Just as one must learn the art of killing in the training for violence, so one must learn the art of dying in the training for nonviolence.

When a man vowed to nonviolence as the law governing human beings dares to refer to war, he can only do it so as to strain every nerve to avoid it.

Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use.

It is the reformer who is anxious for the reform, and not society, from which he should expect nothing better than opposition, abhorrence and even mortal persecution.

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.

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

Only an arrogant man will claim to be independent of everybody else and be self-contained.