“It was only in South Africa that I got over this shyness, though I never completely overcame it. It was impossible for me to speak impromptu. I hesitated whenever I had to face strange audiences and avoided making a speech whenever I could. Even today I do not think I could or would even be inclined to keep a meeting of friends engaged in idle talk. I must say that, beyond occasionally exposing me to laughter, my constitutional shyness has been no disadvantage whatever. In fact I can see that, on the contrary, it has been all to my advantage. My hesitancy in speech, which was once an annoyance, is now a pleasure. Its greatest benefit has been that it has taught me the economy of words. I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. And I can now give myself the certificate that a thoughtless word hardly ever escapes my tongue or pen. I do not recollect ever having had to regret anything in my speech or writing. I have thus been spared many a mishap and waste of time. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. 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. A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word. We find so many people impatient to talk. There is no chairman of a meeting who is not pestered with notes for permission to speak. And whenever the permission is given the speaker generally exceeds the time-limit, asks for more time, and keeps on talking without permission. 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.”

“I believed then, and I believe even now, that, no matter what amount of work one has, one should always find some time for exercise, just as one does for one's meals. It is my humble opinion that, far from taking away from one's capacity for work, it adds to it.”

“Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either.”

“The credit system has encircled this beautiful globe of ours like a serpent's coil, and if we do not mind, it bids fair to crush us out of breath.”

“The Best Thing To Find Yourself Is To Loose Yourself In The Service Of Others”

“Un lucru a săpat rădăcini adânci în sufletul meu: credinţa că morala stă la baza tuturor lucrurilor şi că adevărul este substanţa întregii moralităţi. Astfel că adevărul a devenit singurul meu scop. El a devenit din ce în ce mai important pentru mine, iar sensurile pe care i le-am dat au devenit din ce în ce mai largi.”

“You yourself as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve love and affection.”

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

“I saw that a man of truth must also be a man of care.”

“A person who believes in fighting and does not regard it as violence, though it is violence, is here being asked to kill.”

“Un país, una civilización se puede juzgar por la forma en que trata a sus animales.”

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world’

“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment; full effort is full victory

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.”

“Spiritual relationship is far more precious than Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul.”