Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

At times, non-co-operation becomes as much a duty as co-operation.

A worker's capital is inexhaustible, incapable of being stolen, and bound to pay him a generous dividend all the time.

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

Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding.

Under democracy, individual liberty of opinion and action is jealously guarded.

...service can have no meaning unless one takes pleasure in it. When it is done for show or for fear of public opinion, it stunts the man and crushes his spirit. Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served.

God chooses as His instrument the humblest and weakest of His creatures to fulfill Himself.

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.

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. This is the ideal. It may be long before we reach it, and only a few of us can attain it. Even then, we must keep it constantly in view, and the more difficult it seems of attainment, the greater should be the effort we put forth.

A man who is truthful and does not mean ill even to his adversary will be slow to believe charges even against his foes. He will, however, try to understand the viewpoints of his opponents and will always keep an open mind and seek every opportunity of serving his opponents.

Democracy comes naturally to him who is habituated normally to yield willing obedience to all laws, human or divine.

For the poor, the economic is spiritual.

I want for India complete independence in the full English sense of that English term.

We are too near the scene of tragedy to realize that this canker or untouchability has traveled far beyond its prescribed limits and has sapped the very foundation of the whole nation.

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

Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty.

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

If people knew the working of the law of truth and nonviolence, then they would themselves regulate the matter of its shortage.

Happiness, the goal to which we all are striving is reached by endeavoring to make the lives of others happy, and if by renouncing the luxuries of life we can lighten the burdens of others.... surely the simplification of our wants is a thing greatly to be desired! And so, if instead of supposing that we must become hermits and dwellers in caves in order to practice simplicity, we set about simplifying our affairs, each according to his own convictions and opportunity, much good will result and the simple life will at once be established.

A woman's intuition has often proved truer than a man's arrogant assumption of knowledge.

Mankind is one, seeing that all are equally subject to the moral law. All men are equal in God's eyes.

A dissolute character is more dissolute in thought than in deed. And the same is true of violence. Our violence in word and deed is but a feeble echo of the surging violence of thought in us.

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.

History has no record of a nation having adopted nonviolent resistance.

Civilization is the encouragement of differences.

My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the strongest.

Those with the greatest awareness have the greatest nightmares.

No reform is possible unless some of the educated and the rich voluntarily accept the status of the poor, travel third, refuse to enjoy the amenities denied to the poor and, instead of taking avoidable hardships, discourtesies and injustice as a matter of course, fight for their removal.

I contend that non-violent acts exert pressure far more effective than violent acts, for the pressure comes from goodwill and gentleness.

I believe in the absolute oneness of God and therefore of humanity. What though we have many bodies? We have but one soul. . . . I know God is neither in heaven nor down below, but in everyone.

To have a happy ending, choose a happy moment and call it 'the ending'. Honesty is incompatible with the amassing of a large fortune.

Khadi service, village service and Harijan service are one in reality, though three in name.

Much that we hug today as knowledge is ignorance pure and simple. It makes the mind wander and even reduces it to a vacuity.

A man of character will make himself worthy of any position he is given.

I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung.

The incident deepened my feeling for the Indian settlers. I discussed with them the advisability of making a test case, if it were found necessary to do so, after having seen the British Agent in the matter of these regulations.

To one who reads the spirit of the Gita, it teaches the secret of nonviolence, the secret of realizing self through the physical body.

If I had to face only the Sermon on the Mount and my own interpretation of it, I should not hesitate to say, 'O yes, I am a Christian.'

The truest test of civilization, culture and dignity is character and not clothing.

Yajna is duty to be performed, or service to be rendered, all twenty-four hours of the day.

Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?

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

Individual civil disobedience was everybody's inherent right, like the right of self-defence in normal life.

Self-defense...is the only honourable course where there is unreadiness for self-immolation.

Men should do their actual living and working in communities small enough to permit of genuine self-government and the assumption of personal responsibilities, federated into larger units in such a way that the temptation to abuse great power should not arise.

For me, Rama and Rahim are one and the same deity. I acknowledge no other God but the one God of truth and righteousness.

What God may have enabled me to do is but a repayment of debt, and he who repays a debt deserves no praise.

Man's triumph will consist in substituting the struggle for existence by a struggle for mutual service.