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Faith
Faith becomes lame, when it ventures into matters pertaining to reason.
A faith gained in strength only when people were willing to lay down their
lives for it.
Faith is like the Himalaya mountains which cannot possibly change.
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Faith is not a delicate flower which
would wither away under the slightest stormy weather.
T-3-244
Robust faith in oneself and brave trust of the opponent, so called or real,
is the best safeguard.
T-8-133
Exercise of faith will be the safest where there is a clear determination
summarily to reject all that is contrary to truth and love.
A living faith cannot be manufactured by the rule of majority.
What is faith worth if it is not translated into action?
If you have faith in the cause and the means and in God, the not sun will be
cool for you.
It is poor faith that needs fair weather for standing firm. That alone is
true faith that stands the foulest weather.
Nothing can be more hurtful to an honourable man than that he should be
accused of bad faith.
Faith is not imparted like secular subjects. It is given through the
language of the heart.
Every living faith must have within itself the power of rejuvenation if it
is to live.
Work without faith is like an attempt to reach the bottom of a bottomless
pit.
A man with a grain of faith in God never loses hope, because he ever
believes in the ultimate triumph of Truth.
A man of faith does not bargain or stipulate with God.
Just as the body cannot exist without blood, so the soul needs the matchless
and pure strength of faith.
Nonviolence succeeds only when we have a real living faith in God.
A satyagrahi should have a living faith in God.
The Gita is not for those who have no faith.
I am a seasoned soldier of nonviolence, and I have evidence enough to
sustain my faith.
I have made the world’s faith in God my own and as my faith is effaceable, I
regard that faith as amounting to experience.
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.
It is the faith and perseverance and single-mindedness with which Hitler has
perfected his weapons of destruction that commands my admiration.
God’s word is: ‘He who strives never perishes’. I have implicit faith in
that promise.
My effort should never be to undermine another’s faith but to make him a
better follower of his won faith.
My faith in non-co-operation is as bright as ever.
My faith is brightest in the midst of impenetrable darkness.
My faith runs so very much faster than my reason that I can challenge the
whole world and say,God is, was and ever shall be’.
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the ‘still small voice’ within.
My implicit faith in nonviolence does mean yielding to minorities when they
are really weak.
Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of
my creed.
Whether one or many, I must declare my faith that it is better for India to
discard violence altogether even for defending her borders.
With me the connection between the cosmic phenomena and human behaviour is a
living faith that draws me nearer to God, humbles me and makes me readier
for facing Him.
Without a belief in my programme and without an acceptance of my condition,
you will ruin me, ruin yourselves and ruin the cause.
All faiths constitute a revelation of Truth, but all are imperfect and
liable to error.
Tolerance implies a gratuitous assumption of the inferiority of other faiths
to one’s own.
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’?
Can a general fight on the strength of the soldiers who, he knows, have no
faith in him?
Decency requires that when a programme is approved by the majority, all
should carry it out faithfully.
Even as a tree has a single trunk, but many branches and leaves, there is
one religion but any number of faiths.
He who would in his own person test the fact of God’s presence can do so by
a living faith.
If you have no character to lose, people will have no faith in you.
Khaddar is an activity that can absorb all the time of all available men
and women and grown-up children, if they have faith.
Legal imposition avoids the necessity of honour or good faith.
The khadi spirit means a equally illimitable faith.
Prayer is an impossibility without a living faith in the presence of God
within.
The renunciation of the Gita is the acid test of faith.
Fast – Fasting
Fasting and prayer are common injunctions in my religion.
Fasting for light and penance is a hoary institution.
A pure fast, like duty, is its own reward.
Fasting is an institution as old as Adam. It has been resorted to for
self-purification or for some ends, noble as well as ignoble.
A complete fast is a complete and literal denial of self. It is the truest
prayer.
A genuine fast cleanses the body, mind and soul. It crucifies the flesh and
to that extent sets the soul free.
Fasts could not be undertaken out of anger. Anger was a short madness.
All fasting and all penance must as far as possible be secret.
What the eyes are for the outer world, fasts are for the inner.
A fast to be true must be accompanied by a readiness to receive pure
thoughts and determination to resist all Satan’s temptations.
When a man fasts, it is not the gallons of water he drinks that sustains
him, but God.
My fast is among other things meant to qualify me for achieving that equal
and selfless love.
My fast is a matter between God and myself.
My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one can not
remove, one must fast and pray.
Fear – Fearless
Fear is a worse disease than malaria or kalaazar; these diseases kill
the body, fear kills the soul.
T-2-304
Fear of disease killed more men than disease itself.
A fear-stricken person can never know God, and one who knows God will never
fear a mortal man.
T-2-304
The fear of the judge within is more terrible than that of the one without.
Where there is fear, there is no religion.
There is always the fear of self-righteousness possessing us, the fear of
arrogating to ourselves a superiority that we do not possess.
It is weakness which breeds fear, and fear breeds distrust.
There would be no one to frighten you if you refused to be afraid.
The man who fears man falls from the estate of man. Fear God alone.
The greatest help you can give me is to banish fear from your hearts.
External fears cease of their own accord when once we have conquered these
traitors within the camp.
For a nonviolent person, the whole world is one family. He will thus fear
none, nor will others fear him.
