Gandhi’s Thoughts On Peace

I love Gandhi.  Keep the lamp of nonviolence burning is my inspiration tonight.  I remember putting this together and pinning it to university walls.  I was a passionate student.  I still am 10 years on.

GANDHI’S THOUGHTS ON PEACE

• If we reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children…we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at least all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which consciously or unconsciously the whole world is hungering
• Love is the subtlest force in the world
• One great stumbling block is that we have neglected music.  Music means rhythm, order.  Its effect is electrical.  It immediately soothes… teaching mass music
• Peace-bringer must have a character beyond reproach and must be known for his strict impartiality
• The way of peace is the way of truth.  Truthfulness is even more important than peacefulness.  Indeed, lying is the mother of violence
• The truth of a few will count, the untruth of millions will vanish even like chaff before a whiff of wind
• A person with a grain of faith in God never loses hope, because he believes in the ultimate triumph of Truth
• When I admire a wonderful sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the creator
• There is no halfway between truth and nonviolence on the one hand and untruth and violence on the other
• We must keep nonviolence as our goal and make steady progress towards it
• Nonviolence…is the only thing that the atom bomb cannot destroy…I did not move a muscle when I first heard that the atom bomb had wiped out Hiroshima…I said to myself, unless now the world adopts nonviolence, it will spell certain suicide for mankind…
• Keep the lamp of nonviolence as the only method of achieving real freedom, keep the lamp of nonviolence burning bright in the midst of the present impenetrable gloom
• In my humble opinion, non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good
• In mass civil resistance leadership is essential; in individual civil resistance every resister is his (or her) own leader
• The attainment of freedom, whether for a man, a nation or the world, must be in exact proportion to the attainment of nonviolence by each
• Democracy, disciplined and enlightened is the finest thing in the world
• The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular
• I detest secrecy
• Good travels at a snail’s pace.  Those who want to do good are not selfish, they are not in a hurry, they know that to impregnate people with good requires a long time
• In India we have 3 million people who have to be satisfied with one meal a day…no fat…pinch of salt.  You and I have no right to anything we have unless these three million are clothed and fed better…must adjust our wants…
• The golden rule …is resolutely to refuse to have what millions cannot…cultivate the mental attitude that will not have possessions or facilities denied to millions…rearrange our lives as fast as possible in accordance with that mentality
• All of your scholarship, all of your study of Shakespeare and Wordsworth would be vain if at the same time you did not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions
• If there were no greed, there would be no occasion for armaments.  The principle of nonviolence necessitates complete abstention from exploitation in any form
• Real disarmament cannot come unless the nations of the world cease to exploit one another
• The messenger of peace must have equal regard for all the principal religions of the earth…