Quotes E

Earth

» This little globe of ours is not a toy of yesterday. MM-286

Earthquake

» A man like me cannot but believe that this earthquake (Earthquake in Bihar, 15th January, 1934) is a divine chastisement sent by God for our sins. T-3-247

Economics

» Economics that hurt the moral well-being of an individual or a nation are immoral and therefore sinful. MM-263

» That economics is untrue which ignores or disregards moral values. XXV-475

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

» We can try to canalize economic trends, we can’t run against them in a head-on collision. T-7-185

Education

» An education which does not teach us to discriminate between good and bad, to assimilate the one and eschew the other, is a misnomer. T-5-43

» Education should be so revolutionized as to answer the wants of the poorest villager, instead of answering those of an imperial exploiter. T-4-182

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

» Basic education links children, whether of the cities or the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India. T-6-23

» Is not education the art of drawing out full manhood of the children under training? XXVI-275

» Literacy in itself is no education. MM-379

» Literacy is not the end of education nor even the beginning. EWE-22

» Literary education should follow the education of the hand - the one gift that visibly distinguishes man from beast. EWE-21

» Real education has to draw out the best from the boys and girls to be educated. EWE-32

» True education must correspond to the surrounding circumstances or it is not a healthy growth. XXVI-275

» What is really needed to make democracy function is not knowledge of facts, but right education. T-7-209

» National education to be truly national must reflect the national condition for the time being. XXVI-275

» The function of Nayee-Talim is not merely to teach an occupation, but through it to develop the whole man. T-7-384

» I believe that religious education must be the sole concern of religious associations. EWE-30

» By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and man-body, mind and spirit. MM-379

» By spiritual training I mean education of the heart. EWE-21

» Experience gained in two schools under my control has taught me that punishment does not purify, if anything, it hardens children. T-2-218

» 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

» I do regard spinning and weaving as a necessary part of any national system of education. XXVI-275

» The aim of university education should be to turn out true servants of the people who will live and die for the country’s freedom. MM-381

» A balanced intellect presupposes a harmonious growth of body, mind and soul. MM-379

» Love requires that true education should be easily accessible to all and should be of use to every villager in his daily life. MM-381

» The notion of education through handicrafts rises from the contemplation of truth and love permeating life’s activities. MM-381

» Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisites for acquiring learning of any kind. MM-377

» If we want to impart education best suited to the needs of the villagers, we should take the vidyapith to the villages. T-4-163

» In a democratic scheme, money invested in the promotion of learning gives a tenfold return to the people even as a seed sown in good soil returns a luxuriant crop. EWE-28

» All education in a country has got to be demonstrably in promotion of the progress of the country in which it is given. MM-381

» Schools and colleges are really a factory for turning out clerks for the Government. T-2-13

» The canker has so eaten into the society that in many cases the only meaning of education is a knowledge of English. EWE-11

» Emphasis laid on the principle of spending every minute of one’s life usefully is the best education for citizenship. EWE-24

Effort

» Pleasure lies in making an effort, not in its fulfillment. T-5-174

Employment

» Khadi will cease to have any value in my eyes if it does not usefully employ the millions. T-7-187

Enemy

» I recognise no one as my enemy on the face of the earth. XXVI-268

» In the dictionary of satyagraha, there is no enemy. T-5-162

» No man could look upon another as his enemy unless he first became his own enemy. T-7-204

Englishman-English Language

» Englishmen must learn to be Brahmins, not banias. MM-325

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

» Non-co-operation is a movement intended to invite Englishmen to co-operate with us on honourable terms or retire from our land. T-2-40

» Swaraj means, a state such that we can maintain our separate existence without the presence of the English. T-2-19

» However virile the English language may be, it can never become the language of the masses of India. T-7-51

» The English language is so elastic that you can find another word to say the same thing. T-5-150

» If the English educated neglect, as they have done and even now continue, as some do, to be ignorant of their mother tongue, linguistic starvation will abide. T-7-51

» We, the English educated Indians, often unconsciously make the terrible mistake of thinking that the microscopic minority of the English-speaking Indians is the whole of India. T-2-326

» I am not anti-English, I am not anti-British, I am not anti-any Government, but I am anti-untruth, anti-humbug and anti-injustice. MM-322

» I refuse to put the unnecessary strain of learning English upon my sisters for the sake of false pride or questionable social advantage. XX-159

» My love of the British is equal to that of my own people. MM-323

» My mission is to convert every Indian, every Englishman and finally the world to nonviolence for regulating mutual relations, whether political, economic, social or religious. T-5-221

