BEST 460 MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES TO BRING THE BEST OUT OF YOU
It’s easy to stand in the crowd but it takes courage to stand alone. Mahatma Gandhi
Service without humility is selfishness and egotism. Mahatma Gandhi
My life is my message. Mahatma Gandhi
Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Mahatma Gandhi
Hate the sin, love the sinner. Mahatma Gandhi
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. Mahatma Gandhi
The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear. Mahatma Gandhi
Seek not greater wealth, but simpler pleasure; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity. Mahatma Gandhi
Our greatest ability as humans is not to change the world; but to change ourselves. Mahatma Gandhi
In doing something, do it with love or never do it at all. Mahatma Gandhi
There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed. Mahatma Gandhi
What barrier is there that love cannot break? Mahatma Gandhi
A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. Mahatma Gandhi
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Mahatma Gandhi
Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. Mahatma Gandhi
See also: peace quotes, Martin Luther King Jr quotes, gratitude quotes
THE BEST MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES FOR EVER
In a gentle way, you can shake the world. Click to tweet
The real ornament of woman is her character, her purity.
Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.
Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.
There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.
A ‘No’ uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
To lose patience is to lose the battle. Click to tweet
My faith is brightest in the midst of impenetrable darkness.
Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature.
That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.
Even if the paradise of material satisfactions, which they envisage as their final goal, were realize on earth, it would not bring mankind either contentment or peace.
The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.
I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.
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.
It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.
Part 1. Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants.
Part 2. Man’s happiness really lies in contentment. He who is discontented, however much he possesses, becomes a slave to his desires.
It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.
Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.
THE TOP FAMOUS MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES EVER
Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong. Click to tweet
Nobody can hurt me without my permission.
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.
Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.
There is more to life than increasing its speed. Click to tweet
Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.
Where there is love there is life.
More famous quotes
MOST FAKE MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES (AND MOST ARE FAMOUS TOO)
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. More info (Check out the change section for the real “change quote”)
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. More info
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. More info
Interviewer: “What do you think of Western Civilization?” Gandhi: “I think it would be a good idea”. More info
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. More info
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. More info
I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
TOP SHORT MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES
One-liners, short Mahatma Gandhi quotes, sayings, thoughts and captions for your bio, social status, self-talk, motto, mantra, signs, posters, wallpapers, backgrounds.
Live simply so that others may simply live. Click to tweet
Take care of this moment.
Truth is one, paths are many.
Self-respect knows no considerations.
Action expresses priorities.
Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.
The future depends on what you do today.
Doubt is invariably the result of want or weakness of faith.
God has no religion.
True beauty consists of purity of heart.
Find purpose. The means will follow. Click to tweet
There is no ‘way to peace’, there is only ‘peace’.
Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.
Imitation is the sincerest flattery.
Fear has its use but cowardice has none.
Peace is its own reward.
Full effort is full victory.
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BEST INSPIRATIONAL MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES
A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people. Click to tweet
I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth.
Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.
Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind.
We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.
Namaste. I honour the place in you where the entire universe resides… a place of light, of love, of truth, of peace, of wisdom. I honour the place in you where when you are in that place and I am in that place there is only one of us.
A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.
Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn. Click to tweet
There is force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.
Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall – think of it, always.
There are two days in the year that we can not do anything – yesterday and tomorrow.
What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.
Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.
Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands.
Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.
See also: positive quotes
TOP FUNNY AND SURPRISING MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES
I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet. Click to tweet
If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior.
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BEST DEEP AND EMOTIONAL MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES
Speak only if it improves upon the silence. Click to tweet
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.
There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.
Nothing has saddened me so much in life as the hardness of heart of educated people.
A weak man is just by accident. A strong but nonviolent man is unjust by accident.
It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.
A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice.
Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God.
I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God’s creation, woman, the object of our lust.
It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one’s belly, in order to be able to save one’s head.
Study not man in his animal nature – man following the laws of the jungle – but study man in all his glory.
I do not believe that multiplication of wants and machinery contrived to supply them is taking the world a single step nearer its goal… I whole-heartedly detest this mad desire to destroy distance and time, to increase animal appetites and go to the ends of the earth in search of their satisfaction. If modern civilization stands for all this, and I have understood it to do so, I call it Satanic.
Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.
I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.
I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.
I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.
