Mohandas Gandhi Quotes

This is a collection of our favorite Mohandas Gandhi quotes. When we think of Gandhi, we think of non-violence, compassion, conviction, truth, service and sacrifice. He set the gold standard for leading with heart.

Gandhi may not be with us in body, but he’s with us in spirit as his life was his message. His words of wisdom continue to ring true …

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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi ( महात्मा mahātmā — “Great Soul”), in India as Bapu (બાપુ bāpu—”Father”) and Jathi Pitha (father of the nation), was an advocate and pioneer of nonviolent social protest and direct action in the form he called Satyagraha. He led the struggle for India’s independence from British colonial rule.

See also: Mahatma Gandhi’s Prayer and Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi

A ‘No’ uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble. – Mohandas Gandhi

A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble. – Mohandas Gandhi

A courageous man prefers death to the surrender of self-respect. – Mohandas Gandhi

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. – Mohandas Gandhi

A definite forgiveness would mean a definite recognition of our strength. – Mohandas Gandhi

A democrat must be utterly selfless. He must think and dream not in terms of self or of party, but only of democracy. – Mohandas Gandhi

A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul. Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty. – Mohandas Gandhi

A leader is useless when he acts against the promptings of his own conscience. – Mohandas Gandhi

A living faith in God means acceptance of the brotherhood of mankind. – Mohandas Gandhi

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes. – Mohandas Gandhi

A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, Nothing else. – Mohandas Gandhi

A man must arrange his physical and cultural circumstances so that they do not hinder him in his service of humanity, on which all his energies should be concentrated. – Mohandas Gandhi

A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word. – Mohandas Gandhi

A man of truth must also be a man of care. – Mohandas Gandhi

A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. – Mohandas Gandhi

A man who would interpret the scriptures must have the spiritual discipline. – Mohandas Gandhi

A man’s true wealth hereafter is the good he has done to his fellowmen. – Mohandas Gandhi

A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people. – Mohandas Gandhi

A ‘No’ uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble. – Mohandas Gandhi

A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble. – Mohandas Gandhi

A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal. – Mohandas Gandhi

A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice. – Mohandas Gandhi

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion. – Mohandas Gandhi

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. – Mohandas Gandhi

A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness. – Mohandas Gandhi

A vow is fixed and unalterable determination to do a thing, when such a determination is related to something noble which can only uplift the man who makes the resolve. – Mohandas Gandhi

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident. – Mohandas Gandhi

A wise parent allows the children to make mistakes. It is good for them once in a while to burn their fingers. – Mohandas Gandhi

Action expresses priorities. – Mohandas Gandhi

Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame. – Mohandas Gandhi

Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation. – Mohandas Gandhi

After becoming self-sufficient we shall use our spare time for the service of others. If all become self-sufficient, none will be in trouble. – Mohandas Gandhi

Ahimsa is the attribute of the soul, and therefore, to be practiced by everybody in all affairs of life. If it cannot be practiced in all departments, it has no practical value. – Mohandas Gandhi

All business depends upon men fulfilling their responsibilities. – Mohandas Gandhi

All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take. – Mohandas Gandhi

All my actions have their rise in my inalienable love of mankind. – Mohandas Gandhi

All that I can in true humility present to you is that Truth is not to be found by anybody who has not got an abundant sense of humility. If you would swim on the bosom of the ocean of Truth you must reduce yourself to zero. – Mohandas Gandhi

All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. – Mohandas Gandhi

America aims at having a car for every citizen. I do not. – Mohandas Gandhi

Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. – Mohandas Gandhi

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. – Mohandas Gandhi

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. – Mohandas Gandhi, (attributed)

An intellect that is developed through the medium of socially useful labour will be an instrument for service and will not easily be led astray or fall into devious paths. – Mohandas Gandhi

An ounce of practice is worth a thousand words. – Mohandas Gandhi

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching. – Mohandas Gandhi

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. – Mohandas Gandhi

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding. – Mohandas Gandhi

Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding. – Mohandas Gandhi

Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up. – Mohandas Gandhi

Anger is the enemy of nonviolence and pride is a monster that swallows it up. – Mohandas Gandhi

Are creeds such simple things like the clothes which a man can change at will and put on at will? Creeds are such for which people live for ages and ages. – Mohandas Gandhi

Are creeds such simple things like the clothes which a man can change at will and put on at will? – Mohandas Gandhi

As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. – Mohandas Gandhi

As food is necessary for the body, prayer is necessary for the soul. A man may be able to do without food for a number of days – as MacSwiney did for over 70 days – but believing in God, man cannot, should not, live a moment without prayer. – Mohandas Gandhi

As for food, India has plenty of fertile land, there is enough water and no dearth of man power… The public should be educated to become self reliant. Once they know that they have got to stand on their own legs, it would electrify the atmosphere. – Mohandas Gandhi

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves. – Mohandas Gandhi

As I believe that silent prayer is often a mightier (force) than any overt act, in my helplessness I continuously pray in the faith that the prayer of a pure heart never goes unanswered. – Mohandas Gandhi

As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it. – Mohandas Gandhi

As soon as we lose moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion overriding man, for instance cannot be untruthful, cruel, or incontinent and claim to have God in his side. – Mohandas Gandhi

Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self. – Mohandas Gandhi

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts. – Mohandas Gandhi

But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac. – Mohandas Gandhi

But if you do nothing, there will be no result. – Mohandas Gandhi

But in all my trials – of a spiritual nature, as a lawyer, in conducting institutions, and in politics – I can say that God d me. When every hope is gone, ‘when helpers fail and comforts flee’, I experience that help arrives somehow, from I know not where. – Mohandas Gandhi

But it is impossible for us to realize perfect truth so long as we are imprisoned in this mortal frame. – Mohandas Gandhi

But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. – Mohandas Gandhi

Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed. – Mohandas Gandhi

Change yourself – you are in control. – Mohandas Gandhi

Character cannot be built with mortar and stone. It cannot be built by hands other than your own. The Principal and the Professor cannot give you character from the pages of books. Character building comes from their very lives really speaking, it must come from within yourselves. – Mohandas Gandhi

Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt. – Mohandas Gandhi

Civilization is the encouragement of differences. – Mohandas Gandhi

Close the day with prayer so that you may have a peaceful night free from dreams and nightmares. – Mohandas Gandhi

Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion. – Mohandas Gandhi

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession. – Mohandas Gandhi

Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make, not only our own happiness, but that of the world at large.

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position. – Mohandas Gandhi

Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today. – Mohandas Gandhi

Corruption ought not to be an inevitable product of democracy. – Mohandas Gandhi

Cowards can never be moral. – Mohandas Gandhi

Cow-slaughter and man-slaughter are in my opinion two sides of the same coin. – Mohandas Gandhi

Craft, art, health and education should all be integrated into one scheme. – Mohandas Gandhi

Creeds are such for which people live for ages and ages. – Mohandas Gandhi

Cultivation of tolerance for other faiths will impart to us a truer understanding of our own. – Mohandas Gandhi

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart. – Mohandas Gandhi

Democracy and violence can ill go together.
Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side. – Mohandas Gandhi

Democracy must in essence, therefore, mean the art and science of mobilizing the entire physical, economic and spiritual resources of all the various sections of the people in the service of the common good of all. – Mohandas Gandhi

Destruction is not the law of humans. Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him. Every murder or other injury, no matter for what cause, committed or inflicted on another is a crime against humanity. – Mohandas Gandhi

Distinguish between real needs and artificial wants and control the latter. – Mohandas Gandhi

Do not judge others. Be your own judge and you will be truly happy. If you will try to judge others, you are likely to burn your fingers. – Mohandas Gandhi

Doubt is invariably the result of want or weakness of faith. – Mohandas Gandhi

Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn. – Mohandas Gandhi

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. – Mohandas Gandhi

Each one prays to God according to his own light. – Mohandas Gandhi

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not any man’s greed. – Mohandas Gandhi

Education must be of a new type for the sake of the creation of a new world. – Mohandas Gandhi

Ethically they had arrived at the conclusion that man’s supremacy over lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower, and that there should be mutual aid between the two as between man and man. They had also brought out the truth that man eats not for enjoyment but to live. – Mohandas Gandhi

Even If I am a minority of one, truth is still the truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

Even if the paradise of material satisfactions, which they envisage as their final goal, were realize on earth, it would not bring mankind either contentment or peace. – Mohandas Gandhi

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent. – Mohandas Gandhi

Every home is a university and the parents are the teachers. – Mohandas Gandhi

Every man has an equal right to the necessaries of life even as birds and beasts have. – Mohandas Gandhi

Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you. – Mohandas Gandhi

Every person in a well-ordered state is fully conscious of both his responsibilities and his rights. – Mohandas Gandhi

Everyone wants to be strong and self sufficient, but nobody is willing to put in the work necessary to achieve these goals. – Mohandas Gandhi

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone. – Mohandas Gandhi

Everything else is in God’s hands. – Mohandas Gandhi

Faith becomes lame, when it ventures into matters pertaining to reason. – Mohandas Gandhi

Faith is not a delicate flower which would wither under the slightest stormy weather. Faith is like the Himalaya mountains which cannot possibly change. No storm can possibly remove the Himalaya mountains from their foundations… And I want every one of you to cultivate that faith in God and religion. – Mohandas Gandhi

Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into. – Mohandas Gandhi

Faith is the function of the heart. – Mohandas Gandhi

Faith must be enforced by reason. When faith becomes blind it dies. – Mohandas Gandhi

Fasting unto death is the last and the most potent weapon in the armoury of Satyagraha (a policy of passive political resistance). It is a sacred thing. But it must be accepted with all its implications. It is not the fast itself, but what it implies that matters. – Mohandas Gandhi

Fear has its use but cowardice has none. – Mohandas Gandhi

Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith. – Mohandas Gandhi

Find purpose, the means will follow. – Mohandas Gandhi

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion. – Mohandas Gandhi

For me the voice of God, of Conscience, of Truth or the Inner Voice or ‘the still small Voice’ mean one and the same thing. – Mohandas Gandhi

For me, the different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree. Therefore, they are equally true, though being received and interpreted through human instruments equally imperfect. – Mohandas Gandhi

For winning Swaraj one requires iron discipline. (Swaraj can mean self-governance or “self-rule” but the word usually refers to Gandhi’s concept for Indian independence from foreign domination) – Mohandas Gandhi

Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love. – Mohandas Gandhi

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living? – Mohandas Gandhi

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right. – Mohandas Gandhi

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. – Mohandas Gandhi

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. – Mohandas Gandhi

Friendship that insists upon agreement on all things isn’t worth the name. – Mohandas Gandhi

Full effort is full victory. – Mohandas Gandhi

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion. – Mohandas Gandhi

Given the right kind of teachers, our children will be taught the dignity of labour and learn to regard it as an integral part and a means of their intellectual growth, and to realize that it is patriotic to pay for their training through their labour. – Mohandas Gandhi

Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it. – Mohandas Gandhi

God cannot be realized through the intellect. Intellect can lead one to a certain extent and no further. It is a matter of faith and experience derived from that faith. – Mohandas Gandhi

God comes to the hungry in the form of food. – Mohandas Gandhi

God has no religion. – Mohandas Gandhi

God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained. – Mohandas Gandhi

God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless. – Mohandas Gandhi

God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us. – Mohandas Gandhi

God’s word is: ‘He who strives never perishes’. I have implicit faith in that promise. – Mohandas Gandhi

Good government is no substitute for self-government. – Mohandas Gandhi

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hate the sin and love the sinner. Traditional saying – not first said by him. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hate the sin, love the sinner. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hatred can be overcome only by love. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hatred ever kills, love never dies. Such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred. – Mohandas Gandhi

He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire. – Mohandas Gandhi

He who runs to the doctor, vaidya, or hakim for every little ailment, and swallows all kinds of vegetable and mineral drugs, not only curtails his life, but by becoming the slave of his body instead of remaining its master, loses self-control, and ceases to be a man. – Mohandas Gandhi

He who would sacrifice his life for others has hardly time to reserve for himself a place in the sun. – Mohandas Gandhi

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hindu Dharma is like a boundless ocean teeming with priceless gems. The deeper you dive the more treasures you find. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hinduism has made marvelous discoveries in things of religion, of the spirit, of the soul. We have no eye for these great and fine discoveries. We are dazzled by the material progress that Western science has made. Ancient India has survived because Hinduism was not developed along material but spiritual lines. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hinduism insists on the brotherhood of not only all mankind but of all that lives. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hinduism is a living organism liable to growth and decay subject to the laws of Nature. One and indivisible at the root, it has grown into a vast tree with innumerable branches. The changes in the season affect it. It has its autumn and its summer, its winter and its spring. It is, and is not, based on scriptures. It does not derive its authority from one book. Non violence has found the highest expression and application in Hinduism. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hinduism is a relentless pursuit of Truth. Truth is God and if today it has become moribund, inactive, irresponsive to growth, it is because we are fatigued; and as soon as the fatigue is over, Hinduism will burst upon the world with brilliance perhaps unknown before. – Mohandas Gandhi

Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress. – Mohandas Gandhi

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. – Mohandas Gandhi

However much I may sympathize with and admire worthy motives, I am an uncompromising opponent of violent methods even to serve the noblest of causes. – Mohandas Gandhi

Human nature will find itself only when it fully realizes that to be human it has to cease to be beastly or brutal. – Mohandas Gandhi

Hypocrisy and distortion are passing currents under the name of religion. – Mohandas Gandhi

I am a Hindu because it is Hinduism which makes the world worth living. I am a Hindu hence I Love not only human beings, but all living beings. – Mohandas Gandhi

I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

I am in the world feeling my way to light ‘amid the encircling gloom.’ – Mohandas Gandhi

I am not built for academic writings. Action is my domain. – Mohandas Gandhi

I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill. – Mohandas Gandhi

I am unable to identify with orthodox Christianity. I must tell you in all humility that Hinduism, as I know it, entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being, and I find solace in the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount….I must confess to you that when doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of external tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. – Mohandas Gandhi

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers. – Mohandas Gandhi

I believe in the essential unity of all people and for that matter of all lives. Therefore, I believe that if one person gains spiritually, the whole world gains, and if one person falls, the whole world falls to that extent. – Mohandas Gandhi

I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world. – Mohandas Gandhi

I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed. – Mohandas Gandhi

I believe that prayer is the very soul and essence of religion, and therefore prayer must be the very core of life of man, for no man can live without religion. – Mohandas Gandhi

I believe that the civilisation into which India has evolved is not to be beaten in the world. Nothing can equal the seeds sown by our ancestry. Rome went; Greece shared the same fate; the might of the Pharaohs was broken; Japan has become westernised; of China nothing can be said; but India is still, somehow or other, sound at the foundation. – Mohandas Gandhi

I believe that the sum total of the energy of mankind is not to bring us down but to lift us up, and that is the result of the definite, if unconscious, working of the law of love. – Mohandas Gandhi

I call him religious who understands the suffering of others. – Mohandas Gandhi

I came alone in this world, I have walked alone in the valley of the shadow of death, and I shall quit alone when the time comes. – Mohandas Gandhi

I came to the conclusion long ago … that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu … But our innermost prayer should be a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian. – Mohandas Gandhi

I can combine the greatest love with the greatest opposition to wrong. – Mohandas Gandhi

I can give my own testimony and say that a heartfelt prayer is undoubtedly the most potent instrument that man possesses for overcoming cowardice and all other bad old habits. – Mohandas Gandhi

I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect. – Mohandas Gandhi

I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life. – Mohandas Gandhi

I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another. – Mohandas Gandhi

I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung. We are, therefore, suffering from galloping consumption. The restoration of the wheel arrests the progress of the fell disease. – Mohandas Gandhi

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps. – Mohandas Gandhi

I claim to be an average man of less than average ability. I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith. – Mohandas Gandhi

I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, and Confucian. – Mohandas Gandhi

I consider western Christianity in its practical working a negation of Christ’s Christianity. – Mohandas Gandhi

I did once seriously think of embracing the Christian faith. The gentle figure of Christ, so full of forgiveness that he taught his followers not to retaliate when abused or struck, but to turn the other cheek – I thought it was a beautiful example of the perfect man. – Mohandas Gandhi

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up. – Mohandas Gandhi

I do believe that where there is a choice between only cowardice and violence, I would advise violence… – Mohandas Gandhi

I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence….I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour. But I believe that nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment. Forgiveness adorns a soldier…But abstinence is forgiveness only when there is the power to punish; it is meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless creature….But I do not believe India to be helpless….I do not believe myself to be a helpless creature….Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. – Mohandas Gandhi

I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants. – Mohandas Gandhi

I do not believe in the doctrine of the greatest good of the greatest number. The only real, dignified, human doctrine is the greatest good of all. – Mohandas Gandhi

