Mahatma Gandhi
politician, barrister, political writer, journalist, philosopher, autobiographer, essayist, newspaper editor, civil rights advocate, memoirist, humanitarian, peace activist, revolutionary, writer, jurist, freedom fighter
Read on Wikipedia1869 – 1948
All Quotes by Mahatma Gandhi
“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”
“Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.”
“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.”
“I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world.”
“Prayer is a confession of one's own unworthiness and weakness.”
“Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.”
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.”
“Partition is bad. But whatever is past is past. We have only to look to the future.”
“But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac.”
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
“I am in the world feeling my way to light 'amid the encircling gloom.'”
“Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.”
“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.”
“Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself.”
“The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted.”
“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.”
“Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.”
“God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us.”
“I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice.”
“I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world.”
“I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth.”
“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.”
“I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.”
“Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.”
“Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.”
“What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.”
“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
“He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.”
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
“Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.”
“Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.”
“Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.”
“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.”
“Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.”
“We do not need to proselytise 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.”
“We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?”
“There's no God higher than truth.”
“Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.”
“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.”
“God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.”
“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.”
“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.”
“The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.”
“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does the truth become error because nobody will see it.”
“We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.”
“Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause.”
“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”
“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”
“God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.”
“The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.”
“I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.”
“My aim is not to be consistent with my previous statements on a given question, but to be consistent with truth as it may present itself to me at a given moment. The result has been that I have grown from truth to truth.”
“There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.”
“One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's.”
“It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.”
“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.”
“It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful?”
“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.”
“I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force.”
“Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.”
“Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith.”
“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.”
“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.”
“God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us.”
“Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.”
“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.”
“What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.”
“Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”
“My life is my message.”
“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.”
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
“But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac.”
“Non-violence is the article of faith.”
“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.”
“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
“When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.”
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“jika sebuah mata harus dibalas dengan sebuah mata, hanya akan membuat seluruh dunia ini buta”
“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”
“Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?”
“mereka tidak dapat mengambil harga diri kita kalau kita tidak memberikannya kepada mereka”
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”
“It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.”
“There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.”
“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.”
“A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.”
“A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”
“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”
“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.”
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
“Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.”
“Action expresses priorities.”
“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.”
“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French.”
“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.”
“Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.”
“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 prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”
“Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, 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.”
“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.”
“A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks he becomes.”
“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.”
“Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.”
“Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.”
“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?”
“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”
“Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.”
“Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lust for martyrdom.”
“A general belief seems to prevail in the colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than the savages or natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kaffir.”
“Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians - you are not like him.”
“Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.”
“Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilised—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals.”
“The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.”
“Leo Tolstoy's life has been devoted to replacing the method of violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of non\xadresistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence by love expressed in self\xadsuffering. 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.”
“Self-respect knows no considerations.”
“We are our own slaves, not of the British. This should be engraved on our minds. The whites cannot remain if we do not want them. If the idea is to drive them out with firearms, let every Indian consider what precious little profit Europe has found in these.”
“Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.”
“In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals.... Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads, so long as we reach the same goal. Wherein is the cause for quarrelling?”
“Those who know how to think need no teachers.”
“The English have taught us that we were not one nation before and that it will reaquire centuries before we become one nation. This is without foundation. We were one nation before they came to India. One thought inspired us. Our mode of life was the same. It was because we were one nation that they were able to establish one kingdom. Subsequently they divided us.”
“You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.”
“One of the objects of a newspaper is to understand popular feeling and to give expression to it; another is to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; and the third is fearlessly to expose popular defects.”
“Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.”
“Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith.”
“Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.”
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
“[I]t is not true that we shall necessarily progress if our political conditions undergo a change, irrespectively of the manner in which it is brought about. If the means employed are impure, the change will not be in the direction of progress but very likely in the opposite.”
“Where there is love there is life.”
“In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.”
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
“For me the only training in Swaraj we need is the ability to defend ourselves against the whole world and to live our natural life in perfect freedom, even though it may be full of defects. Good government is no substitute for self-government.”
“It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.”
“I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.”
“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.”
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
“The Jews cannot receive sovereign rights in a place which has been held for centuries by Muslim powers by right of religious conquest. The Muslim soldiers did not shed their blood in the late War for the purpose of surrendering Palestine out of Muslim control.”
“Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.”
“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.”
“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.”