» My personal religion enables me to serve my countrymen without hurting the English or, for that matter, anybody else. MM-322

» My plea is for banishing the English language as a cultural usurper, as we successfully banished the political rule of the English usurper. T-8-128

» If any Englishman dedicated his life to securing the freedom of India, resisting tyranny and serving the land, I should welcome that Englishman as an Indian. X-41

» Personally I crave not for ‘independence’, which I do not understand, but I long for freedom from the English yoke. T-2-326

» By patriotism I mean the welfare of all people, and if I could secure it at the hands of the English, I should bow down my head to them. X-41

» Through the deliverance of India, I seek to deliver the so-called weaker races of the earth from the crushing heels of Western exploitation in which England is the greatest partner. T-2-327

» To get rid of the infatuation for English is one of the essentials of Swaraj. EWE-46

» A smattering of English is worse than useless; it is an unnecessary tax on our women. XIV-46

» Ram Mohan Roy would have been a greater reformer and Lokmanya Tilak a greater scholar if they had not to start with the handicap of having to think in English and transmit their thoughts chiefly in English. EWE-9

» This belief in the necessity of English training has enslaved us. It has unfitted us for true national service. EWE-8

» Of all the superstitions that affect India, none is so great as that a knowledge of the English language is necessary for imbibing ideas of liberty and developing accuracy to thought. EWE-10

» The canker has so eaten into the society that in many cases the only meaning of education is a knowledge of English. EWE-11

» We Hindus and Mohamedans would have to blame our folly rather than the English, if we allowed them to put us asunder. X-30

» It would be a sad day for India if it has to inherit the English scale and the English tastes so utterly unsuitable to the Indian environment. T-2-18

» My heart rebels against any foreigner imposing on my country the peace which is here called Pax-Britannica. T-2-201

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

» No matter what the cause was and wherever it was, Indian governments must never requisition the services of British soldiers to deal with civil disturbances. T-7-359

» There is as much need for a change of heart among the Hindus and Mussalmans as there is among the British, before a proper settlement is arrived at. XXVI-233

» Let us learn from the English rulers the simple fact that the oppressors are blind to the enormity of their own misdeeds. XXV-397

» The Britisher is the top dog and the Indian the underdog in his own country. T-3-71

» That I want to destroy British imperialism is another matter, but I want to do so by converting those who are associated with it. T-4-93

» India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before. T-2-100

» The British power is the overlord without whom Indian princes cannot breathe. T-5-192

» My conception of dominion status implies present ability to severe the British connection if I wish to. T-2-382

» The British are weak in numbers, we are weak in spite of our numbers. T-2-20

» My motto is "Unite now, today if you can; fight if you must. But in every case avoid British intervention." XXVI-233

» Will Great Britain have an unwilling India dragged into war or a willing ally co-operating with her in the prosecution of a defence of true democracy? T-5-167

» Boycott brought about anyhow of British cloth cannot yield the same results as such boycott brought about by hand-spinning and khaddar. XXV-475

» I must fight unto the death the unholy attempt to impose British methods and British institutions on India. XXV-489

» The Indian struggle is not anti-British, it is anti-exploitation, anti-foreign rule, not anti-foreigners. T-5-255

» What senseless violence does is to prolong the lease of life of the British or foreign rule. T-7-194

» Our nonviolence vis-à-vis the British Government has been the nonviolence of the weak. MM-349

» I believe in the capacity of India to offer nonviolent battle to the English rulers. XXV-489

» The builders of the British Indian Empire have patiently built its four pillars-the European interests, the army, the Indian princes and the communal divisions. T-5-237

» The collectors of revenue and the policeman are the only symbols by which millions in India’s villages know British rule. T-7-215

» It was not through democratic methods that Britain bagged India. T-5-277

» For my own part, I do not want the freedom of India if it means extinction of English or the disappearance of Englishmen. T-2-200

» It is derogatory to the dignity of mankind, it is derogatory to the dignity of India, to entertain for one single moment hatred towards Englishmen. T-2-199

» If you must kill English officials, why not kill me instead? T-3-102

» I am just not thinking of India’s deliverance. It will come, but will it be worth if England and France fall, or if they come out victorious over Germany ruined and humbled? T-5-161

» I claim to have been a lifelong and wholly disinterested friend of the British people. T-5-295

» My attitude towards the British is one of utter friendliness and respect. XXVI-52

» I may fight the British ruler, but I do not hate the English or their language. In fact, I appreciate their literary treasures. T-4-93

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

Equality

» Equality of sexes does not mean equality of occupations. MM-296

» Economic equality of my conception does not mean that every one will literally have the same amount. MM-267