I do not believe that multiplication of wants and machinery contrived to supply them is taking the world a single step nearer its goal… I whole-heartedly detest this mad desire to destroy distance and time, to increase animal appetites and go to the ends of the earth in search of their satisfaction. If modern civilization stands for all this, and I have understood it to do so, I call it Satanic. – Mohandas Gandhi

I do not like the word tolerance, but could not think of a better one. Tolerance implies a gratuitous assumption of the inferiority of other faiths to one. – Mohandas Gandhi

I do not want my house to be walled in on sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. – Mohandas Gandhi

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following. – Mohandas Gandhi

I first learned the concepts of nonviolence in my marriage. – Mohandas Gandhi

I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul. – Mohandas Gandhi

I have been known as a crank, faddist, madman. Evidently the reputation is well deserved. For wherever I go, I draw to myself cranks, faddists, and madmen. – Mohandas Gandhi

I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

I have never found Him lacking in response. I have found Him nearest at hand when the horizon seemed darkest—in my ordeals in jails when it was not all smooth sailing for me. I cannot recall a moment in my life when I had a sense of desertion by God. – Mohandas Gandhi

I have no other wish in this world but to find light and joy and peace through Hinduism. – Mohandas Gandhi

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could. – Mohandas Gandhi

I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice. – Mohandas Gandhi

I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it. – Mohandas Gandhi

I hold that, as the largest part of our time is devoted to labour for earning our bread, our children must from their infancy be taught the dignity of such labour. – Mohandas Gandhi

I know that I have still before me a difficult path to traverse. I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility. – Mohandas Gandhi

I know, to banish anger altogether from one’s breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God’s grace. – Mohandas Gandhi

I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others. – Mohandas Gandhi

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. – Mohandas Gandhi

I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. – Mohandas Gandhi

I regard myself as a soldier, though a soldier of peace. – Mohandas Gandhi

I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality. – Mohandas Gandhi

I shall content myself with merely declaring my firm conviction that, for the seeker who would live in fear of God and who would see Him face to face, restraint in diet both as to quantity and quality is as essential as restraint in thought and speech. – Mohandas Gandhi

I submit that scientists have not yet explored the hidden possibilities of the innumerable seeds, leaves and fruits for giving the fullest possible nutrition to mankind. – Mohandas Gandhi

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people. – Mohandas Gandhi

I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children, I began to strive after self-control. There was endless difficulty in the task. – Mohandas Gandhi

I think it would be a good idea! In reply to a reporter’s question What do you think of Western Civilization? – Mohandas Gandhi

I took the vow of celibacy in 1906. I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of making the vow. She had no objection. – Mohandas Gandhi

I want freedom for the full expression of my personality. – Mohandas Gandhi

I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth. – Mohandas Gandhi

I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian. – Mohandas Gandhi

I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God’s creation, woman, the object of our lust. – Mohandas Gandhi

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet. – Mohandas Gandhi

I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him. – Mohandas Gandhi

I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force. – Mohandas Gandhi

I’m a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply want to please my own conscience, which is God. – Mohandas Gandhi

If a man reaches the heart of his own religion, he has reached the heart of the others, too. There is only one God, and there are many paths to him.

If by abundance you mean everyone having plenty to eat and drink and to clothe himself with, enough to keep his mind trained and educated, I should be satisfied. But I should not like to pack more stuffs in my belly than I can digest and more things than I can ever usefully use. But neither do I want poverty, penury, misery, dirt and dust in India. – Mohandas Gandhi

If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior. – Mohandas Gandhi

If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today. – Mohandas Gandhi

If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty. – Mohandas Gandhi

If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. – Mohandas Gandhi

If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning. – Mohandas Gandhi

If India adopted the doctrine of love as an active part of her religion and introduced it in her politics. Swaraj would descend upon India from heaven. But I am painfully aware that that event is far off as yet. – Mohandas Gandhi

If India is not to declare spiritual bankruptcy, religious instruction of its youth must be held to be at least as necessary as secular instruction. – Mohandas Gandhi

If love or non-violence be not the law of our being, the whole of my argument falls to pieces. – Mohandas Gandhi

If one has no affection for a person or a system, one should feel free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite violence. March 18, 1922, during his trial for “exciting disaffection toward His Majesty’s Government as established by law in India”. – Mohandas Gandhi

If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm. – Mohandas Gandhi

If teachers impart all the knowledge in the world to their students but inculcate not truth and purity among them, they will have betrayed them and instead of raising them set them on the downward road to perdition. – Mohandas Gandhi

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children. – Mohandas Gandhi

If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. We need not wait to see what others do. – Mohandas Gandhi

If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. – Mohandas Gandhi

If we weep for all the deaths in our country, the tears in our eyes would never dry. – Mohandas Gandhi

If we were strong, self-respecting and not susceptible to frightfulness, the foreign rulers would have been powerless for mischief. – Mohandas Gandhi

If we were to drive out the English with the weapons with which they enslaved us, our slavery would still be with us even when they have gone. – Mohandas Gandhi

If you don’t ask, you don’t get. – Mohandas Gandhi

If you take care of your immediate surroundings, the universe will take care of itself. – Mohandas Gandhi

If you want real peace in the world, start with children. – Mohandas Gandhi

If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them. – Mohandas Gandhi

Imitation is the sincerest flattery. – Mohandas Gandhi

In a gentle way, you can shake the world. – Mohandas Gandhi

In doing something, do it with love or never do it at all. – Mohandas Gandhi

In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be. – Mohandas Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place. – Mohandas Gandhi

In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. – Mohandas Gandhi

In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals. – Mohandas Gandhi

In spite of despair staring me in the face on the political horizon, I have never lost my peace. In fact, I have found people who envy my peace. That peace, I tell you, comes from prayer; I am not a man of learning, but I humbly claim to be a man of prayer. I am indifferent as to the form. Every one is a law unto himself in that respect. But there are some well-marked roads, and it is safe to walk along the beaten tracks, trod by the ancient teachers. – Mohandas Gandhi

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

In the midst of death life persists. – Mohandas Gandhi

In the secret of my heart I am in perpetual quarrel with God that He should allow such things [as the war] to go on. My non-violence seems almost impotent. But the answer comes at the end of the daily quarrel that neither God nor non-violence is impotent. Impotence is in men. I must try on without losing faith even though I may break in the attempt. – Mohandas Gandhi

In true democracy every man and women is taught to think for himself or herself. – Mohandas Gandhi

Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth. – Mohandas Gandhi

Independence means voluntary restraints and discipline, voluntary acceptance of the rule of law. – Mohandas Gandhi

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. – Mohandas Gandhi

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame. – Mohandas Gandhi

Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; it is its own reward. – Mohandas Gandhi

Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands. – Mohandas Gandhi

Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause. – Mohandas Gandhi

Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit. – Mohandas Gandhi

Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up. – Mohandas Gandhi

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings. – Mohandas Gandhi

It has often occurred to me that a seeker after Truth has to be silent. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on ones belly, in order to be able to save ones head. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one’s belly, in order to be able to save one’s head. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is beyond my power to induce in you a belief in God. There are certain things which are self proved and certain which are not proved at all. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is derogatory to the dignity of mankind, it is derogatory to the dignity of India, to entertain for one single moment hatred towards Englishmen. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is difficult, but not impossible, to conduct strictly honest business. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is for you and me to show that no vice is inherent in man. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say.    – Mohandas Gandhi

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world’s progress toward peace … Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man? – Mohandas Gandhi

It is my firm opinion that Europe does not represent the spirit of God or Christianity but the spirit of Satan. And Satan’s successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is open to a war resister to judge between the combatants and wish success to the one who has justice on his side. By so judging he is more likely to bring peace between the two than by remaining a mere spectator. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is possible for a single individual to defy the whole might of an unjust empire to save his honour, his religion, his soul, and lay the foundation for that empire’s fall or its regeneration. – Mohandas Gandhi

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 respect our own, a friendly study of the world’s religions is a sacred duty. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is the faith that steers us through stormy seas, faith that moves mountains and faith that jumps across the ocean. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is the law of love that rules mankind. Had violence, i.e. hate, ruled us we should have become extinct long ago. And yet, the tragedy of it is that the so-called civilized men and nations conduct themselves as if the basis of society was violence. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is weakness which breeds fear, and fear breeds distrust. – Mohandas Gandhi

It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts. – Mohandas Gandhi

It may be long before the law of love will be recognized in international affairs. The machinery’s of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another. – Mohandas Gandhi

It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful? – Mohandas Gandhi

It’s easy to stand in the crowd but it takes courage to stand alone. – Mohandas Gandhi

It’s my conviction that nothing enduring can be built on violence. – Mohandas Gandhi