“There is no such thing as slow freedom. Freedom is like a birth. Till we are fully free we are slaves.”
“Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.”
“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”
“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”
“Fear has its use but cowardice has none.”
“When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.”
“Any action that is dictated by fear or by coercion of any kind ceases to be moral.”
“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.”
“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”
“No action which is not voluntary can be called moral.”
“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.”
“Satan's successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips.”
“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others.”
“The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.”
“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.”
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”
“Under democracy individual liberty of opinion and action is jealously guarded.”
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way 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.”
“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.”
“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.”
“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.”
“It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.”
“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.”
“Always believe in your dreams, because if you don't, you'll still have hope.”
“Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.”
“Hinduism is a relentless pursuit after truth and if today it has become moribund, inactive, irresponsive to growth, it is because we are fatigued. As soon as the fatigue is over, Hinduism will burst forth upon the world with a brilliance perhaps never known before.”
“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”
“Some of my corresponents seem to think that I can work wonders. Let me say as a devotee of truth that I have no such gift. All the power I may have comes from God. But He does not work directly. He works through His numberless agencies. In this case it is the Congress.”
“What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.”
“I do not believe as the friend seems to do that an individual may gain spiritually and those who surround him suffer. I believe in advaita [nonduality], I believe in the essential unity of man and for that matter of all that lives. Therefore I believe that if one man gains spiritually, the whole world gains with him and if one man falls, the whole world falls to that extent.”
“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.”
“[R]eal Swaraj will come, not by the acquisition of authority by a few, but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, Swaraj is to be attained by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority.”
“We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.”
“There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good. I swear by non-violence because I know that it alone conduces to the highest good of mankind, not merely in the next world, but in this also. I object to violence because, when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.”
“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.”
“Self-government means continuous effort to be independent of government control, whether it is foreign government or whether it is national. Swaraj government will be a sorry affair if people look up for the regulation of every detail of life.”
“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.”
“What the divine author of the Mahabharata said of his great creation is equally true of Hinduism. Whatever of substance is contained in any other religion is always to be found in Hinduism, and what is not contained in it is insubstantial or unnecessary.”
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
“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.”
“My life is my message.”
“Hinduism is like the Ganga,, pure and unsullied at its source but taking in its course the impurities in the way. Even like the Ganga it is beneficent in its total effect. It takes a provincial form in every provinvce, but the inner substance is retained everywhere.”
“Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.”
“Our sages have taught us to learn one thing; `As in the Self, so in the Universe.' It is not possible to scan the universe as it is to scan the self. Know the self and you know the universe.”
“In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.”
“Now when we talk of brotherhood of men, we stop there and feel that all other life is there for man to exploit for his own purposes. But Hinduism excludes all exploitation.”
“Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.”
“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.”
“My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realising Him.”
“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.”
“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”
“For one man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.”
“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”
“God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the West. The economic imperialism of a single tiny island kingdom is today keeping the world in chains. If an entire nation of 300 million took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare.”
“No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.”
“My ambition is much higher than independence. Through the deliverance of India, I seek to deliver the so-called weaker races of the Earth from the crushing heels of Western exploitation in which England is the greatest partner.”
“There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.”
“Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.”
“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.”
“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”
“It is not possible to make a person or society non-violent by compulsion.”
“Man can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.”
“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.”
“There is force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.”
“It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful?”
“I am uncompromising in the matter of woman's rights. In my opinion she should labour under no legal disability not suffered by man, I should treat the daughters and sons on a footing of perfect equality.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.”
“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.”
“I invite even the school of violence to give this peaceful non-co-operation a trial. It will not fail through its inherent weakness. It may fail because of poverty of response. Then will be one time for real danger. The high-souled men, who are unable to suffer national humiliation any longer, will want to vent their wrath. They will take to violence.”
“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”
“Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith.”
“It is not my purpose to attempt a real autobiography. I simply want to tell the story of my experiments with truth...as my life consists of nothing but those experiments.”
“Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself.”
“It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.”
“I am a Hindu by birth. And yet I do not know much of Hinduism, and I know less of other religions. In fact I do not know where I am, and what is and what should be my belief. I intend to make a careful study of my own religion and, as far as I can, of other religions as well.”
“Each one prays to God according to his own light.”
