Quote collection
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"Whatever may be the pros and cons of going to the public theatre, it is a patent fact that it has undermined the morals and ruined the character of many a youth in his country."
"Return to the villages means a definite, voluntary recognition of the duty of bread labour and all its connotes."
"Knowledge and devotion, to be true, have to stand the test of renunciation of the fruits of action."
"I do not want to live at the cost of the life even of a snake. I should let him bite me to death rather than kill him."
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."
"Fasting is futile unless it is accompanied by an incessant longing for self-restraint."
"For me the only certain means of knowing God is nonviolence, ahimsa, love."
"God of Truth and Justice can never create distinctions of high and low among His own children."
"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."
"Bravery on the battlefield is impossible for us. Bravery of the soul still remains open to us."
"True art must be evidence of happiness, contentment and purity of its authors."
"Spiritually, compulsory disarmament has made us unmanly, and the presence of an alien army of occupation, employed with deadly effect to crush in us the spirit of resistance, has made us think we cannot look after ourselves or put up a defense against foreign aggression, or even defend our homes and families."
"The story of Ramakrishna is a story of religion in practice. His life enables us to see God face to face.... In this age of skepticism Ramakrishna presents an example of a bright and living faith which gives solace to thousands of men and women who would otherwise have remained without spiritual light."
"There is no "playing with truth" in the Charkha programme, for satyagraha is not predominantly civil disobedience but a quiet and irresistible pursuit of Truth."
"But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth."
"The chains of a slave are broken the moment he considers himself a free man."
"Man has reason, discrimination and free-will such as it is. The brute has no such thing. It is not a free agent, and knows no distinction between virtue and vice, good and evil. Man, being a free agent, knows these distinctions, and when he follows his higher nature, shows himself far superior to the brute, but when he follows his baser nature can show himself lower than the brute."
"I still believe that man, not having been given the power of creation, does not posses the right of destroying the meanest creature that lives. The perogative of destruction belongs solely to the Creator of all that lives."
"Surely, conversion is a matter between man and his Maker who alone knows His creatures' hearts."
"An institution that suffers from a plethora of leaders is surely in a bad way."