It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. – Mohandas Gandhi

It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result. – Mohandas Gandhi

Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians – you are not like him. – Mohandas Gandhi

Just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may be. – Mohandas Gandhi

Just as one must not receive, so must one not possess anything which one does not really need. It would be a breach of this principle to possess unnecessary food-stuffs, clothing, or furniture. For instance, one must not keep a chair if one can do without it. In observing this principle one is led to a progressive simplification of one’s own life. – Mohandas Gandhi

Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment. – Mohandas Gandhi

Knowledge without character is a power for evil only, as seen in the instances of so many talented thieves and ‘gentlemen rascals’ in the world. – Mohandas Gandhi

Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared. – Mohandas Gandhi

Let not the 12 million Negroes be ashamed of the fact that they are the grandchildren of slaves. There is dishonor in being slave-owners. – Mohandas Gandhi

Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day: I shall not fear anyone on Earth. I shall fear only God. I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering. – Mohandas Gandhi

Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lust for martyrdom. – Mohandas Gandhi

Life and death are but phases of the same thing, the reverse and obverse of the same coin. Death is as necessary for man’s growth as life itself. – Mohandas Gandhi

Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-realization. The ideal must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections. – Mohandas Gandhi

Like the bee gathering honey from the different flowers, the wise person accepts the essence of the different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions. – Mohandas Gandhi

Literary training by itself adds not an inch to one’s moral height and that character-building is independent of literary training. – Mohandas Gandhi

Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. – Mohandas Gandhi

Live simply so that others may simply live. – Mohandas Gandhi

Love is the strongest force the world possesses and yet it is the humblest imaginable. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation, and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked always deserves respect or pity as the case may be. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man can never be a woman’s equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man’s happiness really lies in contentment. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man has always desired power. Ownership of property gives this power. Man hankers also after posthumous fame based on power. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man is oftentimes weak-minded enough to be caught in the snare of greed and honeyed words. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man is supposed to be the maker of his destiny. It is only partly true. He can make his destiny, only in so far as he is allowed by the Great Power. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man’s happiness really lies in contentment. He who is discontented, however much he possesses, becomes a slave to his desires. – Mohandas Gandhi

Mankind is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends from time to time. We require drums to be beaten into our ears, before we should wake from our trance and hear the warning and see that to lose oneself in all, is the only way to find oneself. – Mohandas Gandhi

Man’s nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature. – Mohandas Gandhi

Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. – Mohandas Gandhi

Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfillment. – Mohandas Gandhi

Men aspiring to be free can hardly think of enslaving others. – Mohandas Gandhi

Mental violence has no potency and injures only the person whose thoughts are violent. It is otherwise with mental non-violence. It has potency which the world does not yet know. – Mohandas Gandhi

Monotony is the law of nature. Look at the monotonous manner in which the sun rises. The monotony of necessary occupation is exhilarating and life giving. – Mohandas Gandhi

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort. – Mohandas Gandhi

Morality is contraband in war. – Mohandas Gandhi

Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality. – Mohandas Gandhi

Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts. – Mohandas Gandhi

Must I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up. – Mohandas Gandhi

My effort should never be to undermine another’s faith but to make him a better follower of his own faith. – Mohandas Gandhi

My faith is brightest in the midst of impenetrable darkness. – Mohandas Gandhi

My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet. – Mohandas Gandhi

My life is an indivisible whole, and all my attitudes run into one another; and they all have their rise in my insatiable love for mankind. – Mohandas Gandhi

My life is dedicated to service of India through the religion of nonviolence which I believed to be the root of Hinduism. – Mohandas Gandhi

My life is my message. – Mohandas Gandhi

My non-violence bids me dedicate myself to the service of the minorities. – Mohandas Gandhi

My nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice. I can no more preach nonviolence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes. – Mohandas Gandhi

My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. – Mohandas Gandhi

My religion is based on truth and nonviolence. Truth is my God. Nonviolence is the means of realising Him. – Mohandas Gandhi

My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray. – Mohandas Gandhi

My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

My whole soul rebels against the idea that Hinduism and Islam represent two antagonistic cultures and doctrines. To assent to such a doctrine is for me a denial of God. – Mohandas Gandhi

My work will be finished if I succeed in carrying conviction to the human family that every man or woman, however weak in body, is the guardian of his or her self-respect and liberty. – Mohandas Gandhi

Namaste. I honour the place in you where the entire universe resides… a place of light, of love, of truth, of peace, of wisdom. I honour the place in you where when you are in that place and I am in that place there is only one of us. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it. – Mohandas Gandhi

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive. – Mohandas Gandhi

No nation being under another nation can accept gifts, and kick at the responsibility attached to those gifts, imposed by the conquering nation. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nobody can hurt me without my permission. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-cooperation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it demands respect for the opposite views. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.
Nonviolence and cowardice are contradictory terms.
Nonviolence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice.
Nonviolence springs from love, cowardice from hate.
Nonviolence always suffers, cowardice would always inflict suffering.
Perfect nonviolence is the highest bravery.
Nonviolent conduct is never demoralizing, cowardice always is. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nonviolence is impossible without humility. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will.
Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nonviolence is not to be used ever as the shield of the coward. It is the weapon of the brave. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-violence is the article of faith. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-violence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind.
It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain. – Mohandas Gandhi

Non-violent resistance implies the very opposite of weakness. Defiance combined with non-retaliatory acceptance of repression from one’s opponents is active, not passive. It requires strength, and there is nothing automatic or intuitive about the resoluteness required for using non-violent methods in political struggle and the quest for Truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nonviolent resistance implies the very opposite of weakness. Defiance combined with non-retaliatory acceptance of repression from one’s opponents is active, not passive. – Mohandas Gandhi

Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock. – Mohandas Gandhi

Not until we have reduced ourselves to nothingness can we conquer the evil in us. God demands nothing less than complete self-surrender as the price for the only real freedom that is worth having. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nothing has saddened me so much in life as the hardness of heart of educated people. – Mohandas Gandhi

Nothing is impossible for pure love. – Mohandas Gandhi

On examination, I have found it to be the most tolerant of all religions known to me. Its freedom from dogma makes a forcible appeal to me inasmuch as it gives the votary the largest scope for self-expression. – Mohandas Gandhi

One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds. – Mohandas Gandhi

One, who abandons all desires, is free from pride and selfishness and behaves as one apart, finds peace. – Mohandas Gandhi

One’s own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one’s Maker and no one else’s. – Mohandas Gandhi

Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God. – Mohandas Gandhi

Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilisation. – Mohandas Gandhi

Our first duty is that we should not be a burden on society, i.e., we should be self-dependent. From this point of view self-sufficiency itself is a kind of service. – Mohandas Gandhi

Our greatest ability as humans is not to change the world; but to change ourselves. – Mohandas Gandhi

Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the European, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness. – Mohandas Gandhi

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. – Mohandas Gandhi

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and unhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. – Mohandas Gandhi

Partition is bad. But whatever is past is past. We have only to look to the future. – Mohandas Gandhi

Patience means self-suffering. – Mohandas Gandhi

Peace is its own reward. – Mohandas Gandhi

Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds. – Mohandas Gandhi

Perfect nonviolence is difficult. It admits to no weakness. – Mohandas Gandhi

Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence. – Mohandas Gandhi

Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind. – Mohandas Gandhi

Personally, I hold that a man, who deliberately and intelligently takes a pledge and then breaks it, forfeits his manhood. – Mohandas Gandhi

Poverty is the worst form of violence. – Mohandas Gandhi

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment. – Mohandas Gandhi

Prayer is a confession of one’s own unworthiness and weakness. – Mohandas Gandhi

Prayer is for remembering God, and for purifying the heart and can be offered even when observing silence. – Mohandas Gandhi

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action. – Mohandas Gandhi

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. – Mohandas Gandhi

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. – Mohandas Gandhi

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul.. – Mohandas Gandhi

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening – Mohandas Gandhi

Prayer needs no speech. It is in itself independent of any sensuous effort. But it must be combined with the utmost humility. – Mohandas Gandhi

Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive. – Mohandas Gandhi

Purity of mind and idleness are incompatible. – Mohandas Gandhi

Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education. – Mohandas Gandhi

Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God. – Mohandas Gandhi

Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God. I plead not for the suppression of reason, but for a due recognition of that in us which sanctifies reason. – Mohandas Gandhi

Real education has to draw out the best from the boys and girls to be educated. This can never be done by packing ill-assorted and unwanted information into the heads of the pupils. It becomes a dead weight crushing all originality in them and turning them into mere automata. – Mohandas Gandhi

