the race for armaments is to court suicide. T-5-178

Army

» The power of unarmed nonviolence is any day far superior to that of armed force. T-4-252

» What faith can you place in a general or a soldier who lacks resolution and determination, who says ‘I shall keep guard as long as I can'? T-2-365

» No general ever won a victory by following the principle of ‘being vigilant so long as he could’. T-2-365

Art

» Art to be art must soothe. MM-56

» All true art must help the soul to realize its inner self. XXV-248

» Purity of life is the highest and truest art. MM-57

» True art must be evidence of happiness, contentment and purity of its authors. T-2-56

» True art takes note not merely of form but also of what lies behind. MM-56

» The art that is in the machine-made article appeals only to the eye, the art in khadi appeals first to the heart and then to the eye. T-3-292

» The art of producing good music from a cultivated voice can be achieved by many, but the art of producing that music from the harmony of a pure life is achieved very rarely. TIG-109

» A life of sacrifice is the pinnacle of art, and is full of true joy. MOG-21

» Whatever can be useful to those starving millions is beautiful to my mind. MM-56

» I consider writing as a fine art. We kill it by imposing the alphabet on little children and making it the beginning of learning. T-4-164

» A semi-starved nation can have neither religion nor art nor organization. T-2-251

» Why should I need an artist to explain a work of art to me? Why should it not speak out to me itself? T-4-93

» Painters and poets are obliged to exaggerate the proportions of their figures in order to give true perspective. T-2-215

» To a true artist only that face is beautiful which, quite apart from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul. T-2-159

Asceticism

» By all means drink deep of the fountains that are given to you in the Sermon on the Mount, but then you will have to take sackcloth and ashes. T-2-296

Astrology

» I know nothing of the science of astrology and I consider it to be a science, if it is a science, of doubtful value, to be severely left alone by those who have any faith in Providence. T-2-314

Atheist

» God is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist.TIG-10

Atom Bomb

» The atom bomb brought an empty victory to the Allied armies, but it resulted for the time being in destroying the soul of Japan. TIG-142

» So far as I can see, the atomic bomb has deadened the finest feeling that has sustained mankind for ages. TIG-1

Autocracy

» Mobocracy is autocracy multiplied a million times. XXV-531