The way of peace is the way of truth. Truthfulness is even more important than
peacefulness. Indeed, lying is the mother of violence. A truthful man cannot
long remain violent. He will perceive in the course of his search that he has no
need to be violent, and lie will further discover that so long as there is the
slightest trace of violence in him, he will fail to find the truth he is
searching.
There is no half way between truth and non-violence on the one hand, and untruth and
violence on the other. We may never be strong enough to be entirely non-violent
in thought, word and deed. But we must keep non-violence as our goal and make
steady progress towards it. The attainment of freedom, whether for a man, a
nation or the world, must be in exact proportion to the attainment of
non-violence by each. Let those, therefore, who believe in non-violence as the
only method of achieving real freedom keep the lamp of non-violence burning
bright in the midst of the present impenetrable gloom. The truth of a few will
count; the untruth of millions will vanish even like chaff before whiff of wind.
Young India, 20-5-1926