having trouble with understanding these quotes..please help
"the only devils in this world are those running around in our own hearts, and that is where all battles should be fought"
-ghandi
"The past is a foreign coutry; they do things differently ther"
-L.P Hartley
"To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfecttion in this world, and the seed plot of all other virtues"
2007-02-21 12:59:28 · 3 answers · asked by ~_~ 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Quotations
1. Gandhi was a strong believer in change from within oneself. If a sufficient number of individuals cast out the evil in their own hearts, the world will be a much better place--a transformed one, the transformation without being the expression of the change within. The Devil, if there is one, works only because we have allowed it to enter our hearts. This is different from the view that evil lies outside us, in institutions, for instance, which must be changed if society is to improve. Gandhi was a social reformer who believed that change has to happen within us first.
2. The Hartley quotation: Think of the past of your own country: There was a time when people were punished severely for crimes, as they no longer are: cutting off a hand for stealing. In religion people were burned at the stake for having unsanctioned opinions. In the past it was considered acceptable to enslave others: the very nations which once accepted slavery would not do so now. The past of one's own country makes one wonder if one has suddenly come into a distant and strange country. Or we could think of our own personal past: things we did as children we would be horrified by now.
3. To love truth for its own sake; not for the sake of profit or selfish enjoyment. This could mean paying a personal price but it will advance the cause of slowly unfolding human perfection. Galileo was forced to take back his view that it is the earth which moves around the sun, not the religiously sanctioned view of his time, but as he left the court he is said to have muttered, "But the earth moves still". Others protested the burning of innocent women as witches, and thus made possible a more enlightened future. The writer considers the unselfish love of truth the foundation of all the other virtues. He compares it to a plot set apart for growing seeds, which when planted elsewhere will lead to crops, huge trees, and shrubs.
2007-02-22 02:17:18 · answer #1 · answered by tirumalai 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.
2015-09-22 15:39:31 · answer #2 · answered by aunie 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the first one is like - we should battle with the devils in ourselves before anything else so we are purely good. or something.
that's the only one i can exactly define. sorry i wasn't much help. good luck.
2007-02-21 13:08:35 · answer #3 · answered by mackenzie 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