The rich cannot accumulate wealth without the co-operation of the poor in society. Click to tweet
There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.
The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.
Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.
If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.
More : best deep quotes
TOP WISE MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES (WORDS OF WISDOM)
It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. Click to tweet
Anger is the enemy of nonviolence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.
If you take care of your immediate surroundings, the universe will take care of itself.
Do not judge others. Be your own judge and you will be truly happy. If you will try to judge others, you are likely to burn your fingers.
The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall always see Truth in fragment and from different points of vision.”
The roots of violence: Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principles.
Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.
All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take.
Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it.
If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.
Faith… must be enforced by reason… when faith becomes blind it dies.
Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.
When you are right, you have no need to be angry. When you are wrong, you have no right to be angry. Click to tweet
There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.
Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.
Just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may be.
Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.
A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word.
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PART 3. MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ABOUT…
COLLECTION OF MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ABOUT LOVE, COMPASSION, RELATIONSHIPS
Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love. Click to tweet
Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.
A man’s true wealth hereafter is the good he has done to his fellowmen.
Relationships are based on four principles: respect, understanding, acceptance and appreciation.
If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them.
The golden rule to apply in all such cases is resolutely to refuse to have what millions cannot.
Whether humanity will consciously follow the law of love, I do not know. But that need not disturb me. The law will work just as the law of gravitation works, whether we accept it or not.
The person who discovered the law of love was a far greater scientist than any of our modern scientists.
I first learned the concepts of nonviolence in my marriage.
A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.
Hatred ever kills, love never dies. Such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred.
Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love. Click to tweet
I believe that the sum total of the energy of mankind is not to bring us down but to lift us up, and that is the result of the definite, if unconscious, working of the law of love.
Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day: I shall not fear anyone on Earth. I shall fear only God. I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.
I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another.
Where love is, there God is also.
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 then the one derived from fear of punishment.
Man can never be a woman’s equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.
Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.
I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.
Love is the strongest force the world possesses and yet it is the humblest imaginable.
Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.
Civilization is the encouragement of differences. Click to tweet
BEST COLLECTION OF MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ABOUT LIFE, SIMPLICITY, HUMILITY
America aims at having a car for every citizen. I do not. Click to tweet
I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.
Nonviolence is impossible without humility.
Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.
Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.
The less you possess, the less you want, the better you are. And better for what? Not for enjoyment of this life, but for enjoyment of personal service to the fellow-beings; service which you dedicate yourself, body, soul and mind.
Part 1. It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important.
Part 2. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit.
Part 3. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action.
Part 4. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.
There is really no slavery equal to that of the desires. All the sages have declared from the house-tops that man can be his own worst enemy as well as his best friend. To be free or to be a slave lies in his own hands. And what is true for the individual is true for society.
If by abundance you mean everyone having plenty to eat and drink and to clothe himself with, enough to keep his mind trained and educated, I should be satisfied. But I should not like to pack more stuffs in my belly than I can digest and more things than I can ever usefully use. But neither do I want poverty, penury, misery, dirt and dust in India.
He who would sacrifice his life for others has hardly time to reserve for himself a place in the sun.
True humility means most strenuous and constant endeavor entirely directed towards the service of humanity.
Just as one must not receive, so must one not possess anything which one does not really need. It would be a breach of this principle to possess unnecessary food-stuffs, clothing, or furniture. For instance, one must not keep a chair if one can do without it. In observing this principle one is led to a progressive simplification of one’s own life.
The first condition of humaneness is a little humility and a little diffidence about the correctness of one’s conduct and a little receptiveness.
I know that I have still before me a difficult path to traverse. I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility.
My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet.
When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.
The very first step in nonviolence is that we cultivate in our daily life, as between ourselves, truthfulness, humility, tolerance, loving kindness.
There is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is no blind law; for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings.
One, who abandons all desires, is free from pride and selfishness and behaves as one apart, finds peace. Click to tweet
The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.
Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.
I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.
In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.
Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
See also: top humility quotes
Best MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ABOUT TRUTH
Truth never damages a cause that is just. Click to tweet
A man of truth must also be a man of care.
In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be.
Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.
The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then, and not till then, will he have a glimpse of truth.
There is nothing on earth that I would not give up, excepting of course, two things and two things only, truth and nonviolence.
Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.
