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
Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the idea of rightful ownership and respect for a people's homeland.
Mahatma Gandhi's statement reflects a philosophical perspective on national identity and human rights, arguing that just as England is inherently linked to the English and France to the French, Palestine is inherently linked to the Arabs. Gandhi critiques the imposition of one group upon another, warning against the moral implications of displacing a proud community in the name of establishing another group's homeland.
Themes
PalestineArabsJewsHumanityRights
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to emphasize the importance of recognizing the rightful home of people.
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
Acceptance means: For now, this is what this situation, this moment, requires me to do, and so I do it willingly.
Eckhart TolleRead
The phrase "It's absolutely the same with me, I..." seems to be an approving echo, a way of continuing the other's thought, but that is an illusion: in reality it is a brute revolt against a brutal violence, an effort to free our own ear from bondage and to occupy the enemy's ear by force. Because all of man's life among his kind is nothing other than a battle to seize the ear of others.
Milan KunderaRead
It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.
Sam HarrisRead
Thinking is no more than a tiny aspect of the totality of consciousness, the totality of who you are.
Eckhart TolleRead
If everyone in the world sat quietly at the same time, closed their eyes and concentrated as hard as they could on peace and goodwill, all the killing and cruelty in the world would continue. And probably increase.
George CarlinRead
Spiritual realization is theoretically the easiest thing and in practice the most difficult thing there is. It is the easiest because it is enough to think of God. It is the most difficult because human nature is forgetfulness of God.
Frithjof SchuonRead