QuoteProject
If we were to drive out the English with the weapons with which they enslaved us, our slavery would still be with us even when they have gone.
Mahatma Gandhi
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

True liberation comes from within and is not merely the absence of oppressors.

Mahatma Gandhi's quote emphasizes that overcoming external oppression is not enough for true freedom; one must also address and eliminate the internal cycles of hatred and conflict that keep individuals in a state of slavery. It suggests that if we respond to violence and oppression with the same tools, we perpetuate a cycle of enmity and never achieve genuine liberation, highlighting the importance of moral and ethical conduct in the struggle for freedom.

Themes

FreedomOppressionPeaceNonviolenceLiberation

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used during a speech about the importance of nonviolent resistance in social movements.

More from Mahatma Gandhi

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
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

'He who seeks may easily get lost himself. It is a crime to go apart and be alone.' Thus speaks the herd.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
The afterlife looks different to every soul," he said, "depending on whatthey believe. For that guy, Egypt must've made a strong impression when he was young , maybe." "And if someone doesn't believe in any afterlife?" i asked. Walt gave me a sad look. "Then that's what they experience.
Rick RiordanRead
It was among farmers and potato diggers and old men in workhouses and beggars at my own door that I found what was beyond these and yet farther beyond that drawingroom poet of my childhood in the expression of love, and grief, and the pain of parting, that are the disclosure of the individual soul.
Lady GregoryRead
Tradition is the illusion of permanance.
Woody AllenRead
There is one power in the Universe and we can all use it.
Ernest HolmesRead
I have heard of a man lost in the woods and dying of famine and exhaustion at the foot of a tree, whose loneliness was relieved by the grotesque visions with which, owing to bodily weakness, his diseased imagination surrounded him, and which he believed to be real. So also, owing to bodily and mental health and strength, we may be continually cheered by a like but more normal and natural society, and come to know that we are never alone.
Henry David ThoreauRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.