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
Retaliation is counter-poison and poison breeds more poison. The nectar of Love alone can destroy the poison of hate.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Retaliation only perpetuates negativity, while love has the power to overcome hate.
In this quote, Mahatma Gandhi emphasizes that responding to hate with more hate only creates a cycle of negativity and suffering. Instead, he advocates for love as a transformative force that can neutralize and eradicate the harmful impacts of hatred, suggesting that compassion and understanding are fundamental to resolving conflicts and fostering peace.
Themes
RetaliationPoisonLoveHatePeace
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a peace rally to promote love over retaliation.
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
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I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, great and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.
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What is light, if Sylvia be not seen? What is joy if Sylvia be not by?
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