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.
To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man's injustice to woman.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that labeling women as the 'weaker sex' is an unfair and unjust characterization imposed by men.
Mahatma Gandhi's quote addresses the societal perception of women as inferior or 'weaker' than men. Gandhi argues that such an assertion is not a reflection of women's abilities or strengths but rather a manifestation of men's injustices and biases against them. By calling women the weaker sex, society perpetuates harmful stereotypes that undermine their value and contributions. The quote urges a reevaluation of perceptions regarding gender and promotes the idea of equality and respect for women.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a women's rights rally to emphasize the importance of recognizing women's strengths.
More from Mahatma Gandhi
All quotes →Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents never revenges itself.
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
The real test of nonviolence lies in its being brought in contact with those who have contempt for it.
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
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.
Similar quotes
I want a future where women and girls get to be the subject of their own sexuality, not the object of somebody else’s. That we are the main characters in our own play, not props in somebody else’s—which is how women’s sexuality is treated now. Whatever the outside attitudes about sexuality it’s always about somebody’s agenda for us, and I want a world where we can have our own.
I was always longing to do, emotionally and physically, what my male counterparts always got to do. I just felt envious, every time I saw a movie that I was in awe of, and it was usually a male lead. And those kinds of roles weren't available. They just weren't being written.
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It doesn't matter how many women we get into game production. If the only people evaluating the work we do continue to be men, women's voices will never be heard.
The view that women are infantile and emotional creatures, and as such, incapable of responsibility and independence is the work of the masculine tendency to lower women's self-respect.
I am not one of those who believe - broadly speaking - that women are better than men. We have not wrecked railroads, nor corrupted legislatures, nor done many unholy things that men have done; but then we must remember that we have not had the chance.