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the
other by acts of love.
Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than
the one derived from fear of punishment.
A man who throws himself on God ceases to fear man.
Running away for fear of death, leaving one’s dear ones, temples or music to
take care of themselves, is irreligion, it is cowardice.
It needs more than a heart of oak to shed all fear except the fear of God.
You will find that God is always by the side of the fearless. Therefore, we
should fear Him alone and seek His protection.
The golden rule is to act fearlessly upon what one believes to be right.
Fearlessness presupposes calmness and peace of mind.
Fight
I
am convinced that the masses do not want to fight if the leader do not.
My fight against untouchability is a fight against the impure in humanity.
Fire
An incendiary uses fire for his destructive and nefarious purpose, a
housewife makes daily use of it in preparing nourishing food for
mankind.
Flag
A
national spirit is necessary for the national existence. A flag is a
material aid to the development of such a spirit.
Flattery
Flattery and anger are the two sides of weakness, one the obverse, other
the reverse. The reverse – anger – is worse than the obverse – flattery.
Force
Love is the subtlest force in the world.
The force of nonviolence is infinitely more wonderful and subtle than the
material forces of nature, like electricity.
The force generated by nonviolence is infinitely greater than the force of
all the arms invented by man’s ingenuity.
The truth is that God is the force. He is the essence of life. He is pure
and undefiled consciousness. He is eternal.
To conquer the subtle passions seems to me to be harder far than the
physical conquest of the world by the force of arms.
The older men should yield with grace what will be taken from them by force
if they do not read the signs of the times.
The more efficient a force is, the more silent and the more subtle it is.
Foreign Cloth
Love of foreign cloth has brought foreign domination, pauperism and,
what is worst, shame to many a home.
Untouchability of foreign cloth is as much a virtue with all of us as
untouchability of the suppressed classes must be a sin with every devout
Hindu.
In burning my foreign cloths, I burn my shame.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is the quality of the brave, not of the cowardly.
Forgiveness is a quality of the soul and therefore a positive quality.
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
A definite forgiveness would mean a definite recognition of our strength.
Abstinence is forgiveness only when there is power to punish; it is
meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless creature.
A mouse hardly forgives a cat when it allows itself to be torn to pieces by
her.
Forgiveness adorns a soldier.
With enlightened forgiveness must come a mighty wave of strength in us,
which would make it impossible for a Dyer and a Frank Johnson to heap
affront on India’s devoted head.
Freedom
Freedom of a nation cannot be won by solitary acts of heroism though
they may be of the true type, never by heroism so called.
Freedom is like a birth. Till we are fully free, we are slaves.
Freedom of worship, even of public speech, would become a farce if
interference became the order of the day.
Freedom received though the efforts of others, however benevolent, cannot be
retained when such effort is withdrawn.
Freedom battles are not fought without paying heavy prices.
No charter of freedom will be worth looking at which does not ensure the
same measure of freedom for the minorities as for the majority.
No government on earth can make men, who have realized freedom in their
hearts, salute against their will.
No society can possibly be built on a denial of individual freedom.
When freedom is in jeopardy, non-co-operation may be a duty and prison may
be a palace.
God demands nothing less than complete self – surrender as the price for the
only real freedom that is worth having.
True ahimsa should mean a complete freedom from ill-will and anger
and hate and an overflowing
love for all.
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The bomb–throwers have discredited
the cause of freedom, in whose name they threw the bombs.
T-2-357
There is nothing but nonviolence to fall back upon for retaining our
freedom, even as we had to do for gaining it.
This freedom from all attachment is the realization of God as Truth.
Freedom of India will demonstrate to all the exploited races of the earth
that their freedom is very near.
India’s freedom will not be won by violence but only by the purest suffering
without retaliation.
XXV-277
There is every reason for being cautions about founding new universities
till India has digested the newly acquired freedom.
We want freedom for our country, but not at the expense or exploitation of
others, not so as to degrade other countries.
I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be
stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as
freely a possible.
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.
I would far rather that India perished than that she won freedom as the
sacrifice of truth.
I would not sell the vital interests of the untouchables for the sake of
winning the freedom of India.
My interest in India’s freedom will cease if she adopts violent means, for
their fruit will not be freedom but slavery in disguise.
For my won part, I do not want the freedom of India if it means extinction
of England or the disappearance of Englishmen.
T-2-353
It will be hard to find a parallel in history in which unarmed people have
represented the urge for freedom, turning the very armlessness into the
central means for deliverance.
Though we are politically free, we are hardly free from the subtle
domination of the West.
Nothing depends upon the death of an individual, be he ever so great, but
much depends upon the freedom of India.
A slave has not the freedom even to do the right thing.
A slave– holder, who has decided to abolish slavery, does not consult his
slaves whether they desire freedom of not.
Friends – Friendship
Friends to be friends are not called upon to agree even on most points.
Death is no fiend, he is the truest of friends. He delivers us from agony.
With me marriage is no necessary test of friendship even between husband and
wife, let alone their respective clans.
It is the acid test of nonviolence that in a nonviolent conflict there is no
rancour left behind, and in the end the enemies are converted into friends.
My
attitude towards the English is one of utter friendliness and respect.
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