Epigrams from Gandhiji - W
War
War knows no law except that of might. T-7-144
History is a record of perpetual wars, but we are now trying to make new history. T-4-165
People engaged in a war do not lose temper over matters which affect the fortunes of war. T-5-257
When there is war, the poet lays down the lyre, the lawyer his law reports, the schoolboy his books. T-2-6
It is claimed for satyagraha that it is a complete substitute for violence or war. T-3-260
Nonviolence requires more than the courage of the soldier of war. XXV-437
The end of nonviolent ‘war’ is always an agreement, never dictation, much less humiliation of the opponent. T-5-257
The author of the Mahabharata has not established the necessity of physical warfare; on the contrary he has proved its futility. TIG-97
The science of war leads one to dictatorship pure and simple. The science of nonviolence can alone lead one to pure democracy. T-4-280
I have not lost the hope that the masses will refuse to bow to the Moloch of war but they will rely upon their own capacity for suffering to save their country’s honour. T-5-171
In the characteristics of the perfected man of the Gita, I do not see any to correspond to physical warfare. TIG-97
A warrior lives on his wars, whether offensive or defensive. And he suffers a collapse if he finds that his warring capacity is unwanted. T-5-296
It is open to a war resister to judge between two combatants and wish success to the one who has justice on his side. T-5-197
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
When a man vowed to nonviolence as the law governing human being dares to refer to war, he can only do it so as to strain every nerve to avoid it. T-8-140
Where there are wars, wherever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.
MM-417
Whatever may be true of the other modes of warfare, in satyagraha it has been held that the causes for failure are to be sought within. T-5-187
Waste
You may not waste a grain of rice or a scrap of paper, and similarly a minute of your time. It is not ours. It belongs to the nation and we are trustees for the use of it. XXVI-272
Wealth
Let your zeal for the dumb millions be not stifled in the search for wealth. T-2-272
A man’s true wealth hereafter is the good he has done to his fellowmen. T-7-341
For every minute that I spin, there is in me the consciousness that I am adding to the nation’s wealth. T-3-5
Welfare
I hold no man to be indispensable for the welfare of the country. T-2-137
Widow– Widowhood
Widowhood imposed by religion or custom is an unbearable yoke and defiles the home by secret vice and degrades religion. T-2-227
To coerce widowhood upon little girls is a brutal crime for which we Hindus are daily paying dearly. T-2-227
So long as we have thousands of windows in our midst, we are sitting on a mine which may explode at any moment. T-2-227
Every widow I have met has recognized in the wheel a dear forgotten friend. T-2-38
Khaddar brings a ray of hope to the widow’s broken-up home. T-2-256
In the name of religion, we force widowhood upon our three lakhs of girl-widows who could not understand the import of the marriage ceremony. T-2-227
We cry for cow protection in the name of religion, but we refuse protection to the human cow in the shape of the girl-widow. T-2-227
If we would be pure, if we would save Hinduism, we must rid ourselves of this poison of enforced widowhood. T-2-227
Woman
Woman is the incarnation of ahimsa. Ahimsa means infinite love, which again means infinite capacity for suffering. T-5-227
Woman is, by habit or nature, queen of the household. She is not designed to organize on a large scale. XXV-153
Woman is the embodiment of sacrifice and suffering and her advent to public life should, therefore, result in purifying it, in restraining unbridled ambition and accumulation of property. T-2-367
Woman is more fitted than man to make explorations and take bolder action in ahimsa. MM-294
Women are special custodians of all that is pure and religious in life. MM-293
A woman’s intuition has often proved truer than man’s arrogant assumption of superior knowledge. T-2-51
Every woman will tell the curious that with the disappearance of the spinning wheel vanished India’s happiness and prosperity. T-2-38
The woman who knows and fulfils her duty realizes her dignified status. MM-294
The woman has circumvented man in a variety of ways in her unconsciously subtle ways, as the man has vainly and equally consciously struggled to thwart the woman in gaining ascendancy over him. T-2-367
The duty of motherhood, which the vast majority of woman will always undertake, requires the qualities which men need not possess. T-5-227
A fearless woman who knows that her purity is her best shield can never be dishonoured. MM-301
There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to men. MM-297
Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacities. MM-292
If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior. T-3-33
If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. T-3-33
To call women the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. T-3-33
Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman? T-3-33
Man is born of woman; he is flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone. T-2-300
Man the law-giver will have to pay a dreadful penalty for the degradation he has imposed upon the so called weaker sex. MM-292
Men to be men must be able to trust their womenfolk, even as the latter are compelled to trust them. T-2-249
Marriage is not an act of services. It is a comfort man or woman seeks for himself or herself.
