“I hold that it is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others' religions as we would have them to respect our own, a friendly study of the world's religions is a sacred duty.”
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Source: Young India (27 August 1925), p. 293; also compiled in All Men Are Brothers, p. 142.
About this quote
Respect you haven't earned through understanding stays thin. Actually reading what another tradition holds sacred — on its own terms, looking for what rings true in it — is how mutual regard becomes real instead of a polite formality traded back and forth.
When to use it
- Reading a coworker's holy text before assuming you know what their faith teaches.
- A family attending a neighbor's religious ceremony to understand it rather than judge it.
- A student comparing creation stories across cultures instead of dismissing the unfamiliar ones.