Relationships are based on four principles: respect, understanding, acceptance and appreciation. – Mohandas Gandhi

Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one’s own religion. – Mohandas Gandhi

Religion is more than life. Remember that his own religion is the truest to every man even if it stands low in the scales of philosophical comparison. – Mohandas Gandhi

Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different road, so long as we reach the same goal. Wherein is the cause for quarrelling? – Mohandas Gandhi

Responsibility will mellow and sober the youth and prepare them, for the burden they must discharge. – Mohandas Gandhi

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having. – Mohandas Gandhi

Satan’s successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips. – Mohandas Gandhi

Satisfaction does not come with achievement, but with effort. Full effort is full victory. – Mohandas Gandhi

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory. – Mohandas Gandhi

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. – Mohandas Gandhi

Seek not greater wealth, but simpler pleasure; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity. – Mohandas Gandhi

Self-respect knows no considerations. – Mohandas Gandhi

Sense perceptions can be and often are false and deceptive, however real they may appear to us. Where there is realization outside the senses, it is infallible. It is proved not by extraneous evidence but in the transformed conduct and character of those who have felt the real presence of God within. – Mohandas Gandhi

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. – Mohandas Gandhi

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy. – Mohandas Gandhi

Service without humility is selfishness and egotism. – Mohandas Gandhi

Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice. – Mohandas Gandhi

Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly. – Mohandas Gandhi

Silence has now become both a physical and spiritual necessity for me. Originally it was taken to relieve the sense of pressure. Then I wanted time for writing. After, however, I had practiced it for some time I saw the spiritual value of it. It suddenly flashed across my mind that that was the time when I could best hold communion with God. And now I feel as though I was naturally built for silence. – Mohandas Gandhi

So far as I can see the atomic bomb has deadened the finest feeling that has sustained mankind for ages. – Mohandas Gandhi

Some form of common worship and a common place of worship appear to be a human necessity. – Mohandas Gandhi

Speak only if it improves upon the silence. – Mohandas Gandhi

Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul. – Mohandas Gandhi

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. – Mohandas Gandhi

Study not man in his animal nature – man following the laws of the jungle – but study man in all his glory. – Mohandas Gandhi

Take care of this moment. – Mohandas Gandhi

Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong, but of the weak. – Mohandas Gandhi

That faith is of little value which can flourish only in fair weather. Faith in order to be of any value has to survive the severest trials. Your faith is a whited sepulcher if it cannot stand against the calumny of the whole world. – Mohandas Gandhi

That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake. – Mohandas Gandhi

That which looks for mercy from an opponent is not non-violence. – Mohandas Gandhi

The basis of my vegetarianism is not physical, but moral. If anybody said that I should die if I did not take beef tea or mutton, even on medical advice, I would prefer death. That is the basis of my vegetarianism. – Mohandas Gandhi

The best way of losing a cause is to abuse your opponent and to trade upon his weakness. – Mohandas Gandhi

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. – Mohandas Gandhi

The cause of liberty becomes a mockery if the price to be paid is the wholesale destruction of those who are to enjoy liberty. – Mohandas Gandhi

The control of the palate is a valuable aid for the control of the mind. – Mohandas Gandhi

The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women. – Mohandas Gandhi

The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood? – Mohandas Gandhi

The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace. – Mohandas Gandhi

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems. – Mohandas Gandhi

The difficulty one experiences in meeting himsa arises from weakness of mind. – Mohandas Gandhi

The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law, to the strength of the spirit. – Mohandas Gandhi

The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear. – Mohandas Gandhi

The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different. – Mohandas Gandhi

The first condition of humaneness is a little humility and a little diffidence about the correctness of one’s conduct and a little receptiveness. – Mohandas Gandhi

The future depends on what you do today. – Mohandas Gandhi

The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall always see Truth in fragment and from different points of vision. – Mohandas Gandhi

The golden rule to apply in all such cases is resolutely to refuse to have what millions cannot. – Mohandas Gandhi

The golden way is to be friends with the world and to regard the whole human family as one. – Mohandas Gandhi

The good man is the friend of all living things. – Mohandas Gandhi

The greater our innocence, the greater our strength and the swifter our victory. – Mohandas Gandhi

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. – Mohandas Gandhi

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. – Mohandas Gandhi

The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity.v

The human body is meant solely for service, never for indulgence. The secret of happy life lies in renunciation. Renunciation is life. Indulgence spells death. – Mohandas Gandhi

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience. – Mohandas Gandhi

The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. – Mohandas Gandhi

The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least. – Mohandas Gandhi

The King was wearing enough for the both of us. On Showing up to meet His Majesty King Edward VII of England in just a loincloth, a reporter wondered aloud if this was disrespectful to the king. – Mohandas Gandhi

The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless. – Mohandas Gandhi

The less you possess, the less you want, the better you are. And better for what? Not for enjoyment of this life, but for enjoyment of personal service to the fellow-beings; service which you dedicate yourself, body, soul and mind. – Mohandas Gandhi

The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body. – Mohandas Gandhi

The mantram becomes one’s staff of life and carries one through every ordeal. Each repetition has a new meaning, carrying you nearer and nearer to God. – Mohandas Gandhi

The mice which helplessly find themselves between the cats teeth acquire no merit from their enforced sacrifice. – Mohandas Gandhi

The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave. His fetters fall… freedom and slavery are mental states. – Mohandas Gandhi

The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted. – Mohandas Gandhi

The Most Famous Mohandas Gandhi Quotes

The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives. – Mohandas Gandhi

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within. – Mohandas Gandhi

The person who discovered the law of love was a far greater scientist than any of our modern scientists. – Mohandas Gandhi

The purpose of life is undoubtedly to know oneself. We cannot do it unless we learn to identify ourselves with all that lives. The sum-total of that life is God. – Mohandas Gandhi

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent. – Mohandas Gandhi

The real ornament of woman is her character, her purity. – Mohandas Gandhi

The rich cannot accumulate wealth without the co-operation of the poor in society.v

The Rich must live more simply so that the Poor may simply live. – Mohandas Gandhi

The richest grace of ahimsa will descend easily upon the owner of hard discipline. (ahimsa is the principle of nonviolence toward all living things) – Mohandas Gandhi

The roots of violence: Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principles. – Mohandas Gandhi

The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom not only for Muslims but for all of mankind. – Mohandas Gandhi

The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then, and not till then, will he have a glimpse of truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

The Seven Sins are: Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Religion without sacrifice. Politics without principle. – Mohandas Gandhi

The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular. – Mohandas Gandhi

The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within. – Mohandas Gandhi

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart. – Mohandas Gandhi

The students should be, above all, humble and correct… The greatest to remain great has to be the lowliest by choice. – Mohandas Gandhi

The Swaraj of my dream recognizes no race or religious distinctions. – Mohandas Gandhi

The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. – Mohandas Gandhi

The truth is that God is the force. He is the essence of life. He is pure and undefiled consciousness. He is eternal. – Mohandas Gandhi

The utterly false idea that intelligence can be developed only through book-reading should give place to the truth that the quickest development of the mind can be achieved by artisan’s work being learnt in a scientific manner. – Mohandas Gandhi

The very first step in nonviolence is that we cultivate in our daily life, as between ourselves, truthfulness, humility, tolerance, loving kindness. – Mohandas Gandhi

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong. – Mohandas Gandhi

The weak can never forgive.
Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. – Mohandas Gandhi

The wise are unaffected either by death or life. These are but faces of the same coin. – Mohandas Gandhi

There are limits to self-indulgence, none to restraint.- Mohandas Gandhi

There are limits to self-indulgence, none to self-restraint. – Mohandas Gandhi

There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for. – Mohandas Gandhi

There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for. – Mohandas Gandhi

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. – Mohandas Gandhi

There are two days in the year that we can not do anything – yesterday and tomorrow. – Mohandas Gandhi

There can be no knowledge without humility and the will to learn. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is no blind law; for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is more to life than increasing its speed. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is more to life than simply increasing its speed. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is no ‘way to peace’, there is only ‘peace’. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is no god higher than truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is no need of a teacher for those who know how to think. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to men. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is no way to peace; peace is the way. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is nothing more potent than thought. Deed follows word and word follows thought. The word is the result of a mighty thought, and where the thought is mighty and pure the result is always mighty and pure. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is nothing on earth that I would not give up, excepting of course, two things and two things only, truth and nonviolence. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever. – Mohandas Gandhi

There is really no slavery equal to that of the desires. All the sages have declared from the house-tops that man can be his own worst enemy as well as his best friend. To be free or to be a slave lies in his own hands. And what is true for the individual is true for society. – Mohandas Gandhi

