One after another, then by almost geometric progression, things slipped away from me. [A] great burden fell off my shoulders, and I felt that I could not walk with ease and do my work also in the service of my fellow men with great comfort and still greater joy. The possession of anything then became a troublesome thing and a burden. Exploring the cause of that joy, I found that if I kept anything as my own, I had to defend it against the whole world.... And I said to myself: if [other people] want it and would take it, they do so not from any malicious motive but... because thers was a greater need than mine. And I said to myself: possession seems to me to be a crime, I can only possess certain things when I know that others who also want to possess similar things are able to do so. But we know.... such a thing is an impossibility. Therefore, the only thing that can be possessed by all is non-possession, not to have anything whatsoever. Or... a willing surrender....

We notice that the mind is a restless bird; the more it gets the more it wants, and still remains unsatisfied. The more we indulge our passions the more unbridled they become. Our ancestors, therefore, set a limit to our indulgences. They saw that happiness was largely a mental condition. A man is not necessarily happy because he is rich, or unhappy because he is poor.... Millions will always remain poor.

No people exists that would not think itself happier even under its own bad government than it might really be under the good governance of an alien power.

Is the God of the Mahometan different from the God of the Hindu? Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads so long as we reach the same goal? Wherein is the cause for quarreling?

There is no such thing as slow freedom. Freedom is like a birth. Till we are fully free we are slaves. All birth takes place in a moment.

I well remember how the thoughts I had up to the time of my discharge from the jail on every occasion were modified immediately after discharge, and after getting first-hand information myself. Somehow or other the jail atmosphere does not allow you to have all the bearings in your mind.

Before [Hindus and Moslems] dare think of freedom, they must be brave enough to love one another, to tolerate one another's religion, even prejudices and superstitions, and to trust one another. This requires faith in oneself.

He who trusts has never yet lost in the world.  A suspicious man is lost to himself and the eworld.... Suspicion is of the brood of violence.  Non-violence cannot but trust...

[It] is impossible for us to establish a living vital connection with the masses unless we will work for them, through them and in their midst, not as their parons but as their servants.

I cannot imagine anything nobler or more national than that for, say, none hour in the day we should all do the labor the poor must do, and thus identify ourselves with them and through them, with all mankind.