Silence has now become both a physical and spiritual necessity for me. Originally it was taken to relieve the sense of pressure. Then I wanted time for writing. After, however, I had practiced it for some time I saw the spiritual value of it. It suddenly flashed across my mind that that was the time when I could best hold communion with God. And now I feel as though I was naturally built for silence.
What is Truth? A difficult question; but I have solved it for myself by saying that it is what the “voice within” tells you.
All that I can in true humility present to you is that Truth is not to be found by anybody who has not got an abundant sense of humility. If you would swim on the bosom of the ocean of Truth you must reduce yourself to zero.
An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.
But it is impossible for us to realize perfect truth so long as we are imprisoned in this mortal frame.
Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. Click to tweet
Truth, purity, self-control, firmness, fearlessness, humility, unity, peace, and renunciation – these are the inherent qualities of a civil resister.
Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.
The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent.
It has often occurred to me that a seeker after Truth has to be silent.
BEST 16 MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ABOUT DEATH, LONELINESS
In the midst of death life persists. Click to tweet
A courageous man prefers death to the surrender of self-respect.
You don’t know who is important to you until you actually lose them.
Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith.
Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.
If we weep for all the deaths in our country, the tears in our eyes would never dry.
Life and death are but phases of the same thing, the reverse and obverse of the same coin. Death is as necessary for man’s growth as life itself.
I came alone in this world, I have walked alone in the valley of the shadow of death, and I shall quit alone when the time comes.
We do not know whether it is good to live or to die. Therefore, we should not take delight in living, nor should we tremble at the thought of death. We should be equiminded towards death.
Where death without resistance or death after resistance is the only way, neither party should think of resorting to law-courts or help from the government.
The wise are unaffected either by death or life. These are but faces of the same coin. Click to tweet
To die in the act of killing is, in essence, to die defeated.
What is imprisonment to the man who is fearless of death itself?
More : Top death quotes, Best loneliness quotes
BEST MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ABOUT PEACE, JUSTICE, HELPING OTHERS, FRIENDSHIP
If you want real peace in the world, start with children. Click to tweet
Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking.
The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.
The golden way is to be friends with the world and to regard the whole human family as one.
There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to men.
Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.
To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman.
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
If we are to teach real peace in this world, & if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children.
A man must arrange his physical and cultural circumstances so that they do not hinder him in his service of humanity, on which all his energies should be concentrated.
A living faith in God means acceptance of the brotherhood of mankind.
The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women.
I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings.
Friendship that insists upon agreement on all things isn’t worth the name.
It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.
I believe in the essential unity of all people and for that matter of all lives. Therefore, I believe that if one person gains spiritually, the whole world gains, and if one person falls, the whole world falls to that extent.
Mankind is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends from time to time. We require drums to be beaten into our ears, before we should wake from our trance and hear the warning and see that to lose oneself in all, is the only way to find oneself.
Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilisation.
My life is an indivisible whole, and all my attitudes run into one another; and they all have their rise in my insatiable love for mankind.
Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. Click to tweet
Man’s nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been know to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.
The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.
When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.
We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?
The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.
Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.
Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.
It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.
I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice.
Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacity.
We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.
No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.
More peace quotes
BEST MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ABOUT NONVIOLENCE, PACIFISM, VIOLENCE, INJUSTICE
It’s my conviction that nothing enduring can be built on violence. Click to tweet
Nonviolence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.
Nonviolence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.
Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.
Unless discipline is rooted in nonviolence, it might prove to be a source of infinite mischief.
Nonviolence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.
My life is dedicated to service of India through the religion of nonviolence which I believed to be the root of Hinduism.
Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.
Non-cooperation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it demands respect for the opposite views.
If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty.
I know, to banish anger altogether from one’s breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God’s grace.
We should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.
Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point.
Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself.
To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body.
Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.
Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.
I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.
Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.
Nonviolence is not to be used ever as the shield of the coward. It is the weapon of the brave. Click to tweet
Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.
Violence is a concession to human weakness, satyagraha is an obligation.
Poverty is the worst form of violence.
TOP 20 MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ABOUT NATURE, ANIMALS, VEGETARIANISM
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed. Click to tweet
The good man is the friend of all living things.
To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.
Monotony is the law of nature. Look at the monotonous manner in which the sun rises. The monotony of necessary occupation is exhilarating and life giving.
