Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Patience means self-suffering.

Every reform means awakening. Once truly awakened, the nation will not be satisfied with reform only in one department of life.

Purification is never for the selfishly idle, it accrues only to the selflessly industrious.

He who trifles with truth cuts at the root of Ahimsa [non-violence]. He who is angry is guilty of Himsa.

It is my unshakable belief that India's destiny is to deliver the message of nonviolence to mankind.

This feeling of helplessness in us has arisen from our deliberate dismissal of God from our common affairs.

A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul. Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty.

I believe in the essential unity of all that lives. Therefore, I believe that if one person gains spiritually, the whole world gains, and that if one person falls, the whole world falls to that extent.

Government control gives rise to fraud, suppression of Truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help.

It will be hard to find a parallel in history in which unarmed people have represented the urge for freedom, turning their armlessness into the central means for deliverance.

There are innumerable definitions of God because his manifestations are innumerable.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

I have described Swaraj as Ramarajya and Ramarajya is an impossibility unless we have thousands of Sitas.

The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted.

Satyagraha is a force that has come to stay. No force in the world can kill it.

Tolstoy's so-called inconsistencies were a sign of his development and his passionate regard for truth.

The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.

Behaviour is the mirror in which we can display our image.

Man does not live by bread alone. Many prefer self-respect to food.

Look at the sparrows; they do not know what they will do in the next moment. Let us literally live from moment to moment.

Naked violence repels like the naked skeleton shorn of flesh, blood and the velvety skin.

No government on earth can make men, who have realized freedom in their hearts, salute against their will.

Nonviolence is not merely a personal virtue. It is also a social virtue to be cultivated like other virtues.

Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action. . . . . . . Prayer is the first and the last lesson in learning the noble and brave art of sacrificing self in the various walks of life culminating in the defence of one's nation's liberty and honour.

We must become the change we want to see.

Non-cooperation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it demands respect for the opposite views.

The truth can never be wrong, even if no one hears it.

Evil is, good or truth misplaced.

The moment the cultivators of the soil realize their power, the evil of Zamindari will be sterilized.

Sacrifice that causes pain is no sacrifice at all. True sacrifice is joy-giving and uplifting.

Carefully watch your thoughts, for they become your words. Manage and watch your words, for they will become your actions. Consider and judge your actions, for they have become your habits. Acknowledge and watch your habits, for they shall become your values. Understand and embrace your values, for they become your destiny.

Real suffering bravely borne, melts even a heart of stone. Such is the potency of suffering. And there lies the key to Satyagraha.

Ahimsa is nothing if not a well-balanced, exquisite consideration for one's neighbour, and an idle man is wanting in that elementary consideration.

Blind adoration, in the age of action, is perfectly valueless, is often embarrassing and, equally, often painful.

Let no one charge me with ever having abused or encouraged weakness or surrendered on matters of principle. But I have said, as I say again, that every trifle must not be dignified into a principle.

Lovers of Swaraj cannot rest till a solution is found which would allay Mussalman apprehensions and yet not endanger Swaraj.

India as a nation can live and die only for the spinning wheel.

What faith can you place in a general or a soldier who lacks resolution and determination, who says, 'I shall keep guard as long as I can'?

The fragrance of nonviolence was never sweeter than it was today amidst the stink of violence of the most cowardly type that was being displayed in the cities of India.

My satyagrahi spirit tells me that I may not retaliate.

The sanyasa of the Gita is all work and yet no work.

Disorder and violence are, in fact, things that might check the pace of India's progress.

Ahimsa is my God, and Truth is my God.

I cannot in all conscience agree to anyone being sent to the gallows. God alone can take life because He alone gives it . . .

The State is the sum total of the sacrifice, on its behalf, of its members.

I do not want my house to be rounded by walls and my windows to be closed to other cultures. I wish to become familiar with the culture of lands as much as possible but I will not permit them to affect me or shake me from my own status.

Appreciation of nonviolence means patient research and still more patient and difficult practice.

Truth is not truth merely because it is ancient. Nor is truth necessarily to be regarded with suspicion because it is ancient.