16 Mahatma Gandhi Quotes on Philosophy

Mahatma Gandhi quotes on philosophy

19. 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. The existence of God is like a geometrical axiom. It may be beyond our heart grasp. I shall not talk of an intellectual grasp. Intellectual attempts are more or less failures, as a rational explanation cannot give you the faith in a living God. For it is a thing beyond the grasp of reason. It transcends reason. There are numerous phenomena from which you can reason out the existence of God, but I shall not insult your intelligence by offering you a rational explanation of that type. I would have you brush aside all rational explanations and begin with a simple childlike faith in God. If I exist, God exists. With me it is a necessity of my being as it is with millions. They may not be able to talk about it, but from their life you can see that it is a part of their life. I am only asking you to restore the belief that has been undermined. In order to do so, you have to unlearn a lot of literature that dazzles your intelligenqe and throws you off your feet. Start with the faith which is also a token of humility and an admission that we know nothing, that we are less than atoms in this universe. We are less than atoms, I say, because the atom obeys the law of its being, whereas we in the insolence of our ignorance deny the law of nature. But I have no argument to address to those who have no faith.

42. Truth is God. (In the meaning truth is absolute, therefore God.)

83. Religion in its broadest sense means self-realization or knowledge of self.

88. Every case can be seen in seven different points of view. All of which are correct by themselves, but not correct at the same time, in the same circumstances.

119. Salvation of people depend upon themselves, upon their capacity for suffering and sacrifice.

120. If all had the same belief about all matters of religion, there would be only one religion in the world.

123. The only means for the realization of truth is ahimsa.

128. Morality is the basis of things, and that truth is the substance of all morality.

134. All my actions have their rise in my inalienable love of mankind.

135. 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.

138. Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion - human religion - but any number of faiths.

160. I call myself a Sanatani Eternal Hindu, because I believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, and all that goes by the name of Hindu scripture, and therefore in avataras and rebirth...

163. I do not believe in the doctrine of the greatest good of the greatest number. The only real, dignified, human doctrine is the greatest good of all.

173. If love or non-violence be not the law of our being, the whole of my argument falls to pieces.

182. In the dictionary of Satyagraha, there is no enemy.

262. Gandhi was a pacifist, but we might suspect him to have been something of a 'militant pacifist' at heart: he would have used force to prevent those who sought to make war from carrying out their aims.