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
If I were a dictator, religion and state would be separate. I swear by my religion. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The state has nothing to do with it. The state would look after your secular welfare, health, communications, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not your or my religion. That is everybody's personal concern!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of separating personal beliefs from government affairs.
In this quote, Mahatma Gandhi articulates the principle of secularism, advocating for a clear distinction between religion and state governance. He emphasizes that while personal faith is a critical aspect of individual identity and worth dying for, it should remain a private matter, allowing the state to focus on social and civic duties rather than interfere in matters of personal belief.
Themes
SecularismReligionGovernmentPersonal BeliefGandhi
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech advocating for secular policies in governance.
More from Mahatma Gandhi
All quotes βLove 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
Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man's will. But a word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself.
Patrick RothfussRead
Deep is the well of truth and long does it take to know what has fallen into its depths.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Not keep a journal! How are your absent cousins to understand the tenor of your life in Bath without one? How are the civilities and compliments of every day to be related as they ought to be, unless noted down every evening in a journal? How are your various dresses to be remembered, and the particular state of your complexion, and curl of your hair to be described in all their diversities, without having constant recourse to a journal?
Jane AustenRead
I try to design into a world that is constantly moving, and moving me.
Ralph LaurenRead
It is good that war is so horrible, or we might grow to like it.
Robert E. LeeRead
The law is constantly based on notions of morality, and if all laws representing essentially moral choices are to be invalidated under the due process clause, the courts will be very busy indeed.
Byron WhiteRead