“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. If we want the Arms Act to be repealed, if we want to learn the use of arms, here is a golden opportunity. If the middle classes render voluntary help to Government in the hour of its trial, distrust will disappear, and the ban on possessing arms will be withdrawn.”
“A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.”
“Jealousy does not wait for reasons.”
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”
“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.”
“It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.”
“Nothing is impossible for pure love.”
“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.”
“I saw that bad handwriting should be regarded as a sign of an imperfect education.”
“Partition is bad. But whatever is past is past. We have only to look to the future.”
“That is why a thinker like Thoreau said that ‘that government is the best which governs the least.’ This means that when people come into possession of political power, the interference with the freedom of people is reduced to a minimum. In other words, a nation that runs its affairs smoothly and effectively without much State interference is truly democratic. Where such a condition is absent, the form of government is democratic in name.”
“Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.”
“Every Hindu boy and girl should possess sound Sanskrit learning.”
“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.”
“It is now my opinion that in all Indian curricula of higher education there should be a place for Hindi, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and English, besides of course the vernacular.”
“Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.”
“Today I know that physical training should have as much place in the curriculum as mental training.”
“I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian.”
“A man of truth must also be a man of care.”
“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.”
“I saw that the writers on vegetarianism had examined the question very minutely, attacking it in its religious, scientific, practical and medical aspects. Ethically they had arrived at the conclusion that man's supremacy over the 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.”
“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.”
“The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.”
“One golden rule is to accept the interpretation honestly put on the pledge by the party administering it.”
“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.”
“A convert's enthusiasm for his new religion is greater than that of a person who is born in it.”
“I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.”
“Supplication, worship, prayer are no superstition; they are acts more real than the acts of eating, drinking, sitting or walking. It is no exaggeration to say that they alone are real, all else is unreal.”
“Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.”
“My joy was boundless. I had learnt the true practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men’s hearts. I realized the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby - not even money, certainly not my soul.”
“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”
“I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.”
“But all my life though, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise. I saw in later life that this spirit was an essential part of Satyagraha. It has often meant endangering my life and incurring the displeasure of friends. But truth is hard as adamant and tender as a blossom.”
“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.”
“I had learnt at the onset not to carry on public work with borrowed money.”
“Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?”
“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.”
“Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.”
“To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”
“The good man is the friend of all living things.”
“My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth.”
“Where there is love there is life.”
“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?”
“By its very nature, non-violence cannot ‘seize’ power, nor can that be its goal. But non-violence can do more; it can effectively control and guide power without capturing the machinery of government. That is its beauty.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Peace is its own reward.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“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.”
“Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.”
“I say without fear of my figures being successfully challenged that India today is more illiterate than it was before a fifty or hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root and left the root like that and the beautiful tree perished.”
“The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.”
“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.”
“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.”
“Vegetarians should have that moral basis—that a man was not born a carnivorous animal, but born to live on the fruits and herbs that the earth grows.”
“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.”
“I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage—an inexorable demand—that we should cease to kill our fellow-creatures for satisfaction of our bodily wants.”
“The real ornament of woman is her character, her purity.”
“I regard myself as a soldier, though a soldier of peace.”
“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.”
“I do not believe in the doctrine of the greatest number. It means in its nakedness that in order to achieve the supposed good of 51 per cent the interests of 49 per cent may be, or rather, should be sacrificed. It is a heartless doctrine and has done harm to humanity.”
“Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.”
“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.”
“I look upon an increase in the power of the State with the greatest fear because, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality, which lies at the root of the progress. We know of so many cases where men have adopted trusteeship, but none where the State has really lived for the poor.”
“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.”
“It is my firm conviction that if the State suppressed capitalism by violence, it will be caught in the coils of violence itself, and fail to develop non-violence at any time. The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The Individual has a soul, but as the state is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence.”
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way 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.”
“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”
“Man's excellence lies in his readiness to let others live and lay down his own life. As he progresses, his food also changes for the better. He has the capacity to grow still further. There have been many more discoveries after Darwin's. The book which you have been reading seems to be an old one. Whether it is old or new, the "Principle of the greatest good of the greatest number," or "survival of the fittest" is false.”
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.”
“Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.”
“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.”
“I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him.”
“If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty.”
“Hinduism insists on the brotherhood of not only all mankind but of all that lives.”
“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.”
“I am a lover of my own liberty and so I would do nothing to resist yours.”
“Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it.”
