Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Tolerance obviously does not disturb the distinction between right and wrong, or good and evil.

I have not conceived my mission to be that of a knight-errant wandering everywhere to deliver people from difficult situations. My humble occupation has been to show people how they can solve their own difficulties.

If you want to change the world, start with yourself.

God does not punish directly. His ways are inscrutable.

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

Every fight is one between different angles of vision illuminating the same truth.

Never make a promise in haste.

India has an unbroken tradition of nonviolence from times immemorial.

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being. Without interrelation with society he cannot realize his oneness with the universe or suppress his egotism. His social interdependence enables him to test his faith and to prove himself on the touchstone of reality.

Man has the supreme knack of deceiving himself; the Englishman is supremest among men.

If hand-spinning is an effective method of making India self-supporting, it must be made part of the franchise.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

Violence begins with the fork.

If non-violence is the Law of our being, the future is with Women.

The singular secret of khaddar lies in its saleability in the place of its production and use by the manufacturers themselves.

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

Just think out for yourselves, if a man who was good yesterday has become bad after having come in contact with me, is he responsible that he has deteriorated or am I? ... It is well to take the blame sometimes.

Experience gained in two schools under my control has taught me that punishment does not purify, if anything, it hardens children.

Public opinion alone can keep a society pure and healthy.

Nonviolence is not a weapon of the weak. It is a weapon of the strongest and bravest.

Be the compromise you want to see in the world.

If the poet spun for half an hour daily, his poetry would gain in richness.

No one has the capacity to judge God. We are drops in that limitless ocean of mercy.

My religion teaches me that a promise once made or a vow once taken for a worthy object may not be broken.

Non-violence does not signify that man must not fight against the enemy, and by enemy is meant the evil which men do, not the human beings themselves.

Nonviolence, applied to very large masses of mankind, is a new experiment in the history of the world.

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.

Justice does not help those who slumber but helps only those who are vigilant.

Knowledge of the tallest scientist or the greatest spiritualist is like a particle of dust.

Harshness is conquered by gentleness, hatred by love, lethargy by zeal and darkness by light.

It is the absolute right of India to misgovern herself.

For me popular violence is as much an obstruction in our path as the Government violence.

There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness.

Even the most despotic government cannot stand except for the consent of the governed.... Immediately the subject ceases to fear the despotic force, his power is gone.

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

Mankind has to get out of violence only through non-violence.

My Hinduism teaches me to respect all religions. In this lies the secret of Ramarajya.

I am endeavouring to see God through service of humanity; for I know that God is neither in heaven, nor down below, but in everyone.

Crime and vice generally require darkness for prowling. They disappear when light plays upon them.

Nonviolence is the summit of bravery.

The Law which governs all life is God.

I regard Duryodhana and his party as the baser impulses in man, and Arjuna and his party as the higher impulses.

Life is one indivisible whole.

When a man wants to make up with his Maker, he does not consult a third party.

Ahimsa in theory no one knows. It is as indefinable as God.

It is an ever-growing belief with me that truth cannot be found by violent means.

For a bowl of water give a goodly meal; For a kindly greeting bow thou down with zeal; For a simple penny pay thou back with gold; If thy life be rescued, life do not withhold. Thus the words and actions of the wise regard; Every little service tenfold they reward. But the truly noble know all men as one, And return with gladness good for evil done.

It is necessary first to purify the drunken and dissolute worshippers in charge of some of these temples.