Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Tolstoy was the greatest apostle of nonviolence that the present age has produced.

The man has not the power to create life. Therefore, he has not either, the right to destroy it.

I refuse to buy from anybody anything however nice or beautiful if it interferes with my growth or injures those whom Nature has made my first care.

Anything which is a hindrance to the fight of the soul is a delusion and a snare, even like the body which often does hinder you in the path of salvation.

Old as I am in age, I have no feeling that I have ceased to grow inwardly or that my growth will stop at the dissolution of the flesh. What I am concerned with is my readiness to obey the call of Truth, my God, from moment to moment, no matter how inconsistent it may appear. My commitment is to Truth, not to consistency.

A man of truth must ever be confident, if he has also equal need to be diffident.

It is nonviolent non-co-operation which evokes the highest spirit of self-sacrifice that will wean one from the error of one's ways.

My Hindu instinct tells me that all religions are more or less true.

If you want to play your part in the world's affairs, you must refuse to deck yourselves for pleasing man.

Indeed, a civil resister offers resistance only when peace becomes impossible.

If it weren't for Christians, I'd be a Christian.

One may detest the wickedness of a brother without hating him.

Pure motives can never justify impure or violent action.

Without an unreserved surrender to His grace, complete mastery over thoughts is impossible.

Democracy necessarily means a conflict of will and ideas, involving sometimes a war of the knife between different ideas.

I must refuse to believe that the Germans contemplate with equanimity the evacuation of cities like London for fear of destruction to be wrought by man's inhuman ingenuity.

Mere brave speech without action is letting off useless steam.

Hinduism loses its right to make a universal appeal if it closes its temples to Harijans.

No police or military in the world can protect people who are cowards.

Rama Nama should come from the heart. In that event, Rama Nama could become an effective remedy against all ailments. A man who believes in Rama Nama would not make a fetish of the body but would regard it as a means of serving God. And for making it into a fit instrument for that purpose, Rama Nama is the sovereign means. To install Rama Nama in the heart requires infinite patience. It might even take ages. But the effort is worthwhile. Rama Nama cannot come from the heart unless one has cultivated the virtues of truth, honesty and purity within and without.

Possession of arms implies an element of fear, if not of cowardice.

The mundane use of the Gayatri, its repetition for healing the sick, illustrates the meaning we have given to prayer.

Infinite striving to be the best is man's duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God's hands.

By spiritual training I mean education of the heart.

Withholding of payment of taxes is one of the quickest methods of overthrowing a government.

God to be God must rule the heart and transform it.

My religion enables me, obliges me to imbibe all that is good in all the great religions of the earth.

Where there are millions upon millions of units of idle labour, it is no use thinking of labour-saving devices.

When you want to find Truth as God, the only inevitable means is love, that is nonviolence.

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding. The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

The force generated by nonviolence is infinitely greater than the force of all the arms created by man's ingenuity.

Dharma is that which is enjoined by the holy books, followed by the sages, interpreted by the learned and which appeals to the heart.

God is known by many names. And in the last analysis God's names were as many as human beings.

They might kill me but they cannot kill Gandhism. If truth can be killed, Gandhism can be killed.

God is not outside this earthly case of ours.

Be the change you are trying to create.

Hindu-Muslim unity, khaddar and removal of untouchability are to me the foundation of Swaraj.

If one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself.

The essence of true religious teaching is that one should serve and befriend all.

The one religion is beyond all speech.

He who gives up action falls. He who gives up the reward rises. But renunciation of fruit in no way means indifference to the result.

The religion of nonviolence is not meant merely for therishis and saints.

The mice which helplessly find themselves between the cats teeth acquire no merit from their enforced sacrifice.

My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realising Him.

My whole soul rebels against the idea that Hinduism and Islam represent two antagonistic cultures and doctrines.

Non-violence and cowardice are contradictory terms. Non-violence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice. Non-violence springs from love, cowardice from hate. Non-violence always suffers, cowardice would always inflict suffering. Perfect non-violence is the highest bravery. Non-violent conduct is never demoralising; cowardice always is.

We stand on the threshold of a twilight-whether morning or evening we do not know. One is followed by the night, the other heralds the dawn.

Mr. Gandhi, you have been working fifteen hours a day for fifty years. Don't you think you should take a vacation?" Gandhi smiled and replied, "I am always on vacation.