Mahatma Gandhi Quotes on Philosophy
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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.
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Truth is God. (In the meaning truth is absolute, therefore God.)
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Religion in its broadest sense means self-realization or knowledge of self.
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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.
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Salvation of people depend upon themselves, upon their capacity for suffering and sacrifice.
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If all had the same belief about all matters of religion, there would be only one religion in the world.
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The only means for the realization of truth is ahimsa.
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Morality is the basis of things, and that truth is the substance of all morality.
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All my actions have their rise in my inalienable love of mankind.
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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.
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Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion - human religion - but any number of faiths.
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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...
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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.
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If love or non-violence be not the law of our being, the whole of my argument falls to pieces.
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In the dictionary of Satyagraha, there is no enemy.
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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.