To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that one that must be loved is not a friend. There is not merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Those who cannot renounce attachment to the results of their work are far from the path.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of detachment from the outcomes of our efforts in order to remain on the right path in life.
In this quote, Mahatma Gandhi highlights a core philosophical principle that true commitment to one's actions requires detachment from the results. By suggesting that those unable to let go of their attachment to outcomes are straying from their path, Gandhi advocates for a focus on the process of doing good work rather than being overly concerned with success or failure, which can lead to anxiety and distraction. This approach encourages individuals to act with integrity and purpose, regardless of the external results of their labor.
Themes
AttachmentResultsPathDetachmentWork
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about pursuing passions, one might quote Gandhi to encourage an audience to focus on their efforts rather than the results.
More from Mahatma Gandhi
All quotes →Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents never revenges itself.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Mahatma GandhiRead
The real test of nonviolence lies in its being brought in contact with those who have contempt for it.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma GandhiRead
The devotion of such titans of spirit as Lenin to an Ideal must bear fruit. The nobility of his selflessness will be an example through centuries to come, and his Ideal will reach perfection.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Similar quotes
When someone lives as a minority, they experience the world differently than those of us who live in the majority. We may occupy the same physical space, but we don't occupy the same psychic space.
Jennifer GranholmRead
Do you suppose you will look the same when you are an old woman as you do now? Most folk have three faces—the face they get when they’re children, the face they own when they’re grown, and the face they’ve earned when they’re old. But when you live as long as I have, you get many more. I look nothing like I did when I was a wee thing of thirteen. You get the face you build your whole life, with work and loving and grieving and laughing and frowning.
Catherynne M. ValenteRead
We have a market-driven society so obsessed with buying and selling and obsessed with power and pleasure and property.
Cornel WestRead
Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.
Richard MathesonRead
The first woman was created from the rib of a man. She was not made from his head to top him, nor from his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal to him.
Sophia LorenRead
People who cannot restrain their own baser instincts, who cannot treat one another with civility, are not capable of self-government... without virtue, a society can be ruled only by fear, a truth that tyrants understand all too well
Charles ColsonRead