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.

• Faith is not a delicate flower which would wither away under the slightest stormy weather.

• Robust faith in one self and brave trust of the opponent, so called or real, is the best safeguard.

• 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.

• Non-violence 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 an 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.

• Those who are lacking in Bhakti (devotion), lacking in faith, are ill qualified to interpret the scriptures.

TIG-96

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.

• My austerities, fastings and prayers are, I know of no value, if I rely upon them for reforming me.

TIG-153

Fear – Fearless

• Fear is a worse disease than malaria or kalaazar; these diseases kill the body, fear kills the soul.

• 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.

• 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.

MM-60

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.

T-3-168

Fire

• An incendiary uses fire for his destructive and nefarious purpose, a housewife makes daily use of it in preparing nourishing food for mankind.

MM-448

Flag

• A national spirit is necessary for the national existence. A flag is a material aid to the development of such a spirit.

XXVI-544

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.

XXV-574

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.

XXV-392

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 untouchbility of the suppressed classes must be a sin with every devout Hindu.

• In burning my foreign cloths, I burn my shame.

T-2-64

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.

T-2-4

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.

• Is it not possible for us all to realize that the masses will never mount to freedom through murder?

• True ahimsa should mean a complete freedom from ill-will and anger and hate and an overflowing love for all.

• The bomb – throwers have discredited the cause of freedom, in whose name they threw the bombs.

• 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.

• 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.

• Through realization of freedom of India, I hope to realize and carry on the mission of brotherhood of man.

• 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 her 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.

T-5-201

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 non violent 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.

XXVI-52