For an individual as well as a society, there is a gulf between merely living and living worthily. To fight in a battle and live in glory is one mode. To beat a retreat, to surrender and to live the life of a captive is also a mode of survival.
If you believe in living a respectable life, you believe in self-help which is the best help!
Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man’s life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self.
A bitter thing cannot be made sweet. The taste of anything can be changed. But poison cannot be changed into nectar.
Caste is not just a division of labour, it is a division of labourers.
So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you.
For a successful revolution it is not enough that there is discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of the justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights.
If I find the constitution being misused, I shall be the first to burn it.
Democracy is not a form of government, but a form of social organisation.
History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics.
Indians today are governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them.
Freedom of mind is the proof of one’s existence.
The Hindu civilisation is a diabolical contrivance to enslave humanity. Its proper name would be infamy.
The question is not whether a community lives or dies, the question is on what plane does it live? There are different modes of survival. But all are not equally honorable.
Justice has always evoked ideas of Equality, of proportion of compensation. In short, Justice is another name of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
There is a Difference Between Merely Living and Living Worthily.
Man is mortal. Everyone has to die some day or the other. But one must resolve to lay down one’s life in enriching the noble ideals of self-respect and in bettering one’s human life. We are not slaves. Nothing is more disgraceful for a brave man than to live life devoid of self-respect.
The basic idea underlying religion is to create an atmosphere for the spiritual development of the individual. This being the situation, it is clear that you cannot develop your personality at all in Hinduism.
Neither god nor soul can save society.
Equality may be a fiction but nonetheless one must accept it as a governing principle.