» The real meaning of economic equality is " To each according to his need." MM-267

» What is equality of rights between a giant and a dwarf? T-3-71

» Economic equality is the master-key to nonviolent independence. MM-257

» The prince and the peasant will not be equalized by cutting off the prince’s head. MM-248

» No two leaves were alike, and yet there is no antagonism between them or between the branches on which they grow. T-7-115

» Under ideal conditions, the barrister and the bhangi (sweeper) should both get the same payment. T-8-63

» If a single man demanded as much as a man with a wife and four children, then that would be a violation of the concept of economic equality. T-7-47

» "All men are born equal and free" is not Nature’s law in the literal sense. MM-350

» My idea of society is that while we are born equal, meaning that we have a right to equal opportunity, all have not the same capacity. MM-266

» Let no one try to justify the glaring difference between the classes and the masses, the prince and the pauper, by saying that the former need more. T-7-47

» The real implication of equal distribution is that each man shall have the wherewithal to supply all his natural needs and no more. MM-268

» The elephant needs a thousand times more food than the ant but that is not an indication of inequality. T-7-47

» No man is a true believer unless he desireth for his brother that which he desireth for himself. T-7-309

» How can I even secretly harbour the thought that my neighbour’s faith is inferior to mine? T-3-257

Ethics

» Teaching of fundamental ethics is undoubtedly a function of the state. TIG-151

» By religion I have not in mind fundamental ethics but what goes by the name of denominationalism. EWE-31

» To me God is Truth and Love; God is ethics and morality; God is fearlessness. TIG-10

Euclid

» Euclid’s line is one without breadth, but no one has so far been able to draw it and never will. MM-131

» If Euclid’s point, thought incapable of being drawn by human agency, has an imperishable value, my picture has its own for mankind to live. MM-372

» Absolute trusteeship is an abstraction like Euclid’s definition of a point, and its equally unattainable. MM-372

Europe

» Europe is today only nominally Christian. It is really worshipping Mammon. TIG-143

» European civilization is no doubt suited for the Europeans but it will mean ruin for India, if we endeavour to copy it. T-3-94

» An India prostrate at the feet of Europe can give no hope to humanity. T-2-46

» A free India will claim to examine every European interest on its merits and that which conflicts with the national interest will go by the board. T-5-192

Evil

» Not until we have reduced ourselves to nothingness can we conquer the evil in us. TIG-56

» He who has a living faith in God will not do evil deeds with the name of God on his lips. T-4-252

» Non-co-operation is a protest against an unwitting and unwilling participation in evil. T-2-45

» Nonviolence does not signify that man must not fight against the enemy, and by enemy is meant the evil which men do, not human beings themselves. T-8-281

» Real non-co-operation is non-co-operation with evil and not with the evildoer. T-2-200

» In a strictly scientific sense God is at the bottom of both good and evil. TIG-25

» Tolerance obviously does not disturb the distinction between right and wrong, or good and evil.TIG-66

Evolution

» Like man, the meaning of great writings suffers evolution. T-2-311

» The religion of our conception, thus imperfect, is always subject to a process of evolution and re-interpretation. TIG-65

Experiments

» My experiments I hold to be infinitely more important than the best equipped Himalayan expeditions. MM-8

Exploitation

» The divorce of intellect from body labour has made us perhaps the shortest-lived, most resourceless and most exploited nation on earth. T-3-289

» Exploitation and domination of one nation over another can have no place in a world striving to put an end to all war. T-7-2

» Through the deliverance of India, I seek to deliver the so-called weaker races of the earth from the crushing heels of Western exploitation in which England is the greatest partner. T-2-327

Quotes

Banker

» Even as a banker cannot run a bank if he has nothing in his chest, so can a general not lead a battle if he has no soldiers on whom he can rely implicitly. T-5-31

Basic Education

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

» The object of basic education is the physical, intellectual and moral development of children through the medium of handicraft. EWE-24

Beast

» Every species, human and subhuman, has some distinguishing mark, so that you can tell a man from a beast, or a dog from a cow. T-3-280

Beauty

» The beauty of poetry is that the creation transcends the poet. MOG-15

» 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

» All truths, not merely ideas, but truthful faces, truthful pictures or songs, are highly beautiful. T-2-159

» 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

» People generally fail to see beauty in truth, the ordinary man runs away from it and becomes blind to the beauty in it. T-2-159

» Truth is the first thing to be sought for, and Beauty and Goodness will then be added unto you. XXV-255

Bhagavadgita (Gita)

