In 'Healing the Soul of America,' I wrote about Gandhi's notion of soul force in politics and why it matters to stand on your truth.
Non-violence is backed by the theory of soul-force in which suffering is courted in the hope of ultimately winning over the opponent. But what happens when such an attempt fail to achieve the object? It is here that soul-force has to be combined with physical force so as not to remain at the mercy of tyrannical and ruthless enemy.
Nonviolence or soul force does not need physical aids for its propagation of effect.
There's a gap somehow between empathy and activism. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of 'soul force' - something that emanates from a deep truth inside of us and empowers us to act. Once you identify your inner genius, you will be able to take action, whether it's writing a check or digging a well.
A person who has truly realized the principle of nonviolence has the God given strength for his weapon, and the world has not yet known anything that can match it.
Gandhi, who went to Wendy's and asked, "Where's the belief?" Never got a dinner!
Power invariably elects to go into the hands of the strong. That strength may be physical or of the heart or, if we do not fight shy of the word, of the spirit. Strength of the heart connotes soul-force. Let it be remembered that physical force is transitory, even as the body is transitory. But the power of spirit is permanent even as the spirit is everlasting.
We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you....Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you.
All satyagraha and fasting is a species of tyaga. It depends for its effects upon an expression of wholesome public opinion shorn of all bitterness.
A satyagrahi has infinite patience, abundant faith in others, and ample hope.
Music that is saturated with soul force is the real universal music, understandable by all hearts.
There's a God force inside of you that gives you a will to live.
The voice of women has a special role and a special soul force in the struggle for a nonviolent world.
But who would force the soul tilts with a straw Against a champion cased in adamant
Nonviolence is an active force of the highest order. It is soul force or the power of the godhead within us.
Will is the dynamic soul-force.
Satyagraha is itself an unmistakable mute prayer of an agonized soul.
I have repeatedly stated that satyagraha never fails and that one perfect satyagrahi is enough to vindicate Truth.
We have to create a world in which there are no unknown, hostile aliens at the other end of any missiles, and that is going to take a tremendous amount of sheer hard work. The only force which can break down those barriers is the force of love, the force of truth, soul-force.
Soul-force comes only through God's grace and never descends upon a man who is a slave to lust.
Satyagraha is an attribute of the spirit within.
Satyagraha is a purely spiritual weapon.
Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The more and more each is impelled by that which is intuitive, or the relying upon the soul force within, the greater, the farther, the deeper, the broader, the more constructive may be the result.
It is my hope that as the Negro plunges deeper into the quest for freedom and justice he will plunge even deeper into the philosophy of non-violence. The Negro all over the South must come to the point that he can say to his white brother: "We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you, but we will not obey your evil laws. We will soon wear you down by pure capacity to suffer".
