Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

A rabbit that runs away from the bull-terrier is not particularly non-violent.

Love and ahimsa are matchless in their effect.

Nonviolence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute. The spirit lies dormant in the brute, and he knows no law but that of physical might. The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher laws - to the strength of the spirit.

I believe in God, not as a theory but as a fact more real than life itself.

That I want to destroy British imperialism is another matter, but I want to do so by converting those who are associated with it.

Nothing has saddened me so much in life as the hardness of heart of educated people.

In man, reason quickens and guides feelings; in brute, the soul lies ever dormant.

A satyagrahi, whilst he is ever ready to fight, must be equally eager for peace.

Nothing once begun should be abandoned, unless it is proved to be morally wrong.

Service is not possible unless it is rooted in love orahimsa.

The only way Hinduism can convert the whole world to cow-protection is by giving an object-lesson in cow-protection and all it means.

I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.

The function of Nayee-Talim is not to teach an occupation, but through it to develop the whole man.

I refuse to believe that the tendency of human nature is always downward.

I know no diplomacy save that of truth.

The spinning wheel is not meant to oust a single man or woman from his or her occupation.

The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly is. We assess the value of education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or of shares in the stock-exchange market. We want to provide only such education as would enable the student to earn more. We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated. The girls, we say, do not have to earn; so why should they be educated? As long as such ideas persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true value of education.

Perfection is only an ideal for man; it cannot be attained, for man is made imperfect.

The story of Ramakrishna is a story of religion in practice. His life enables us to see God face to face.... In this age of skepticism Ramakrishna presents an example of a bright and living faith which gives solace to thousands of men and women who would otherwise have remained without spiritual light.

We dare not enter the kingdom of liberty with mere life-homage to truth and nonviolence.

Whilst power, superimposed, always needs the help of the police and the military, power generated from within should have little or no use of them.

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

History is replete with instances of men, who, by dying with courage and compassion on their lips converted the hearts of their violent opponents.

H. G. Wells was not the only one to mention Churchill and Hitler in the same breath: "Churchill and Hitler are striving to change the nature of their respective countrymen by forcing and hammering violent methods on them. Man may be suppressed in this manner but he cannot be changed. Ahimsa [non-violence in the Hindu tradition], on the other hand, can change human nature and sooner than men like Churchill and Hitler."

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.

I do regard spinning and weaving as a necessary part of any national system of education.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

The purification required is not of untouchables but of the so-called superior castes.

If as a member of a slave nation I could deliver the suppressed classes from their slavery without freeing myself from my own, I would do so today. But it is an impossible task.

I am just not thinking of India's deliverance. It will come, but will it be worth if England and France fall, or if they come out victorious over Germany ruined and humbled?

If I had no sense of humor I should long ago have committed suicide.

Religion is not what you will get after reading all the scriptures of the world. It is not really what is grasped by the grain. It is a heart grasp.

A perfect Muslim is he from whose tongue and hands mankind is safe.

It will be necessary for us Indians - Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Parsis and all others to whom India is their home - to recognize a common flag to live and die for.

Cowardice is not a sign of belief in God.

We, the English educated Indians, often unconsciously make the terrible mistake of thinking that the microscopic minority of the English-speaking Indians is the whole of India.

To a true artist only that face is beautiful which, quite apart from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul.

All the four stages in a man's life are devised by the seers in Hinduism for imposing discipline and self-restraint.

Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution. That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with a view to hurt.

A democrat must be utterly selfless. He must think and dream not in terms of self or of party, but only of democracy.

Nonviolence and cowardice go ill together. True nonviolence is an impossibility without the possession of unadulterated fearlessness.

Was not war itself a crime against God and humanity, and therefore, were not all those who sanctioned, engineered and conducted wars, war criminals?

Ahimsa is one of the world's great principles, which no power on earth can wipe out.

You cannot succeed in one department of life while cheating on another, life is an indivisible whole.

If one does not practice nonviolence in one's own personal relations with others and hopes to use it in bigger affairs, one is vastly mistaken.

It is the acid test of nonviolence that in a nonviolent conflict there is no rancor left behind, and in the end the enemies are converted into friends.

To remove untouchability is a penance that caste Hindus owe to Hinduism and to themselves.