» The Gita is not for those who have no faith. T-2-312

» The Gita distinguishes between the powers of light and darkness and demonstrates their incompatibility. MM-94

» The Gita is not an aphoristic work, it is a great religious poem.T-2-312

» Salvation of the Gita is perfect peace.T-2-309

» A literal interpretation of the Gita lands one in a sea of contradictions.XXVI-289

» The renunciation of the Gita is the acid test of faith.T-2-310

» The sanyasa of the Gita is all work and yet no work.T-2-312

» The sanyasa of the Gita will not tolerate complete cessation of activity.T-2-31

» Devotion required by the Gita is no soft-hearted effusiveness.T-2-309

» The Bible is as much a book of religion with me as the Gita and the Koran.MM-98

» Self-realization is the object of the Gita, as it is of all scriptures.MOG-4

» The object of the Gita appears to me to be that of showing the most excellent way to attain self-realization.TIG-98

» The message of the Gita is to be found in the second chapter of the Gita where Lord Krishna speaks of the balanced state of mind, of mental equipoise.T-5-21

» Time is wealth, and the Gita says the Great Annihilator annihilates those who waste time. T-2-274

» According to the letter of the Gita, it is possible to say that warfare is consistent with renunciation of fruit.T-2-312

» The path of bhakti, karma and love as expounded in the Gita leaves no room for the despising of man by man.T-2-278

» I have felt that the Gita teaches us that what cannot be followed in day-to-day practice cannot be called religion. T-2-311

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

» The Gita is not only my Bible and my Koran, it is more than that, it is my mother. MM-95

» I find a solace a in the Bhagavadgita and Upanishads that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. MM-94

» The Gita has become for me the key to the scriptures of the world. T-4-76

» Let the Gita be to you a mine of diamonds, as it has been to me; let it be your constant guide and friend on life’s way. T-2-307

» My life has been full of external tragedies and if they have not left any visible effect on me, I owe it to the teaching of the Bhagavadgita. MOG-40

» In the characteristics of the perfected man of the Gita, I do not see any to correspond to physical warfare. MOG-3

» I still somehow or other fancy that "my philosophy" represents the true meaning of the teaching of the Gita. XXVI-140

» Untouchability, I hold, is a sin, if Bhagavadgita is one of our Divine Books. XXVI-349

» In order that knowledge may not run riot, the author of the Gita has insisted on devotion accompanying it and has given it the first place. T-2-309

» The lives of Zoroaster, Jesus and Mohammed, as I have understood them, have illumined many a passage in the Gita. T-3-181

» The Krishna of the Gita is perfection and right knowledge personified, but the picture is imaginary. TIG-98

» A devotee of Rama may be said to be the same as the steadfast one (sthitaprajnya) of the Gita. TIG-111

» The seeker is at liberty to extract from this treasure any meaning he likes, so as to enable him to enforce in his life the central teaching. T-2-312

» To one who reads the spirit of the Gita, it teaches the secret of nonviolence, the secret of realizing self through the physical body. MOG-16

» What the Sermon* describes in a graphic manner, the Bhagavadgita reduces to a scientific formula. MM-68

* The Sermon on the Mount

Birth

» Birth and death are no two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state. XXV-333

» The whole world is in the throes of new birth. Anything done for temporary gain would be tantamount to an abortion. T-5-273

Birth Control

» Self-control is the surest and the only method of regulating the birthrate. Birth control by contraceptives is race suicide. T-2-226

Blame

» Blaming the wolf would not help the sheep much. The sheep must learn not to fall into the clutches of the wolf. T-5-10

Bolshevism

See Communism

Bone

» Every bone picked up is valuable raw material from which useful articles can be made or which can be crushed into rich manure. T-4-17

Boycott

» Boycott brought about anyhow of British cloth cannot yield the same results as boycott brought about by hand spinning and khaddar. XXV-475

» So long as we have to rely on the pins and the needles, figurative and literal, we cannot bring about a complete boycott of foreign goods. T-2-14

» I boycott foreign goods, not foreign ability. Bunch-268

» We are aware that the business of Swaraj will thrive only if the boycott of foreign cloth is successful. XXV-578

» If the people resolve and carry out this programme of boycott and swadeshi, they would not have to wait for Swaraj even for a year. T-2-27

Brahmins-Brahminism

» The Brahmin is the finest flower of Hinduism and humanity. I will do nothing to whither it. XXVI-331

» Brahmins are born, not so Brahminism. It is a quality open to be cultivated by the lowliest or the lowest among us. XXVI-331

» A true Brahmin should be the very image of humility and not be proud of his knowledge or wisdom. T-3-270

