Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.

Civility does not ...mean the mere outward gentleness of speech cultivated for the occasion, but an inborn gentleness and desire to do the opponent good.

Cowardice is impotence worse than violence. The coward desires revenge but being afraid to die, he looks to others, maybe to the government of the day, to do the work of defense for him. A coward is less than a man. He does not deserve to be a member of a society of men and women.

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

You never know where your actions will lead to. But if you don't do anything they will lead you nowhere.

I could not be leading a religious life unless I identified myself with the whole of mankind, and that I could not do unless I took part in politics.

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.