“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?Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi”
“Fear has its use but cowardice has none.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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?”
“Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.”
“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.”
“To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.”
“Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.”
“It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state. Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be? Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success?”
“Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.”
“Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I do not share the socialist belief that centralization of the necessaries of life will conduce to the common welfare, when the centralized industries are planned and owned by the State. The socialistic concept of the West was born in an environment reeking with violence.”
“A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.”
“I have always held that social justice, even to the least the lowliest, is impossible of attainment by force.”
“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.”
“Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.”
“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.”
“Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.”
“A society organized and run on the basis of complete nonviolence would be the purest anarchy... That State is perfect and non-violent where the people are governed the least.”
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.”
“The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least.”
“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.”
“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 and democracy?”
“Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.”
“I suggest that, if India is to evolve along nonviolent lines, it will have to decentralize many things. Centralization cannot be sustained and defended without adequate force . . .Centralization as a system is inconsistent with non-violent structure of society.”
“Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.”
“No society can possibly be built upon a denial of individual freedom.It is contrary to the very nature of man. Just as a man will not grow horns or a tail, so will he not exist as man if he has no mind of his own. In reality even those who do not believe in the liberty of the individual believe in their own.”
“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.”
“Infinite striving to be the best is man's duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God's hands.”
“My conception of freedom is no narrow conception. It is co-extensive with the freedom of man in all his majesty.”
“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.”
“The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. He frees himself and shows the way to others. Freedom and slavery are mental states. Therefore, the first thing to say to yourself: 'I shall no longer accept the role of a slave. I shall not obey orders as such but shall disobey them when they are in conflict with my conscience.”
“True beauty lies in purity of the heart.”
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.”
“I draw no distinction between error and sin. If a man commits a bona fide mistake and confesses it with a contrite heart before his Maker, the merciful Maker sterilizes it of all harm.”
“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.”
“The only thing lawful is non-violence. Violence can never be lawful in the sense meant here, i.e., not according to man-made laws, but according to the laws made by Nature for man.”
“Truth resides in every human heart,”
“Morality is contraband in war.”
“Hindus should never be angry against the Muslims even if the latter might make up their minds to undo even their existence.”
“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.”
“Impure means result in an impure end… One cannot reach truth by untruthfulness. Truthful conduct alone can reach Truth.”
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
“Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.”
“[Government] control gives rise to fraud, suppression of truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help…It makes them spoon-fed.”
“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.”
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
“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.”
“The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one's opponent.”
“In the dictionary of Satyagraha, there is no enemy.”
“Non-violence is the article of faith.”
“It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our breasts, 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.”
“It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.”
“Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.”
“Where love is, there God is also.”
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need but not for every man's greed.”
“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”
“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others.”
“Whatever the ultimate fate of my country, my love for you remains, and will remain, undiminished. My non-violence demands universal love, and you are not a small part of it. It is that love which has prompted my appeal to you.”
“Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.”
“May God give power to every word of mine. In his name I began to write this, and in His name I close it. May your statesman have the wisdom and courage to respond to my appeal. I am telling His Excellency the Viceroy that my services are at the disposal of His Majesty’s Government, should they consider them of any practical use in advancing the object of my appeal.”
“My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray.”
“Nor, do I believe in inequalities between human beings. We are all absolutely equal. But equality is of the souls and not the bodies. Hence, it is a mental state. We need to think of, and to assert, equality because we see great inequality in the physical world. We have to realize equality in the midst of this apparent external inequality. Assumption of superiority by any person over any other is a sin against God and man. Thus caste, in so far as it connotes distinctions in status, is an evil.”
“Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.”
“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.”
“Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one's own religion.”
“Each one prays to God according to his own light.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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?"”
“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.”
“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.”
“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”
“My life is my message.”
“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.”
“Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.”
“Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.”
“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-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.”
“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.”
“Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul.”
“Remember that there is always a limit to self-indulgence but none to self-restraint, and let us daily progress in that direction.”
“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”
“God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.”
“If Brahmanism does not revive, Hinduism must perish. [...] I will not like to live in an India which has ceased to be Hindu.”
“Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point.”
“I know of no one who has done more for humanity than Jesus. In fact, there is nothing wrong with Christianity … The trouble is with you Christians. You do not begin to live up to your own teachings.”
“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.”
“Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.”
“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.”
“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.”
“All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth.”
“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.”
“For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.”