» A Brahmin is hardly worth the name, if he did not have the courage of his convictions. T-3-270

» The Brahmin’s duty is to look after the sanitation of the soul, the bhangi ’s that of the body of society. T-4-104

» Where is the real Brahmin today, content with a bare living and giving all his time to study and teaching? T-5-97

» I have the highest reverence for Brahminism, under which a class has been set apart from generation to generation for the exclusive pursuit of divine knowledge and consigned to voluntary poverty. T-3-195

» I would not have the non-Brahmins to rise on the ruin of the Brahmins. XXVI-331

» Swear all you are worth, if you like, against Brahmins, but never against Brahminism. T-2-283

» The ideal bhangi of my conception would be a Brahmin par excellence, possibly even excel him. T-4-104

Brave-Bravery

» Bravery is not man’s monopoly. MM-297

» Bravery is not a quality of the body, it is of the soul. MM-61

» Nonviolence is the summit of bravery. T-2-131

» Bravery on the battlefield is impossible for us. Bravery of the soul still remains open to us. T-5-128

» I see neither bravery nor sacrifice in destroying life or property for offence or defence. T-6-67

» Mere brave speech without action is letting off useless steam. T-2-325

» True paurusha, true bravery, consists in driving out the brute in us. XV-157

» Unexampled bravery, born of nonviolence, coupled with strict honesty shown by a fair number of Muslims, was sure to infect the whole of India. T-8-176

» The art of dying bravely and with honour does not need any special training, save a living faith in God. MM-302

» 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-4-252

» Active nonviolence of the brave puts to flight thieves, dacoits, murderers, and prepares an army of volunteers ready to sacrifice themselves in quelling riots, in extinguishing fires and feuds, and so on. T-4-257

» Nonviolence is not a weapon of the weak. It is a weapon of the strongest and the bravest. T-4-253

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

» The man or the woman who can display this nonviolence of the brave can easily stand against an external invasion. T-5-298

» Those who are truthful, nonviolent and brave do not cease to be so because of the stupidity of their leader. T-5-128

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

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

» The history of the world is full of instances of men who rose to leadership by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity. T-3-23

» A straight fight in an equal battle takes some bravery, but braver is he who, knowing that he would have to sacrifice ninety-five as against five of the enemy, faces death. T-5-111

British

- See Englishman

Brother – Brotherhood

» All the great religions of the world inculcate equality and brotherhood of mankind and the virtue of tolerance. T-3-257

» A teetotaler would regard it as his duty to associate with his drunkard brother for the purpose of weaning him from the evil habit. XXVI-65

» The khadi spirit means fellow feeling with every human being on earth. T-2-282

» I have never in my life regarded anyone as my servant, but as a brother or a sister. T-2-279

Brute – Brute Force

» Unrestricted individualism is the law of the beast of the jungle. T-5-105

» The only thing that separates us from the brute, with which we have so much in common, is the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong. T-4-158

» The spirit lies dormant in the brute, and he knows no law but that of physical might. T-2-5

» True paurusha, true bravery, consists in driving out the brute in us. XV-157

» We are no better than the brutes until we have purged ourselves of the sins we have committed against our weaker brethren. T-2-3

» ‘Tit for tat’ is the law of the brute of the unregenerate man. T-8-14

» To answer brutality with brutality is to admit to one’s moral and intellectual bankruptcy. T-7-399

» Human nature will only find itself when it fully realizes that to be human it has to cease to be beastly or brutal. T-4-279

» The Germans were defeated not because they were necessarily in the wrong, but because the allied powers were found to possess greater brute strength. T-2-20

» Brute is the only test the West has hitherto recognized. T-2-20

Buddha – Buddhism

» Buddha never rejected Hinduism, but he broadened its base. He gave it a new life and a new interpretation. T-2-292

» Buddha renounced every worldly happiness because he wanted to share with the whole world his happiness which was to be had by men who sacrificed and suffered in the search for truth. T-2-295

» Buddha emphasised and re-declared the eternal an unalterable existence of the moral government of this universe. He unhesitatingly said that the law was God Himself. T-2-293

» For Asia to be not for Asia but the whole world, it has to re-learn the message of the Buddha and deliver it to the world. MM-433

» I know that Buddhism is to Hinduism what Protestantism is to Roman Catholicism, only in a much stronger light, in a much greater degree. T-2-352

» If there was any teacher in the world who insisted upon the inexorable law of cause and effect, it was Gautama, and yet my friends, the Buddhists outside India, would, if they could, avoid the effects of their own acts. T-2-293

» Buddhism is one long prayer. T-5-148