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
Golden fetters are no less galling to a self-respecting man that iron ones; the sting lies in the fetters, not in the metal.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Both material and psychological constraints can be oppressive to an individual with dignity.
Mahatma Gandhi's quote highlights that freedom is not solely defined by physical conditions but also by one's inner respect and dignity. The 'golden fetters' symbolize wealth or luxurious bindings that can be just as suffocating as the 'iron ones', which represent harsh, physical restraints. This underscores the idea that any form of constraint, whether it appears benign or cruel, can be equally burdensome if it diminishes oneβs sense of self-worth and autonomy.
Themes
FreedomDignityOppressionConstraintsRespect
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about societal expectations versus personal freedom.
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
In my view, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer to success and that success in our aims (the improvement of the lot of mankind, present and future) is worth attaining...I maintain that faith in this world is perfectly possible without faith in another world.
Rosalind FranklinRead
Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.
PlatoRead
Well the themes for me were and remain sex and love and grief and death - the things that make us and undo us, create and destroy, how we breed and disappear and the emotional context that surrounds these events.
Thomas LynchRead
I would not be beholden to a tyrant, for his acts of tyranny. For it is but usurpation in him to save, as their rightful lord, the lives of men over whom he has no title to reign.
Cato The YoungerRead
No doubt many people have the feeling that to talk about death at all is, in effect, to conjure it up mentally, to bring it closer in such a way that one has to face up to the inevitability of one's own eventual demise. So, to spare ourselves this psychological trauma, we decide just to try to avoid the topic as much as possible.
Raymond MoodyRead
It is almost always a greater pleasure to come across a semicolon than a period. The period tells you that that is that; if you didn't get all the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with a semicolon there you get a pleasant little feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer.
Lewis ThomasRead