Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

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

My creed of nonviolence does not favour the punishment of thieves and dacoits and even murderers.

I would like to bury myself in an Indian village, preferably in a Frontier village.

I see neither bravery nor sacrifice in destroying life or property, for offense or defense.

Human life is a series of compromises, and it is not always easy to achieve in practice what one has found to be true in theory.

Fearlessness presupposes calmness and peace of mind.

How can I even secretly harbour the thought that my neighbour's faith is inferior to mine?

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.

What is really needed to make democracy function is not knowledge of facts, but right education.

When we fear God, then we shall fear no man, however high-placed he may be.

Journalism should never be prostituted for selfish ends or for the sake of merely earning a livelihood or, worse still, for amassing money.

My fast is, among other things, meant to qualify me for achieving that equal and selfless love.

I have no secret methods. I know no diplomacy save that of truth. I have no weapon but non-violence.

One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals.

Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent.

A person who believes in nonviolence believes in a living God. He cannot accept defeat.

God makes crooked straight for us and sets things right when they seem to go dead wrong.

Satyagraha as conceived by me is a science in the making.

My national service is part of my training for freeing my soul from the bondage of the flesh.

Non-co-operation is the nation's notice that it is no longer satisfied to be in tutelage.

Economic equality is the master-key to nonviolent independence.

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

Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world.

I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung.

A samagra gramsevak must know everybody living in the village and render them such service as he possibly can.

A journalist's peculiar function is to read the mind of the country and to give definite and fearless expression to that mind.

Even if masses of people were to burn khadi publicly and say that it is an insane programme, I will declare that those people have gone mad.

A vow must lead one upwards, never downwards towards perdition.

Religions are not for separating men from one another, they are meant to bind them.

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

To run away from danger, instead of facing it, is to deny one's faith in man and God, even one's own self. It were better for one to drown oneself than live to declare such bankruptcy of faith.

Civil disobedience does not admit of any violence or countenancing of violence directly or indirectly.

The spinning wheel is the one thing to which all must turn to in the Indian clime for the transition stage at any rate and the vast majority must for all time.

My religion has no geographical limits.

I want co-operation between nations for the salvaging of civilization, but co-operation presupposes free nations worthy of co-operation.

I should wish to die if a man who is impure should parade his purity in front of me.

The Bible is as much a book of religion with me as the Gita and the Koran.

The principle of majority does not work when differences on fundamentals are involved.

God rules even where Satan seems to hold sway, because the latter exists only on God's sufferance.

I could not be leading a religious life unless I identified myself with the whole of mankind, and that I could not do unless I took part in politics.

The nation's non-co-operation is an invitation to the Government to co-operate with it on its own terms, as is every nation's right and every good government's duty.

Nonviolent non-co-operation with evil means co-operation with all that is good.

Ahimsa and Truth are my two lungs. I cannot live without them.

My Swaraj takes note of bhangis, dheds, dublas and the weakest of the weak, and except the spinning wheel I know no other thing which befriends all these.

A man or a woman who serves the country with all his or her heart stands on par with the tallest Congress-man.

The world is changing every moment, and is therefore unreal. It has non permanent existence.

Satyagraha, of which civil resistance is but a part, is to me the universal law of life.

Man is not at peace with himself till he has become like unto God.

I claim to represent all the cultures, for my religion, whatever it may be called, demands the fulfillment of all the cultures.

Nonviolence being the mightiest force in the world and also the most elusive in its working, demands the greatest exercise of faith.