XXVI-285
Marriage must cease to be a matter of arrangement made by parents for money. MM-298
Languages proclaim that woman is half of man, and by parity of reasoning, man is half of woman. MM-297
I am the only one, whom you may find it hard to get rid of, for I have always counted myself as a woman. T-7-87
I have mentally become a woman in order to steal into her heart. MM-291
My own opinion is that, just as fundamentally man and woman are one, their problem must be one in essence. MM-294
My quarrel with the advocates of contraceptives lies in their taking for granted that ordinary mortals cannot exercise self-control. MM-289
What is it but my ahimsa that draws thousands of women to me in fearless confidence? T-5-291
For the courage of self-sacrifice, woman is any time superior to man, as I believe man is to woman for the courage of the brute. MM-294
Woman, I hold, is the personification of self-sacrifice, but unfortunately today she does not realise what a tremendous advantage she has over man. MM-291
Any young man, who makes dowry a condition to marriage, discredits his education and his country and dishonours womanhood. MM-298
Contraceptives are an insult to womanhood. MM-288
If you want to play your part in the world’s affairs, you must refuse to deck yourselves for pleasing man. T-2-300
It is degrading both for man and woman that woman should be called upon or induced to forsake the hearth and shoulder the rifle for the protection of the hearth. T-5-227
If we would be pure, if we would save Hinduism, we must rid ourselves of this poison of enforced widowhood. MM-299
If what passed as nonviolence did not enable people to protect the honour of women, or if it did not enable women to protect their own honour, it was not nonviolence. T-7-30
Why should men arrogate to themselves the right to regulate female purity? MM-29
Widowhood imposed by religion or custom is an unbearable yoke and defiles the home by secret vice and degrades religion. MM-229
The restoration of spinning to its central place in India's peaceful campaign for deliverance from the imperial yoke gives her women a special status. T-5-206
If we all could give our own definitions of God, there would be as many definitions as there are men and women. XXVI-224
A smattering of English is worse than useless; it is an unnecessary tax on our women. XIV-464
Man has regarded woman as his tool. She has learnt to be his tool and in the end found it easy and pleasurable to be such, because when one drags another in his fall, the descent it easy. T-4-45
Work
The villagers want bread and not butter, and disciplined work – some work that will supplement their agricultural avocation, which do not go of for all the 12 months. XXVI-397
Joint work is an impossibility where the workers distrust one another. BUNCH-358
Lack of finances never represented a real difficulty to a sincere worker. Finances follow, they dog your foot-steps if you represent a real cause. T-7-26
World
The world easily finds an honourable place for the magician who produces new and dazzling things. T-2-215
The world is weary of hate. We see the fatigue overcoming the Western nations. T-2-199
The whole world is in the throes of a new birth. Anything done for a temporary gain would be tantamount to an abortion. T-5-273
The whole world is like the human body with its various members. Pain in one member is felt in the whole body. T-7-166
The most practical, the most dignified way of going on in the world is to take people at their word when you have no positive reason to the contrary. XXV-450
Three-fourths of the miseries and misunderstandings in the world will disappear if we step into the shoes of our adversaries and understand their standpoint. T-2-181
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
For a fallen India to aspire to move the world and protect the weaker races is seemingly an impertinence. T-2-327
Nonviolence, applied to very large masses of mankind, is a new experiment in the history of the world. T-5-273
Nonviolence being the mightiest force in the world and also the most elusive in its working, it demands the greatest exercise of faith. T-5-17
Satyagraha is a force that has come to stay. No force in the world can kill it. XXVI-292
So long as we fear the outside world, we must cease to think of Swaraj. XXVI-162
The greatest menace to the world today is the growing, exploiting, irresponsible imperialism. XXV-19
An India awakened and free has a message of peace and goodwill to a groaning world. T-2-46
I have made the world’s faith in God my own, and as my faith is ineffaceable, I regard that faith as amounting to experience. TIG-4
I hold that the world is sick of armed rebellions. XXVI-140
I own no property and yet I feel that I am perhaps the richest man in the world. XXVI-561
When I see a cow, it is not an animal to eat, it is a poem of pity for me and I worship it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world. XXV-459
The golden way was to be friends with the world and to regard the whole human family like the members of one family. T-7-250
The man of prayer will be at peace with himself and with the whole world. MM-90
Love is the subtlest force in the world. XXV-392
The world is changing every moment, and is therefore unreal. It has non permanent existence.
TIG-11
That which you look upon as your own you may keep only so long as the world allows you to own it. MM-169
The world cannot be successfully fooled for all time. MM-33
It is indeed a million times better to appear untrue before the world than to be untrue to ourselves. T-2-85
Worship
Some form of common worship and a common place of worship appear to be a human necessity.
MM-105
God is omnipresent; even a pebble in the Narmada* (a river) can represent Him and serve as an object of worship. XXVI-309
*cf of a popular saying that all pebbles (Kanakrs)in the Narmada are the Shankars (stones to be worshipped)
Wrong
Wrong has no prescriptive right to exist merely because it is of a long standing. T-7-98