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
Unlike the animal, God has given man the faculty of reason.
As for food, India has plenty of fertile land, there is enough water and no dearth of man power… The public should be educated to become self reliant. Once they know that they have got to stand on their own legs, it would electrify the atmosphere.
The purpose of life is undoubtedly to know oneself. We cannot do it unless we learn to identify ourselves with all that lives. The sum-total of that life is God.
I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth.
I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it.
I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.
Ethically they had arrived at the conclusion that man’s supremacy over lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower, and that there should be mutual aid between the two as between man and man. They had also brought out the truth that man eats not for enjoyment but to live.
Human nature will find itself only when it fully realizes that to be human it has to cease to be beastly or brutal.
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.
The basis of my vegetarianism is not physical, but moral. If anybody said that I should die if I did not take beef tea or mutton, even on medical advice, I would prefer death. That is the basis of my vegetarianism.
Every man has an equal right to the necessaries of life even as birds and beasts have.
I submit that scientists have not yet explored the hidden possibilities of the innumerable seeds, leaves and fruits for giving the fullest possible nutrition to mankind.
To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.
Cow-slaughter and man-slaughter are in my opinion two sides of the same coin. Click to tweet
MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ABOUT EDUCATION, LEARNING, RESPONSIBILITY
There is no need of a teacher for those who know how to think. Click to tweet
Every home is a university and the parents are the teachers.
You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
A wise parent allows the children to make mistakes. It is good for them once in a while to burn their fingers.
Responsibility will mellow and sober the youth and prepare them, for the burden they must discharge.
Real education has to draw out the best from the boys and girls to be educated. This can never be done by packing ill-assorted and unwanted information into the heads of the pupils. It becomes a dead weight crushing all originality in them and turning them into mere automata.
An intellect that is developed through the medium of socially useful labour will be an instrument for service and will not easily be led astray or fall into devious paths.
I hold that, as the largest part of our time is devoted to labour for earning our bread, our children must from their infancy be taught the dignity of such labour.
Craft, art, health and education should all be integrated into one scheme.
Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.
Part 1. Our first duty is that we should not be a burden on society, i.e., we should be self-dependent. From this point of view self-sufficiency itself is a kind of service.
Part 2. After becoming self-sufficient we shall use our spare time for the service of others. If all become self-sufficient, none will be in trouble.
Given the right kind of teachers, our children will be taught the dignity of labour and learn to regard it as an integral part and a means of their intellectual growth, and to realize that it is patriotic to pay for their training through their labour.
It is for you and me to show that no vice is inherent in man.
Education must be of a new type for the sake of the creation of a new world. Click to tweet
Character cannot be built with mortar and stone. It cannot be built by hands other than your own. The Principal and the Professor cannot give you character from the pages of books. Character building comes from their very lives really speaking, it must come from within yourselves.
When it is remembered that the primary aim of all education is, or should be, the moulding of the character of pupils, a teacher who has a character to keep need not lost heart.
If teachers impart all the knowledge in the world to their students but inculcate not truth and purity among them, they will have betrayed them and instead of raising them set them on the downward road to perdition.
Knowledge without character is a power for evil only, as seen in the instances of so many talented thieves and ‘gentlemen rascals’ in the world.
Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind.
There can be no knowledge without humility and the will to learn.
Literary training by itself adds not an inch to one’s moral height and that character-building is independent of literary training.
The students should be, above all, humble and correct… The greatest to remain great has to be the lowliest by choice.
The utterly false idea that intelligence can be developed only through book-reading should give place to the truth that the quickest development of the mind can be achieved by artisan’s work being learnt in a scientific manner.
We have up to now concentrated on stuffing children’s minds with all kinds information, without ever thinking of stimulating and developing them. Let us now cry a halt and concentrate on education the child properly through manual work, not as a side activity, but as the prime means of intellectual training.
You have to train the boys in one occupation or another. Round this special occupation you will train up his mind, his body, his handwriting, his artistic sense, and so on. He will be master of the craft he learns.
If India is not to declare spiritual bankruptcy, religious instruction of its youth must be held to be at least as necessary as secular instruction.
It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts.
Man will ever remain imperfect, and it will always be his part to try to be perfect.
Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.
There will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything great and enduring, and that discipline will not come by mere academic argument and appeal to reason and logic. Discipline is learnt in the school of adversity.
