PHILOSOPHY OF NON-VIOLENCE. WORDLY WISDOM OF MAHATMA GANDHI

This year is the 148th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the political and social activist, the leader of Indian Independence movement. He dedicated all his life to resistance against violence and social, religious and political conflicts, that were tearing his country apart.

It was on his birthday, the 2nd of October 2007 when UN declared it an international day of Non-Violence. Let us recollect some of the famous everlasting wise sayings that are capable to initiate a change in the soul of everyone who earns for enlightenment, freedom and kindness.

Worldly wisdom

• If we are to reach real peace in this world, we shall have to begin with children;
• Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
• Be the change you are trying to create.
• 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.
• The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
• Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening
• Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
• 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.
• First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
   

On himself

• Men say I am a saint losing himself in politics. The fact is that I am a politician trying my hardest to become a saint.
• If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake.
• It is not a mistake to commit a mistake, for no one commits a mistake knowing it to be one. But it is a mistake not to correct the mistake after knowing it to be one. If you are afraid of committing a mistake, you are afraid of doing anything at all. You will correct your mistakes whenever you find them.
• 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 look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.
• Nobody can hurt me without my permission.