Quotes & Sayings About Democracy By Mahatma Gandhi

Democracy, disciplined and enlightened, is the finest thing in the world. — Mahatma Gandhi

A democratic organization has to dare to do the right at all costs. — Mahatma Gandhi

Democracy comes naturally to him who is habituated normally to yield willing obedience to all laws, human or divine. — Mahatma Gandhi

Democracy will break under the strain of apron strings. It can exist only on trust. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

My links with [Mahatma] Gandhi now are very political links because I do not believe there is any other politics available to us in the late twentieth century, a period of a totalitarianism linked with the market. There is really no other way you can do politics and create freedom for people without the kinds of instruments he revived. Civil disobedience is a way to create permanent democracy, perennial democracy, a direct democracy. — Vandana Shiva

Intolerance, discourtesy and harshness ... are taboo in all good society and are surely contrary to the spirit of democracy. — Mahatma Gandhi

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart. — Mahatma Gandhi

The science of nonviolence can alone lead one to pure democracy. — Mahatma Gandhi

Democracy demands patient instruction on it before legislation. — Mahatma Gandhi

If fighting for the legislatures meant a sacrifice of truth and nonviolence, democracy would not be worth a moment's purchase. — Mahatma Gandhi

The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular. — Mahatma Gandhi

The only force at the disposal of democracy is that of public opinion. — Mahatma Gandhi

The science of war leads one to dictatorship, pure and simple. The science of non-violence alone can lead one to pure democracy. Power based on love is thousand times more effective and permanent than power derived from fear of punishment. It is a blasphemy to say non-violence can be practiced only by individuals and never by nations which are composed of individuals. The nearest approach to purest anarchy would be a democracy based on non-violence. A society organized and run on the basis of complete non-violence would be the purest anarchy. — Mahatma Gandhi

The spirit of democracy ... requires change of the heart ... requires the inculcation of the spirit of brotherhood. — Mahatma Gandhi

Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today. — Mahatma Gandhi

Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood. — Mahatma Gandhi

Will Great Britain have an unwilling India dragged into war or a willing ally co-operating with her in the prosecution of a defence of true democracy? — Mahatma Gandhi

Democracy and violence can ill go together. — Mahatma Gandhi

The voice of the people may be said to be God's voice, the voice of the Panchayat. — Mahatma Gandhi

I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong. — Mahatma Gandhi

My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the strongest ... no country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak ... Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism ... true democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village. — Mahatma Gandhi

Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep. — Mahatma Gandhi

A born democrat is a born disciplinarian. — Mahatma Gandhi

The spirit of democracy cannot be superimposed from the outside. It must come from within. — Mahatma Gandhi

What kind of victory is it when someone is left defeated? What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy. What is a war criminal? Was not war itself a crime against God and humanity, and, therefore, were not all those who sanctioned, engineered and conducted wars, war criminals? The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty. — Mahatma Gandhi

Democracy necessarily means a conflict of will and ideas, involving sometimes a war of the knife between different ideas. — Mahatma Gandhi

People in a democracy should be satisfied with drawing the Government's attention to a mistake, if any. — Mahatma Gandhi

True democracy is not inconsistent with a few persons representing the spirit, the hope and the aspirations of those whom they claim to represent. — Mahatma Gandhi

Islam was nothing if it did not spell complete democracy. — Mahatma Gandhi

Democracy is an impossible thing until the power is shared by all, but let not democracy degenerate into mobocracy. — Mahatma Gandhi

Democracy and dependence on the military and police are incompatible. — Mahatma Gandhi

No perfect democracy is possible without perfect nonviolence at the back of it. — Mahatma Gandhi

In the days of democracy there is no such thing as active loyalty to a person. You are, therefore, loyal or disloyal to institutions. — Mahatma Gandhi

Democracy is a great institution and, therefore, it is liable to be greatly abused. — Mahatma Gandhi

To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect and their oneness, and should insist upon choosing as their representatives only such persons as are good and true. — Mahatma Gandhi

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy? — Mahatma Gandhi

The very essence of democracy is that every person represents all the varied interests which compose the nation. — Mahatma Gandhi