“Today I know that physical training should have as much place in the curriculum as mental training.”

“In a gentle way you can shake the world.”

“There is no 'way to peace,' there is only 'peace.”

“The useful and the useless must, like good and evil generally, go on together, and man must make his choice.”

“No matter how explicit the pledge, people will turn and twist the text to suit their own purpose”

“To attain to perfect purity 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.”

“You civilised fellows are all cowards. Great men never look at a person’s exterior. They think of his heart.”

“The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.”

“I have not conceived my mission to be that of a knight-errant wandering everywhere to deliver people from difficult situations. My humble occupation has been to show people how they can solve their own difficulties.”

“Truth is one, paths are many.”

“The more I reflect and look back on the past, the more vividly do I feel my limitations.”

“Friendship that insists upon agreement on all things isn't worth the name.”

“To Believe is something, and do not live it, is dishonest..”

“Disease increases in proportion to the increase in the number of doctors in a place.”

“Children inherit the qualities of the parents, no less than their physical features. Environment does play an important part, but the original capital on which a child starts in life is inherited from its ancestors. I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul. Polak and I had often very heated discussions about the desirability or otherwise of giving the children an English education. It has always been my conviction that Indian parents who train their children to think and talk in English from their infancy betray their children and their country. They deprive them of the spiritual and social heritage of the nation, and render them to that extent unfit for the service of the country. Having these convictions, I made a point of always talking to my children in Gujarati. Polak never liked this. He thought I was spoiling their future. He contended, with all the vigour and love at his command, that, if children were to learn a universal language like English from their infancy, they would easily gain considerable advantage over others in the race of life. He failed to convince me. I do not now remember whether I convinced him of the correctness of my attitude, or whether he gave me up as too obstinate. This happened about twenty years ago, and my convictions have only deepened with experience. Though my sons have suffered for want of full literary education, the knowledge of the mother-tongue that they naturally acquired has been all to their and the country’s good, inasmuch as they do not appear the foreigners they would otherwise have appeared. They naturally became bilingual, speaking and writing English with fair ease, because of daily contact with a large circle of English friends, and because of their stay in a country where English was the chief language spoken.”