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
A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Principles represent an ideal state of perfection that we, as imperfect beings, can only strive for through compromises.
This quote by Mahatma Gandhi highlights the intrinsic conflict between the ideals we aspire to and the practical limitations of human nature. While principles symbolize a perfect state, our inherent imperfections lead us to modify and adapt these ideals into more achievable forms in our daily lives. It serves as a reminder of the tension between striving for the highest ideals and acknowledging our limitations in real-world application.
Themes
PrinciplesPerfectionImperfectionCompromiseHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about ethics in business.
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
The mind of man is a thousand times more beautiful than the earth on which he dwells.
William WordsworthRead
Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.
Edward TellerRead
This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is. We are searching for an ideal image of our own world: we go in quest of a planet, a civilization superior to our own but developed on the basis of a prototype of our primeval past.
Stanislaw LemRead
He who aims at making an entire and perfect oblation of himself, in addition to his will, must offer his understanding, which is a further and the highest degree of obedience.
Saint IgnatiusRead
While I fear that we're drawn to what abandons us, and to what seems most likely to abandon us, in the end I believe we're defined by what embraces us.
J. R. MoehringerRead
Alcohol is perfectly consistent in its effects upon man. Drunkenness is merely an exaggeration. A foolish man drunk becomes maudlin; a bloody man, vicious; a coarse man, vulgar.
Willa CatherRead