Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Natural ability and educational advantages do not figure as factors in this matter of prayer; but a capacity for faith, the power of a thorough consecration, the ability of self-littleness, an absolute losing of one's self in God's glory and an ever present and insatiable yearning and seeking after all the fullness of God.

If there is no element of asceticism in our lives, if we give free rein to the desires of the flesh (taking care of course to keep within the limits of what seems permissible to the world), we shall find it hard to train for the service of Christ. When the flesh is satisfied it is hard to pray with cheerfulness or to devote oneself to a life of service which calls for much self-renunciation.

O Lord, self-renunciation is not the work of one day, nor children's sport; yea, rather in this word is included all perfection.

A soul which gives itself to prayer, either much or little, should on no account be kept within narrow bounds.

Whoso will pray, he must fast and be clean, And fat his soul, and make his body lean.

This detachment (poverty, chastity, etc.) must not be mere amputation; everything which is shaken off must be simultaneously found again at a higher level.

Sainthood's piety is made, refined, perfected, by prayer. The gospel moves with slow and timid pace when the saints are not at their prayers early and late and long.

Went to church and fasted all day.

The convent is supreme egotism resulting in supreme self-denial.

Obedience, fasting, and prayer are laughed at, yet only through them lies the way to real true freedom. I cut off my superfluous and unnecessary desires, I subdue my proud and wanton will and chastise it with obedience, and with God's help I attain freedom of spirit and with it spiritual joy.

If we feel that any habit or pursuit, harmless in itself, is keeping us from God and sinking us deeper in the things of earth; if we find that things which others can do with impunity are for us the occasion of falling, then abstinence is our only course. Abstinence alone can recover for us the real value of what should have been for our help but which has been an occasion of falling. ... It is necessary that we should steadily resolve to give up anything that comes between ourselves and God.

Prayer can come in only when fasting has done its work. It can make fasting easy and bearable.

The glory of God always comes at the sacrifice of self.

The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey, in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination

The more a man denies himself, the more shall he obtain from God.

Nothing of spiritual significance comes without sacrifice. Your spirituality will always be measured by the size of your sacrifice.

I believe that there is no prayer without fasting, and there is no real fast without prayer.

It costs something to be a true Christian. It will cost us our sins, our self-righteousn ess, our ease and our worldliness.

Religion, in one sense, is a life of self-denial, just as husbandry, in one sense, is a work of death.

Love is the fruit of prayer ... Patiently abiding in prayer signifies a man's renunciation of himself. Therefore the self-denial of the soul turns into love for God.

Such self-denial 'may appear demanding,' but it will allow you, so to speak, to be and to breathe within the heart of the church.

I take the love of God and self-denial to be the sum of all saving grace and religion.

I get a little behind during Lent, but it comes out even at Christmas.

Start the practice of self-control with some penance; begin with fasting.

He who desires to worship God must harbor no childish illusions about the matter but bravely renounce his liberty and humanity.