There will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything great and enduring, and that discipline will not come by mere academic argument and appeal to reason and logic. Discipline is learnt in the school of adversity. – Mohandas Gandhi

They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them. – Mohandas Gandhi

They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me-then they will have my dead body, not my obedience. – Mohandas Gandhi

This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do. – Mohandas Gandhi

Those who cannot renounce attachment to the results of their work are far from the path. – Mohandas Gandhi

Those who know how to think need no teachers. – Mohandas Gandhi

Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is. – Mohandas Gandhi

Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all. – Mohandas Gandhi

To a man with an empty stomach, food is god. – Mohandas Gandhi

To believe in something, and not live it, is dishonest. – Mohandas Gandhi

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest. – Mohandas Gandhi

To believe what has not occurred in history will not occur at all, is to argue disbelief in the dignity of man. – Mohandas Gandhi

To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. – Mohandas Gandhi

To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman? – Mohandas Gandhi

To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body. – Mohandas Gandhi

To die in the act of killing is, in essence, to die defeated. – Mohandas Gandhi

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves. – Mohandas Gandhi

To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that the one that must be loved is not a friend. – Mohandas Gandhi

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer. – Mohandas Gandhi

To lose patience is to lose the battle. – Mohandas Gandhi

To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. – Mohandas Gandhi

To run away from danger, instead of facing it, is to deny one’s faith in man and God, even one’s own self. It were better for one to drown oneself than live to declare such bankruptcy of faith. – Mohandas Gandhi

To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness. – Mohandas Gandhi

True beauty consists of purity of heart. – Mohandas Gandhi

True humility means most strenuous and constant endeavor entirely directed towards the service of humanity. – Mohandas Gandhi

True meditation consists in closing the eyes and ears of the mind to all else except the object of one’s devotion. Hence closing of eyes during the prayers is an aid to such concentration. – Mohandas Gandhi

Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. – Mohandas Gandhi

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear. – Mohandas Gandhi

Truth is one, paths are many. – Mohandas Gandhi

Truth never damages a cause that is just. – Mohandas Gandhi

Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of the truth. – Mohandas Gandhi

Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained. – Mohandas Gandhi

Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature. – Mohandas Gandhi

Truth, purity, self-control, firmness, fearlessness, humility, unity, peace, and renunciation – these are the inherent qualities of a civil resister. – Mohandas Gandhi

Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking. – Mohandas Gandhi

Unless discipline is rooted in nonviolence, it might prove to be a source of infinite mischief. – Mohandas Gandhi

Unlike the animal, God has given man the faculty of reason. – Mohandas Gandhi

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience. – Mohandas Gandhi

Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer and anything that does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of truth and hammered with nonviolence, reject it. – Mohandas Gandhi

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary. – Mohandas Gandhi

Violence is a concession to human weakness, satyagraha is an obligation. – Mohandas Gandhi

Violent means will give violent freedom. – Mohandas Gandhi

Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself. – Mohandas Gandhi

Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point. – Mohandas Gandhi

We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. – Mohandas Gandhi

We cannot be speakers who do not listen. But neither can we be listeners who do not speak. – Mohandas Gandhi

We do not know whether it is good to live or to die. Therefore, we should not take delight in living, nor should we tremble at the thought of death. We should be equiminded towards death. – Mohandas Gandhi

We do not need to proselytize either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study. – Mohandas Gandhi

We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. – Mohandas Gandhi

We have up to now concentrated on stuffing children’s minds with all kinds information, without ever thinking of stimulating and developing them. Let us now cry a halt and concentrate on education the child properly through manual work, not as a side activity, but as the prime means of intellectual training. – Mohandas Gandhi

We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts? – Mohandas Gandhi

We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it. – Mohandas Gandhi

We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle. – Mohandas Gandhi

We must respect other religions, even as we respect our own. Mere tolerance thereof is not enough. – Mohandas Gandhi

We should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop. – Mohandas Gandhi

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party. – Mohandas Gandhi

Wealth without Work
Pleasure without Conscience
Science without Humanity
Knowledge without Character
Politics without Principle
Commerce without Morality
Worship without Sacrifice. – Mohandas Gandhi

What barrier is there that love cannot break? – Mohandas Gandhi

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? – Mohandas Gandhi

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea. – Mohandas Gandhi

What does it matter to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? – Mohandas Gandhi

What is a man if he is not a thief who openly charges as much as he can for the goods he sells? – Mohandas Gandhi

What is imprisonment to the man who is fearless of death itself? – Mohandas Gandhi

What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope. – Mohandas Gandhi

What is Truth? A difficult question; but I have solved it for myself by saying that it is what the “voice within” tells you. – Mohandas Gandhi

What kind of victory is it when someone is left defeated? – Mohandas Gandhi

What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another. – Mohandas Gandhi

Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it. – Mohandas Gandhi

Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it. – Mohandas Gandhi

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. – Mohandas Gandhi

When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator. – Mohandas Gandhi

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. – Mohandas Gandhi

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it, always. – Mohandas Gandhi

When I see a cow, it is not an animal to eat, it is a poem of pity for me and I worship it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world. – Mohandas Gandhi

When it is remembered that the primary aim of all education is, or should be, the moulding of the character of pupils, a teacher who has a character to keep need not lost heart. – Mohandas Gandhi

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible. – Mohandas Gandhi

When the missionary of another religion goes to them, he goes like a vendor of goods. He has no special spiritual merit that will distinguish him from those to whom he goes. He does however possess material goods which he promises to those who will come to his fold. – Mohandas Gandhi

When you are right, you have no need to be angry. When you are wrong, you have no right to be angry. – Mohandas Gandhi

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love. – Mohandas Gandhi

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected. – Mohandas Gandhi

Whenever you take a step forward, you are bound to disturb something. You disturb the air as you go forward, you disturb the dust, the ground. You trample upon things. When a whole society moves forward, this trampling is on a much bigger scale; and each thing that you disturb, each vested interest which you want to remove, stands as an obstacle. – Mohandas Gandhi

Where death without resistance or death after resistance is the only way, neither party should think of resorting to law-courts or help from the government. – Mohandas Gandhi

Where love is, there God is also. – Mohandas Gandhi

Where there is love there is life. – Mohandas Gandhi

Whether humanity will consciously follow the law of love, I do not know.
But that need not disturb me. The law will work just as the law of
gravitation works, whether we accept it or not. The person who discovered
the law of love was a far greater scientist than any of our modern
scientists. Only our explorations have not gone far enough and
so it is not possible for everyone to see all its workings. – Mohandas Gandhi

Whether humanity will consciously follow the law of love, I do not know. But that need not disturb me. The law will work just as the law of gravitation works, whether we accept it or not. – Mohandas Gandhi

Whether humanity will consciously follow the law of love, I do not know. But that need not disturb me. The law will work just as the law of gravitation works, whether we accept it or not. The person who discovered the law of love was a far greater scientist than any of our modern scientists. Only our explorations have not gone far enough and so it is not possible for everyone to see all its workings. – Mohandas Gandhi

Why change the world when we can change ourselves? – Mohandas Gandhi

Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacity. – Mohandas Gandhi

Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew. When asked if he was a Hindu. – Mohandas Gandhi

You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees.
An evil system never deserves such allegiance.
Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil.
A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul. – Mohandas Gandhi

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind. – Mohandas Gandhi

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. – Mohandas Gandhi

You don’t know who is important to you until you actually lose them. – Mohandas Gandhi

You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. – Mohandas Gandhi

You have to train the boys in one occupation or another. Round this special occupation you will train up his mind, his body, his handwriting, his artistic sense, and so on. He will be master of the craft he learns. – Mohandas Gandhi

You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results. – Mohandas Gandhi

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. – Mohandas Gandhi

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. – Mohandas Gandhi

You should be the change that you want to see in the world. – Mohandas Gandhi

Your capacity to keep your vow will depend on the purity of your life. – Mohandas Gandhi

From Wikiquote

• One thing we have endeavoured to observe most scrupulously, namely, never to depart from the strictest facts and, in dealing with the difficult questions that have arisen during the year, we hope that we have used the utmost moderation possible under the circumstances. Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution. That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with a view to hurt. Facts we would always place before our readers, whether they are palatable or not, and it is by placing them constantly before the public in their nakedness that the misunderstanding between the two communities in South Africa can be removed.
  • Indian Opinion (1 October 1903)
• A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
  • In Ethical Religion, (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1922), Chapter 6, p. 61.
• Why, of all places in Johannesburg, the Indian location should be chosen for dumping down all kaffirs of the town, passes my comprehension. Of course, under my suggestion, the Town Council must withdraw the Kaffirs from the Location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians I must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population, and it is an undue tax on even the proverbial patience of my countrymen.
  • Letter to Dr. Porter, Medical Officer of Health for Johannesburg (15 February 1905); later published in The Indian Opinion.