There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.
An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.
Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.
MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ON LEADERSHIP, STRENGTH, WEAKNESS
Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth. Click to tweet
Those who cannot renounce attachment to the results of their work are far from the path.
I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stifled. I want all the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.
Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.
Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lust for martyrdom.
There is nothing more potent than thought. Deed follows word and word follows thought. The word is the result of a mighty thought, and where the thought is mighty and pure the result is always mighty and pure.
It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.
For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.
I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.
No man loses his freedom except through his own weakness.
Men aspiring to be free can hardly think of enslaving others.
A leader is useless when he acts against the promptings of his own conscience.
Man has always desired power. Ownership of property gives this power. Man hankers also after posthumous fame based on power.
Some form of common worship and a common place of worship appear to be a human necessity.
God’s word is: ‘He who strives never perishes’. I have implicit faith in that promise.
Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.
The difficulty one experiences in meeting himsa arises from weakness of mind.
It is weakness which breeds fear, and fear breeds distrust.
Perfect nonviolence is difficult. It admits to no weakness.
The best way of losing a cause is to abuse your opponent and to trade upon his weakness.
Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-realization. The ideal must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections.
Nonviolent resistance implies the very opposite of weakness. Defiance combined with non-retaliatory acceptance of repression from one’s opponents is active, not passive.
A definite forgiveness would mean a definite recognition of our strength. Click to tweet
If we were strong, self-respecting and not susceptible to frightfulness, the foreign rulers would have been powerless for mischief.
The greater our innocence, the greater our strength and the swifter our victory.
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so. (Could falsely be attributed to Gandhi https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/08/02/gandhi-customer/)
If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.
I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.
I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.
If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them.
Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.
It is difficult, but not impossible, to conduct strictly honest business.
I regard myself as a soldier, though a soldier of peace.
More leadership quotes
MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ON CHANGING YOURSELF, KNOWING YOURSELF, DISCIPLINE, HEALTH
Change yourself – you are in control. Click to tweet
Distinguish between real needs and artificial wants and control the latter.
A man who would interpret the scriptures must have the spiritual discipline.
Man is oftentimes weak-minded enough to be caught in the snare of greed and honeyed words.
The human body is meant solely for service, never for indulgence. The secret of happy life lies in renunciation. Renunciation is life. Indulgence spells death.
He who runs to the doctor, vaidya, or hakim for every little ailment, and swallows all kinds of vegetable and mineral drugs, not only curtails his life, but by becoming the slave of his body instead of remaining its master, loses self-control, and ceases to be a man.
Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock.
Part 1. We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body.
Part 2. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.
Part 3. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.
Part 4. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.
Fasting unto death is the last and the most potent weapon in the armoury of Satyagraha (a policy of passive political resistance). It is a sacred thing. But it must be accepted with all its implications. It is not the fast itself, but what it implies that matters.
Not until we have reduced ourselves to nothingness can we conquer the evil in us. God demands nothing less than complete self-surrender as the price for the only real freedom that is worth having.
Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.
Part 1. I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth.
Part 2. We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time.
Part 3. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth.
The richest grace of ahimsa will descend easily upon the owner of hard discipline. (ahimsa is the principle of nonviolence toward all living things)
For winning Swaraj one requires iron discipline. (Swaraj can mean self-governance or “self-rule” but the word usually refers to Gandhi’s concept for Indian independence from foreign domination)
The Swaraj of my dream recognizes no race or religious distinctions.
Independence means voluntary restraints and discipline, voluntary acceptance of the rule of law. Click to tweet
MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ON POLITICS, WAR, BRITISH GOVERNMENT
Good government is no substitute for self-government. Click to tweet
The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.
Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.
Every person in a well-ordered state is fully conscious of both his responsibilities and his rights.
Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.
Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.
So far as I can see the atomic bomb has deadened the finest feeling that has sustained mankind for ages.
Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.
Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong, but of the weak.
A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul. Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty.
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.
A democrat must be utterly selfless. He must think and dream not in terms of self or of party, but only of democracy.
A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.
To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness.
No nation being under another nation can accept gifts, and kick at the responsibility attached to those gifts, imposed by the conquering nation.
The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Click to tweet
The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.
I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force.
In true democracy every man and women is taught to think for himself or herself.
