Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Democracy and dependence on the military and police are incompatible.

You will eat not to satisfy your palate but your hunger. A self-indulgent man lives to eat; a self-restrained man eats to live.

The avowed policy of non-co-operation has been not to make political use of the disputes between labour and capital.

I have known many meat eaters to be far more nonviolent than vegetarians.

Cent percent swadeshi gives sufficient scope for the most insatiable ambition for service and a satisfaction of every kind of talent.

The Congress fights not with violent but with nonviolent means, however imperfect, however crude the nonviolence may be.

Truth is my God. I can only search Him through nonviolence and in on other way.

I well remember how the thoughts I had up to the time of my discharge from the jail on every occasion were modified immediately after discharge, and after getting first-hand information myself. Somehow or other the jail atmosphere does not allow you to have all the bearings in your mind.

Celibacy is a great help, inasmuch as it enables one to lead a life of full surrender to God.

My ahimsa would not tolerate the idea of giving a free meal to a healthy person who has not worked for it in some honest way.

God never made man that he may consider another man as untouchable.

Ours is a civil fight, and imprisonment as a civil prisoner has got to be earned by the strict observance of the programme.

Concentrate on your task.

You can't shake hands with a closed fist.

Non-violence is not a quality to be evolved or expressed to order. It is an inward growth depending for sustenance upon intense individual effort.

To know music is to transfer it to life.

Through Khadi we teach the people the art of civil obedience to an institution which they have built up for themselves.

Whatever does not exist in the body can't be found in the universe, and whatever exists in the universe can be found in the body.

The spinning wheel is the auspicious symbol of sharir yajna, body labour.

In the application of Satyagraha, I discovered, in the earliest stages, that pursuit of Truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one's opponent, but that he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. For, what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of Truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but one's own self.

You are no Satyagrahi if you remain silent or passive spectators while your enemy is being done to death.

In this, of all the countries in the world, possession of inordinate wealth by individuals should be held as a crime against Indian humanity.

Be the change you're trying to create

I invite even the school of violence to give this peaceful non-co-operation a trial.

Civil disobedience is the only nonviolent escape from the soul-destroying heat of violence.

A seeker after truth, a follower of the law of Love, cannot hold anything against tomorrow.

If Euclid's point, though incapable of being drawn by any human agency, has an imperishable value, my picture has its own for mankind to live.

The weapon of nonviolence does not need supermen or superwomen to wield it; even beings of common clay can use it and have used it before this with success.

I am wedded to India because I owe my all to her.

If there is violence, it will certainly be crushed because violence can only end in a disgraceful rout.

Spiritual instruments suffer in their potency when their use is taught through non-spiritual messages which are self-propagating.

Generosity consists not the sum given, but the manner in which it is bestowed

A satyagrahi lays down his life, but never gives up. That is the meaning of the 'do or die' slogan.

Religious truth, or for that matter any truth, requires a calm and meditative atmosphere for its percolation.

It is better to resist oppression by violent means than to submit, but it is best of all to resist by nonviolent means.

Mere mental, that is, intellectual labour, is for the soul and has its own satisfaction.

Passive resistance seeks to rejoin politics and religion and to test all our actions in the light of ethical principles.

The truth is that God is the force. He is the essence of life. He is pure and undefiled consciousness. He is eternal.

India must protect her primary industries even as a mother protects her children against the whole world without being hostile to it.

Always believe in your dreams, because if you don't, you'll still have hope.

That which is inherent in man is his virtue.

Prayer can come in only when fasting has done its work. It can make fasting easy and bearable.

Violence is the weapon of weak, non-violence that of the strong.

Democracy disciplined and enlightened is the finest thing in the world. A democracy prejudiced, ignorant, superstitious, will land itself in chaos and may be self-destroyed.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the 'still small voice' within me. And even though I have to face the prospect of being a minority of one, I humbly believe I have the courage to be in such a hopeless minority.

Newspapers have become more important to the average man than the scriptures.

What is equality of rights between a giant and a dwarf?

I do not seek redemption from the consequences of my sin. I seek to be redeemed from sin itself. Until I have attained that end, I shall be content to be restless.