• In this instance of the fire-arms, the Asiatic has been most improperly bracketed with the native. The British Indian does not need any such restrictions as are imposed by the Bill on the natives regarding the carrying of fire-arms. The prominent race can remain so by preventing the native from arming himself. Is there a slightest vestige of justification for so preventing the British Indian?
  • Comments on a court case in The Indian Opinion (25 March 1905)

• You say that the magistrate’s decision is unsatisfactory because it would enable a person, however unclean, to travel by a tram, and that even the Kaffirs would be able to do so. But the magistrate’s decision is quite different. The Court declared that the Kaffirs have no legal right to travel by tram. And according to tram regulations, those in an unclean dress or in a drunken state are prohibited from boarding a tram. Thanks to the Court’s decision, only clean Indians or coloured people other than Kaffirs, can now travel in the trams.
  • Comments on a court case in The Indian Opinion (2 June 1906)

• Leo Tolstoy‘s life has been devoted to replacing the method of violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of non­resistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence by love expressed in self­suffering. He admits of no exception to whittle down this great and divine law of love. He applies it to all the problems that trouble mankind.
  • Introduction to the publication of Tolstoy’s A Letter to a Hindu (1909)

• Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.
  • Satyagraha Leaflet No. 13 ( 3 May 1919)

• I came in contact with every known Indian anarchist in London. Their bravery impressed me, but I felt that their zeal was misguided. I felt that violence was no remedy for India’s ills, and that her civilisation required the use of a different and higher weapon for self-protection.
  • “A Word of Explanation” on his work Hind Swaraj (1908) in Young India (January 1921)

• If India adopted the doctrine of love as an active part of her religion and introduced it in her politics. Swaraj would descend upon India from heaven. But I am painfully aware that that event is far off as yet.
  • “A Word of Explanation” in Young India (January 1921)

• I have even seen the writings suggesting that I am playing a deep game, that I am using the present turmoil to foist my fads on India, and am making religious experiments at India’s expense. I can only answer that Satyagraha is made of sterner stuff. There is nothing reserved and nothing secret in it.
  • “A Word of Explanation” in Young India (January 1921)

• I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung. We are, therefore, suffering from galloping consumption. The restoration of the wheel arrests the progress of the fell disease.
  • The Great Sentinel in Young India (13 October 1921)

• The only tyrant I accept in this world is the “still small voice” within me. And even though I have to face the prospect of being a minority of one, I humbly believe I have the courage to be in such a hopeless minority.
  • In Young India (2 March 1922). Quoted in The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas edited by Louis Fischer (2002), p. 160.

• If one has no affection for a person or a system, one should feel free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite violence.
  • Statement during his trial for “exciting disaffection toward His Majesty’s Government as established by law in India” (18 March 1922)

• Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.
  • Opening words of his defense speech at his trial Young India (23 March 1922)

• I wanted to know the best of the life of one (Muhammad) who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind. I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle.
  • Young India (23 September 1924) Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol.29, “My Jail experiences”, p.133

• Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.
  • A list closing an article in Young India (22 October 1925); Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol. 33 (PDF) p. 135
  • Variant: The seven blunders that human society commits and cause all the violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, and politics without principles.
    • A written list given to his departing grandson Arun Gandhi (October 1947), as quoted in Marriot (Spring 1998). Some alternative or erroneous translations exist that use intros “There are seven sins in the world:”, “Seven Blunders of the world:”, “The things that will destroy us are”, and items “politics without principle”, “education without character”, or “business without morality”.

• The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women.
  An armed conflict between nations horrifies us. But the economic war is no better than an armed conflict. This is like a surgical operation. An economic war is prolonged torture. And its ravages are no less terrible than those depicted in the literature on war properly so called. We think nothing of the other because we are used to its deadly effects. …
  The movement against war is sound. I pray for its success. But I cannot help the gnawing fear that the movement will fail if it does not touch the root of all evil — man’s greed.
  • “Non-Violence — The Greatest Force” in The World Tomorrow (5 October 1926)

• I have been known as a crank, faddist, madman. Evidently the reputation is well deserved. For wherever I go, I draw to myself cranks, faddists, and madmen.
  • Young India (13 June 1929); also in All Men Are Brothers : Autobiographical Reflections (2005) edited by Krishna Kripalani, p. 163

• The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
  • “Interview to the Press” in Karachi about the execution of Bhagat Singh (23 March 1931); published in Young India (2 April 1931), reprinted in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Online Vol. 51. Gandhi begins by making a statement on his failure “to bring about the commutation of the death sentence of Bhagat Singh and his friends.” He is asked two questions. First: “Do you not think it impolitic to forgive a government which has been guilty of a thousand murders?” Gandhi replies: “I do not know a single instance where forgiveness has been found so wanting as to be impolitic.” In a follow-up question, Gandhi is asked: “But no country has ever shown such forgiveness as India is showing to Britain?” Gandhi replies: “That does not affect my reply. What is true of individuals is true of nations. One cannot forgive too much. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

• An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self sustained.
  • Young India 1924-1926 (1927), p. 1285

• I’m a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply want to please my own conscience, which is God.
  • Young India (21 January 1927)

• I came to the conclusion long ago … that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu … But our innermost prayer should be a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian.
  • Young India (19 January 1928)

• To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?
  • Young India (4 October 1930)

• On all occasions of trial He has saved me. I know that the phrase ‘God saved me’ has a deeper meaning for me today, and still I feel that I have not yet grasped its entire meaning. Only richer experience can help me to a fuller understanding.
  But in all my trials — of a spiritual nature, as a lawyer, in conducting institutions, and in politics — I can say that God saved me. When every hope is gone, ‘when helpers fail and comforts flee’, I experience that help arrives somehow, from I know not where.
  • Young India (24 April 1931), p. 274

• It is beyond my power to induce in you a belief in God. There are certain things which are self proved and certain which are not proved at all. The existence of God is like a geometrical axiom. It may be beyond our heart grasp. I shall not talk of an intellectual grasp. Intellectual attempts are more or less failures, as a rational explanation cannot give you the faith in a living God. For it is a thing beyond the grasp of reason. It transcends reason. There are numerous phenomena from which you can reason out the existence of God, but I shall not insult your intelligence by offering you a rational explanation of that type. I would have you brush aside all rational explanations and begin with a simple childlike faith in God. If I exist, God exists. With me it is a necessity of my being as it is with millions. They may not be able to talk about it, but from their life you can see that it is a part of their life. I am only asking you to restore the belief that has been undermined. In order to do so, you have to unlearn a lot of literature that dazzles your intelligence and throws you off your feet. Start with the faith which is also a token of humility and an admission that we know nothing, that we are less than atoms in this universe. We are less than atoms, I say, because the atom obeys the law of its being, whereas we in the insolence of our ignorance deny the law of nature. But I have no argument to address to those who have no faith.
  • Young India (24 September 1931); also in Teachings Of Mahatma Gandhi (1945), edited by Jag Parvesh Chander, p. 458

• England has got successful competitors in America, Japan, France, Germany. It has competitors in the handful of mills in India, and as there has been an awakening in India, even so there will be an awakening in South Africa with its vastly richer resources — natural , mineral and human. The mighty English look quite pigmies before the mighty races of Africa. They are noble savages after all, you will say. They are certainly noble, but no savages and in the course of a few years the Western nations may cease to find in Africa a dumping ground for their wares.
• Statement at Oxford (24 October 1931), published in Young India Vol. 13 (1931), p. 355
• If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children; and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won’t have to struggle, we won’t have to pass fruitless idle resolutions. But we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which, consciously or unconsciously, the whole world is hungering.
  • Young India (19 November 1931, p. 361)

• I regard myself as a soldier, though a soldier of peace.
  • Speech at Victoria Hall, Geneva (10 December 1931)