See also: Gandhism (Wikipedia page)
MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ON RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
I call him religious who understands the suffering of others. Click to tweet
I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, and Confucian.
In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals.
The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law, to the strength of the spirit.
A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.
Hypocrisy and distortion are passing currents under the name of religion.
For me, the different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree. Therefore, they are equally true, though being received and interpreted through human instruments equally imperfect.
Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.
It is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others’ religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world’s religions is a sacred duty.
Hinduism insists on the brotherhood of not only all mankind but of all that lives.
True meditation consists in closing the eyes and ears of the mind to all else except the object of one’s devotion. Hence closing of eyes during the prayers is an aid to such concentration.
All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth.
Are creeds such simple things like the clothes which a man can change at will and put on at will? Creeds are such for which people live for ages and ages.
I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.
We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.
Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul.
Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one’s own religion.
Religion is more than life. Remember that his own religion is the truest to every man even if it stands low in the scales of philosophical comparison.
One’s own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one’s Maker and no one else’s.
The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different. Click to tweet
I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world.
See also: zen quotes
MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ON GOD, JESUS, FAITH
God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless. Click to tweet
Faith becomes lame, when it ventures into matters pertaining to reason.
A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness.
Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.
It is the faith that steers us through stormy seas, faith that moves mountains and faith that jumps across the ocean.
Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.
Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians – you are not like him.
It is beyond my power to induce in you a belief in God. There are certain things which are self proved and certain which are not proved at all.
For me the voice of God, of Conscience, of Truth or the Inner Voice or ‘the still small Voice’ mean one and the same thing.
I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him.
But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac.
I have never found Him lacking in response. I have found Him nearest at hand when the horizon seemed darkest—in my ordeals in jails when it was not all smooth sailing for me. I cannot recall a moment in my life when I had a sense of desertion by God.
I’m a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply want to please my own conscience, which is God.
Satan’s successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips.
Faith is not a delicate flower which would wither under the slightest stormy weather. Faith is like the Himalaya mountains which cannot possibly change. No storm can possibly remove the Himalaya mountains from their foundations… And I want every one of you to cultivate that faith in God and religion.
That faith is of little value which can flourish only in fair weather. Faith in order to be of any value has to survive the severest trials. Your faith is a whited sepulcher if it cannot stand against the calumny of the whole world.
Cultivation of tolerance for other faiths will impart to us a truer understanding of our own. Click to tweet
One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.
My religion is based on truth and nonviolence. Truth is my God. Nonviolence is the means of realising Him.
God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.
God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us.
Each one prays to God according to his own light.
MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES ON PRAYERS
Prayer is a confession of one’s own unworthiness and weakness. Click to tweet
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
Close the day with prayer so that you may have a peaceful night free from dreams and nightmares.
Prayer needs no speech. It is in itself independent of any sensuous effort. But it must be combined with the utmost humility.
Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared.
I can give my own testimony and say that a heartfelt prayer is undoubtedly the most potent instrument that man possesses for overcoming cowardice and all other bad old habits.
As food is necessary for the body, prayer is necessary for the soul. A man may be able to do without food for a number of days – as MacSwiney did for over 70 days – but believing in God, man cannot, should not, live a moment without prayer.
Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.
I believe that prayer is the very soul and essence of religion, and therefore prayer must be the very core of life of man, for no man can live without religion.
As I believe that silent prayer is often a mightier (force) than any overt act, in my helplessness I continuously pray in the faith that the prayer of a pure heart never goes unanswered.
Prayer is for remembering God, and for purifying the heart and can be offered even when observing silence.
Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness.
