“shall be able to kindle the same in you. But one cannot light a piece of stone. Only those of you who have some oil and wick in them will light their lamp with this matchstick of mine.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
“It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“There is only one desire in life which is good and the desire for the means to realise it is also good.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“I wanted to know the best of the life of one (Muhammad) who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind. I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“men in charge. The man complained of will not be there tomorrow, and you will have a seat with the other passengers.’ This somewhat relieved me. I had, of course, no intention of proceeding against the man who had assaulted me, and so the chapter of the assault closed there. In the morning Isa Sheth’s man took me to the coach, I got a good seat and reached Johannesburg quite safely that night. Standerton is a small village and Johannesburg a big city. Abdulla Sheth had wired to Johannesburg also, and given me the name and address of Muhammad Kasam Kamruddin’s firm there. Their man had come to receive me at the stage, but neither did I see him nor did he recognize me. So I decided to go to a hotel. I knew the names”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“The first principal of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“What is described is the conflict within the human body between opposing moral tendencies, which are imagined as distinct figures. A seer such as Vyasa would never concern himself with a description of mere physical fighting. It is the human body that is described as Kurukshetra, as dharmakshetra9 . The epithet may also mean that for a Kshatriya a battlefield is always a fi eld of dharma. Surely a fi eld on which the Pandavas too were present could not be altogether a place of sin.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“A reformer cannot afford to have close intimacy with him whom he seeks to reform. True friendship is an identity of souls rarely to be found in this world.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“Vivre simplement, pour que simplement d'autres puissent vivre.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“Europe I travelled third—and only once first, just to see what it was like—but there I noticed no such difference between the first and the third-classes. In South Africa third-class passengers are mostly Negroes, yet the third-class comforts are better there than here.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“But here the physical battle is only an occasion for describing the battlefield that is the human body.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
“As a rule I had a distaste for any reading beyond my school books.”
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Mahatma Gandhi