• For me the voice of God, of Conscience, of Truth or the Inner Voice or ‘the still small Voice’ mean one and the same thing. I saw no form. I have never tried, for I have always believed God to be without form. One who realizes God is freed from sin for ever…. But what I did hear was like a Voice from afar and yet quite near. It was as unmistakable as some human voice definitely speaking to me, and irresistible. I was not dreaming at the time I heard the Voice. The hearing of the Voice was preceded by a terrific struggle within me. Suddenly the Voice came upon me. I listened, made certain that it was the Voice, and the struggle ceased. I was calm. The determination was made accordingly, the date and the hour of the fast were fixed…. Could I give any further evidence that it was truly the Voice that I heard and that it was not an echo of my own heated imagination? I have no further evidence to convince the sceptic. He is free to say that it was all self-delusion or hallucination. It may well have been so. I can offer no proof to the contrary. But I can say this — that not the unanimous verdict of the whole world against me could shake me from the belief that what I heard was the true voice of God.
  • Harijan (1933, July 8); also in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Vol. 61), and in The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi (Prabhu and Rao, eds., 1967, pp. 33-34)

• I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him.
  • An Autobiography (1936); also in All Men Are Brothers : Autobiographical Reflections (2005) edited by Krishna Kripalani, p. 63

• It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world’s progress toward peace … Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man?
  • Harijan (30 January 1937)

• If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province.
  • Letter in Harijan (1938)

• The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?
  • Gandhi’s Collected Works, Vol 74 (1938)

• Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and in-human to impose the Jews on the Arabs.
  • Gandhi’s Collected Works, Vol 74 (1938)

• Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.
  • Gandhi, An Autobiography, p. 446 (Beacon Press paperback edition)

• It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
  • Harijan (17 February 1940)

• I do not want to see the allies defeated. But I do not consider Hitler to be as bad as he is depicted. He is showing an ability that is amazing and seems to be gaining his victories without much bloodshed. Englishmen are showing the strength that Empire builders must have. I expect them to rise much higher than they seem to be doing.
  • Letter to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, regarding the military situation between England and Germany (May 1940), quoted in Collected Works (1958), p. 70. It should be noted that in May 1940 the battles of World War II were just beginning after the German invasion of Poland. The subsequent blitzkrieg invasions of The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, were indeed swift and relatively bloodless compared to the trench battles of the First World War, and the persecution of the Jews in the eyes of the world was at this point limited to deprivation of civil rights, and the use of concentration camps and ghettos: the facts of Nazi genocidal strategies were not widely known until towards the end of that war, in 1945.

• Whatever Hitler may ultimately prove to be, we know what Hitlerism has come to mean, It means naked, ruthless force reduced to an exact science and worked with scientific precision. In its effect it becomes almost irresistible.
  Hitlerism will never be defeated by counter-Hitlerism. It can only breed superior Hitlerism raised to nth degree. What is going on before our eyes is the demonstration of the futility of violence as also of Hitlerism.
  What will Hitler do with his victory? Can he digest so much power? Personally he will go as empty-handed as his not very remote predecessor Alexander. For the Germans he will have left not the pleasure of owning a mighty empire but the burden of sustaining its crushing weight. For they will not be able to hold all the conquered nations in perpetual subjection. And I doubt if the Germans of future generations will entertain unadulterated pride in the deeds for which Hitlerism will be deemed responsible. They will honour Herr Hitler as genius, as a brave man, a matchless organizer and much more. But I should hope that the Germans of the future will have learnt the art of discrimination even about their heroes. Anyway I think it will be allowed that all the blood that has been spilled by Hitler has added not a millionth part of an inch to the world’s moral stature.
  • Harijan (22 June 1940), after Nazi victories resulting in the occupation of France.

• The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least.
  • From Discussion with BG Kher and others, August 15, 1940. Gandhi’s Wisdom Box (1942), edited by Dewan Ram Parkash, p. 67 also in Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol. 79 (PDF), p. 122

A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country.

• Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight for India’s independence. In a violent struggle, a successful general has been often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But under the Congress scheme of things, essentially non-violent as it is, there can be no room for dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country.
• I read Carlyle’s French Resolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to realize the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences between the Hindus and Muslims, and think of yourselves as Indians only, engaged in the common struggle for independence.
• We cannot evoke the true spirit of sacrifice and velour, so long as we are not free. I know the British Government will not be able to withhold freedom from us, when we have made enough self-sacrifice. We must, therefore, purge ourselves of hatred.
  • The Quit India speech made on August 8, 1942 in Bombay, on the eve of the Quit India movement.

• Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different road, so long as we reach the same goal. Wherein is the cause for quarreling?
  • Speaking of the conflict between Muslims and Hindus, in Hind Swaraj, Or Indian Home Rule (1946), p. 36

• If you want to give a message again to the West, it must be a message of ‘Love’, it must be a message of ‘Truth’. There must be a conquest — [audience claps] — please, please, please. That will interfere with my speech, and that will interfere with your understanding also. I want to capture your hearts and don’t want to receive your claps. Let your hearts clap in unison with what I’m saying, and I think, I shall have finished my work. Therefore, I want you to go away with the thought that Asia has to conquer the West. Then, the question that a friend asked yesterday, “Did I believe in one world?” Of course, I believe in one world. And how can I possibly do otherwise, when I become an inheritor of the message of love that these great un-conquerable teachers left for us? You can redeliver that message now, in this age of democracy, in the age of awakening of the poorest of the poor, you can redeliver this message with the greatest emphasis.
  • Speech in New Delhi to the Inter-Asian Relations Conference (2 April 1947) – Parts of this speech became used in an Telecom Italia advertisement (Video at YouTube – B&W, English text version, better sound)

• Had we adopted non-violence as the weapon of the strong, because we realised that it was more effective than any other weapon, in fact the mightiest force in the world, we would have made use of its full potency and not have discarded it as soon as the fight against the British was over or we were in a position to wield conventional weapons. But as I have already said, we adopted it out of our helplessness. If we had the atom bomb, we would have used it against the British.
  • Speech (16 June 1947) as the official date for Indian independence approached (15 August 1947) , as quoted in Mahatma Gandhi : The Last Phase (1958) by Pyarelal Nayyar, p. 326. The last sentence of this statement has sometimes been quoted as if it affirmed extreme hostility to the British, rather than meaning an affirmation of the strength of non-violence and ultimate weakness of those who needlessly resort to violence.

• Truth never damages a cause that is just.
  • Non-Violence in Peace and War (1948); also in Gandhi on Non-violence : Selected Texts from Mohandas K. Gandhi’s Non-Violence in Peace and War (1965) edited by Thomas Merton Google Books link ISBN 0811200973

• In the dictionary of Satyagraha, there is no enemy.
  • Non-Violence in Peace and War (1948); also in Gandhi on Non-violence : Selected Texts from Mohandas K. Gandhi’s Non-Violence in Peace and War (1965) edited by Thomas Merton

• It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent.
  • Non-Violence in Peace and War (1948); also in Gandhi on Non-violence : Selected Texts from Mohandas K. Gandhi’s Non-Violence in Peace and War (1965) edited by Thomas Merton

• Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs. As it is, they succumbed anyway in their millions.
  • The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (1950) by Louis Fischer. The quote is in the context of Gandhi’s argument to his biographer that collective suicide would have been a heroic response that would have “aroused the world and the people of Germany to Hitler’s violence”.

• Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. I must continue to bear testimony to truth even if I am forsaken by all. Mine may today be a voice in the wilderness, but it will be heard when all other voices are silenced, if it is the voice of Truth.
  • Basic Education (1951) p. 89

• You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
  • Gandhi : His Life and Message for the World (1954), by Louis Fischer, p.177

• An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.
  • Non-Violence in Peace & War (1962) Vol. 2, edited by Mahadev Haribhai Desai, p. 144

• My life is my message.
  • Response to a journalist’s question about what his message to the world was. Mahatma : Life of Gandhi 1869-1948 (1968) Reel 13

• Poverty is the worst kind of violence.
  • As quoted in A Just Peace through Transformation : Cultural, Economic, and Political Foundations for Change (1988) by the International Peace Association

• We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.
  • As quoted in “Arun Gandhi Shares the Mahatma’s Message” by Michel W. Potts, in India – West [San Leandro, California] Vol. XXVII, No. 13 (1 February 2002) p. A34; Arun Gandhi indirectly quoting his grandfather. See also. “Be the change you wish to see: An interview with Arun Gandhi” by Carmella B’Hahn, Reclaiming Children and Youth [Bloomington] Vol.10, No. 1 (Spring 2001) p. 6. No evidence he ever said this see: Morton, Brian (August 29, 2011). Falser Words Were Never Spoken. NY Times..

• You assist an unjust administration most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil administration never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil.
  A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul. Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty.
  • Non-Violent Resistance – Often misquoted as “You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance.”

• All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul.

• Remember that there is always a limit to self-indulgence but none to self-restraint, and let us daily progress in that direction.
  • Article in Young India (2 February 1928, Volume 10, Page 35)