TOP FAMOUS PEOPLE QUOTES ABOUT GANDHI
Gandhi was a deceptively clever strategist whose frail, even saintly appearance constantly misled his adversaries into underestimating him. Robert Greene
My study of Gandhi convinced me that true pacifism is not nonresistance to evil, but nonviolent resistance to evil. Between the two positions, there is a world of difference. Gandhi resisted evil with as much vigor and power as the violent resister, but True pacifism is not unrealistic submission to evil power. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love. Martin Luther King Jr
Mahatma Gandhi is the greatest living exponent of successful pacifism. He has demonstrated that pacifism in action can be a force in world politics. It proved itself, that is to say, a stronger instrument than the instrument of government by force and oppression. Laurence Housman
In South Africa, his success was complete; in India it was very considerable; and had his following been larger and more uniformly nonviolent, his pacific instrument would have triumphed. Laurence Housman
Dr. King used Gandhi‘s commitment to nonviolence and to passive resistance. Al Sharpton
On Gandhi after his assassination: Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth! Albert Einstein
Taken on the whole, I would believe that Gandhi‘s views were the most enlightened of all the political men of our time. Albert Einstein
We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence for fighting for our cause, but by non-participation of anything you believe is evil. Albert Einstein
One feels of him that there was much he did not understand, but not that there was anything that he was frightened of saying or thinking. George Orwell
I guess the most surprising discovery was how long Gandhi remained loyal to the ideal of the British Empire, even in India. Arthur L. Herman
There are many people making a difference. I mean, Dr. King never held an office. Gandhi never held an office. There are people who are archetypes in our society who have never held office and made a difference. Dennis Kucinich
I believe that Gandhi was correct. Non-violent civil disobedience is the only way to bring about change that allows people to enjoy the change and not get killed in the process. Edward James Olmos
I’m hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter. That’s what this world is about. You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that’s from being bright all the time, and trying to be brighter. Jay-Z
Nobody sensible voted for Thatcher. For me, in political terms, the most admirable person and the most influential would have been the philosophy of Gandhi. The ideology of passive resistance worked and can work again and again. It is the exact opposite of violence. A glorious conception. John Lydon
I don’t believe in anarchy, because it will ultimately amount to the power of the bully, with weapons. Gandhi is my life’s inspiration: passive resistance. Johnny Rotten
Gandhi proved it is possible to fight for one’s people and win without for a moment losing the world’s respect. Albert Camus
I am really honoured but if the prize had gone to Mahatma Gandhi before me I would have been more honoured. Kailash Satyarthi (On winninng the Nobel Peace Prize)
I am very proud to be an Indian, a son of the soil where Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha were born and they were always the great inspiration for me, in my life. Kailash Satyarthi
I believe in Gandhi‘s philosophy of the last man, that is, the bonded laborer is the last man in Indian society, that we are here to liberate the last man. Kailash Satyarthi
As you may be well aware, marches and walks have been an integral part of our Indian tradition. Mahatma Gandhi marched several times to educate the people and also to learn something himself. Kailash Satyarthi
I want to be like Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and John Lennon… but I want to stay alive. Madonna Ciccone
A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back – but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you. Marian Wright Edelman
I was a little nervous backstage. But I had this book, Gandhi. I just read his quotes, closed my eyes and focused my thoughts. Presently, this book is my prized possession. Nafisa Joseph
In our generation, the role models were Gandhi and Nehru. We revered them. They were venerated personalities. Pranab Mukherjee
One was a book I read by Mahatma Gandhi. In it was a passage where he said that religion, the pursuing of the inner journey, should not be separated from the pursuing of the outer and social journey, because we are not isolated beings. Satish Kumar
Gandhi has asked that the British Government should walk out of India and leave the Indian people to settle differences among themselves, even if it means chaos and confusion. Stafford Cripps
Gandhi has more recently recognized the need for continuance of British, American and Chinese efforts in India and has suggested that these troops might remain by agreement with some new Indian Government. Stafford Cripps
Gandhi and Nehru liberated us. By winning their freedom, they freed us from the ignorance and prejudice that lay behind the myth of Britain’s imperial destiny. Tony Benn
TOP SIMILAR AUTHORS LIKE GANDHI
One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Martin Luther King Jr (American minister and activist)
You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. Indira Gandhi (Former Prime Minister of India)
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. Nelson Mandela (Former President of South Africa)
Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism; the way you play it is free will. Jawaharlal Nehru (Former Prime Minister of India)
Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. Mother Teresa (Catholic nun and missionary)
Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. Rabindranath Tagore (Indian poet)
You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul. Swami Vivekananda (Indian monk)
Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. Albert Einstein (Theoretical physicist)
Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (Former President of India)
Once we decide we have to do something, we can go miles ahead. Narendra Modi (Prime Minister of India)
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. Dalai Lama (Real name is Tenzin Gyatso, Tibetan buddhism monk)
CONCLUSION OF MAHATMA GANDI QUOTES
Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny. The future depends on what you do today. Mahatma Gandhi Click to tweet
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