Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Boycott of foreign cloth through picketing may easily be violent; through the use of khadi it is most natural and absolutely nonviolent.

A truly nonviolent man would never live to tell the tale of atrocities. He would have laid down his life on the spot in non-violent resistance.

Those who have their hands dyed deep in blood cannot build a nonviolent order for the world.

A nonviolent warrior knows no leaving the battle. He rushes into the mouth of himsa, never even once harbouring an evil thought.

A complete fast is a complete and literal denial of self. It is the truest prayer.

Buddhism in one long prayer.

A congregational prayer is a means for establishing essential human unity though common worship.

Never own defeat in a sacred cause and make up your minds henceforth that you will be pure and that you will find a response from God.

It is necessary first to purify the drunken and dissolute worshippers in charge of some of these temples.

Civil disobedience can only lead to strength and purity.

Like the watch, the heart needs the winding of purity, or the Dweller ceases to speak.

Ramanama is for the pure at heart and for those who want to attain purity and remain pure.

Tulsidas's Ramayana is a notable book because it is informed with the spirit of purity, pity and piety.

All religions were, at bottom, one, though they differed in detail and outward form like the leaves on a tree.

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

Religions are different roads converging to the same point.

Religion to be true must satisfy what may be termed humanitarian economics, that is, where the income and the expenditure balance each other.

A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb.

Religion is not like a house or a cloak which can be changed at will.

All religions teach that two opposite forces act upon us and the human endeavour consists in a series of eternal rejections and acceptances.

All religions are branches of the same mighty tree, but I must not change over from one branch to another for the sake of expediency.

A religion cannot be sustained by the number of its lip-followers denying in their lives its tenets.

The highest fulfillment of religion requires a giving up of all possessions.

The external is in no way the essence of religion, but the external often proclaims the internal.

True material welfare is never inconsistent with performance of religious obligations.

It is not part of religion to breed buffaloes or, for that matter, cows.

I desire no honour if I have to conceal my religious beliefs in order to have it.

It was through the Hindu religion that I learnt to respect Christianity and Islam.

My religion is a matter solely between my Maker and myself.

If we import compulsion in matters of religion, there is no doubt that we shall be committing suicide.

Belief in one God is the cornerstone of all religions.

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

Even a little of dharma saves one from many a pitfall.

Politics bereft of religion is absolute dirt, ever to be shunned.

True religion being the greatest thing in life and in the world, has been exploited the most.

To benefit by others' killing and to delude oneself into the belief that one is being very religions and nonviolent is sheer self-deception.

No Indian who aspires to follow the way of true religion can afford to remain aloof from politics.

Any imposition from without means compulsion. Such compulsion is repugnant to religion.

Every person, as every institution, and, above all, every religion is to be judged not by the amount of atrocities or the wrong committed but by the right conduct.

Satyagraha is a process of educating public opinion, such that it covers all the elements of the society and in the end makes itself irresistible.

All satyagraha and fasting is a species of tyaga. It depends for its effects upon an expression of wholesome public opinion shorn of all bitterness.

The fight of satyagraha is for the strong in spirit, not the doubter or the timid. Satyagraha teaches us the art of living as well as dying.

Satyagraha is a law for universal application. Beginning with the family, its use can be extended to every other circle.

Satyagraha and civil disobedience and fasts have nothing in common with the use of force, veiled or open.

Satyagraha is a purely spiritual weapon.

Satyagraha thrives on repression till at last the repressor is tired of it and the object of satyagraha is gained.

In satyagraha, a courted imprisonment carries its own praise.

The pilgrimage to Swaraj is a painful climb.

For winning Swaraj one requires iron discipline.

Swaraj will favour Hinduism no more than Islam, nor Islam more than Hinduism.