Gandhi Mahatma Quotes & Sayings

Satyagraha does not begin and end with civil disobedience. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

If any Englishman dedicated his life to securing the freedom of India, resisting tyranny and serving the land, I should welcome that Englishman as an Indian. — Mahatma Gandhi

Peace is neither taken nor given, only recognized within. — Mahatma Gandhi

If there is any substance in what I have said, will not the great missionary bodies of India, to whom she owes a deep debt of gratitude for what they have done and are doing, do still better and serve the spirit of Christianity better by dropping the goal of proselytising while continuing their philanthropic work? — Mahatma Gandhi

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. — Mahatma Gandhi

My modesty has prevented me from declaring from the house top that the message of non-co-operation, nonviolence and swadeshi is a message to the world. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence to be a creed has to be all-pervasive. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence succeeds only when we have a real living faith in God. — Mahatma Gandhi

A satyagrahi is sometimes bound to use language which is capable of two meanings, provided both the meanings are obvious and necessary and there is no intention to deceive anyone. — Mahatma Gandhi

Heroes are made in the hour of defeat. Success is, therefore, well described as a series of glorious defeats. — Mahatma Gandhi

Complete independence through truth and non-violence means the independence of every unit, be it the humblest of the nation, without distinction of race, colour or creed. — Mahatma Gandhi

If we have lost faith in our vernaculars, it is a sign of want of faith in ourselves; it is the surest sign of decay. — Mahatma Gandhi

Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals. - MAHATMA GANDHI — Pema Chodron

What is imprisonment to the man who is fearless of death itself? — Mahatma Gandhi

History is a record of perpetual wars, but we are now trying to make new history. — Mahatma Gandhi

Friendship that insists upon agreement on all things isn't worth the name. — Mahatma Gandhi

The weak can never forgive. — Mahatma Gandhi

The Charkha is an outward symbol of truth and nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

people who have made India awesome aren't all politicians. Most of the people that did this are not from the government. Whether it is entrepreneurs like J.R.D. Tata and N.R. Narayana Murthy, sportspersons like Sachin Tendulkar or musicians like A.R. Rahman, people from all walks of life have helped improve our nation. Not just celebrities, but E. Sreedharan, responsible for the Delhi Metro, and Dr Verghese Kurien, who created the Amul revolution, were all ordinary people doing their work extraordinarily well. Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda, two of the most influential figures in India's history, never held political office. Aim to be one of those people who made India awesome. — Chetan Bhagat

For a bowl of water give a goodly meal; For a kindly greeting bow thou down with zeal; For a simple penny pay thou back with gold; If thy life be rescued, life do not withhold. Thus the words and actions of the wise regard; Every little service tenfold they reward. But the truly noble know all men as one, And return with gladness good for evil done. — Mahatma Gandhi

Golden fetters are no less galling to a self-respecting man that iron ones; the sting lies in the fetters, not in the metal. — Mahatma Gandhi

In matters concerning religion, I consider myself not a child but an adult with 35 years of experience. — Mahatma Gandhi

There goes my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader. — Mahatma Gandhi

A convert's enthusiasm for his new religion is greater than that of a person who is born in it. — Mahatma Gandhi

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. — Mahatma Gandhi

Hate the sin, love the sinner. — Mahatma Gandhi

No society can possibly be built on a denial of individual freedom. — Mahatma Gandhi

If a single man achieves the highest kind of love, it will be sufficient to neutralize the hate of millions. — Mahatma Gandhi

All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul. — Mahatma Gandhi

We labor under the fatal delusion that no disease can be cured without medicine. This has been responsible for more mischief to mankind than any other evil ... Disease increases in proportion to the increase to the number of doctors in a place. — Mahatma Gandhi

It is my firm faith that man is by nature going higher. — Mahatma Gandhi

The still small voice within you must always be the final arbiter when there is a conflict of duty. — Mahatma Gandhi

There is no such thing as slow freedom. Freedom is like a birth. Till we are fully free we are slaves. All birth takes place in a moment. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

I have known only one way of carrying on missionary work, viz., by personal example and discussion with searchers for knowledge. — Mahatma Gandhi

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so. — Mahatma Gandhi

My love of nationalism is that my country may become free, and if need be, the whole of the country die, so that the human race may live. — Mahatma Gandhi

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. — Mahatma Gandhi

A personal selfish prayer is bad whether made before an image or an unseen God. — Mahatma Gandhi

In a strictly scientific sense God is at the bottom of both good and evil. — Mahatma Gandhi

We labour under a sort of superstition that the child has nothing to learn during the first five years of its life. On the contrary the fact is that the child never learns in after-life what it does in its first five years. — Mahatma Gandhi

When I see a cow, it is not an animal to eat, it is a poem of pity for me and I worship it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world. — Mahatma Gandhi

We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do. — Mahatma Gandhi

Let us remember that we are all Indians eating Indian grain and salt, and living on the dumb Indian masses. — Mahatma Gandhi

Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong, but of the weak. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

It is the law of love that rules mankind. Had violence, i.e. hate, rules us we would have become extinct long ago. And yet, the tragedy of it is that the so-called civilised men and nations conduct themselves as if the basis of society was violence. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

A satyagrahi has always his minimum and it is this minimum that is wanted in connection with this struggle. — Mahatma Gandhi

I worship the God that is Truth or Truth which is God through the service of these millions. — Mahatma Gandhi

If what passed as nonviolence does not enable people to protect the honour of women, or if it does not enable women to protect their own honour, it is not nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

He who runs may see that opium and such other intoxicants and narcotics stupefy a man's soul and reduce him to a level lower than that of beasts. — Mahatma Gandhi

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. — Mahatma Gandhi

How do you know if the next act you are about to do is the right one or the wrong one? Consider the face of the poorest and most vulnerable human being that you have ever chanced upon, and ask yourself if the act that you contemplate will be of benefit to that person; and if it will be, it's the right thing to do, and if not, rethink it. — Mahatma Gandhi

Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lust for martyrdom. — Mahatma Gandhi

If you want a change in the world, be the change — Mahatma Gandhi

To know music is to transfer it to life. — Mahatma Gandhi

I would risk violence a thousand times rather than risk the emasculation of the whole race. — Mahatma Gandhi

The first principal of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating. — Mahatma Gandhi

Freedom battles are not fought without paying heavy prices. — Mahatma Gandhi

I must refuse to believe that the Germans contemplate with equanimity the evacuation of cities like London for fear of destruction to be wrought by man's inhuman ingenuity. — Mahatma Gandhi

God in his wisdom circumscribed man's vision, and rightly too, for otherwise man's conceit would know no bounds. — Mahatma Gandhi

Your right is to work, and not to expect the fruit. The slave-owner tells the slave: 'Mind your work, but beware lest you pluck a fruit from the garden. Yours is to take what I give.' God has put us under restriction in the same manner. He tells us that we may work if we wish, but that the reward of work is entirely for Him to give. Our duty is to pray to Him, and the best way in which we can do this is to work with the pick-axe, to remove scum from the river and to sweep and clean our yards. This, certainly, is a difficult lesson to learn. — Mahatma Gandhi

No human being is so bad as to be beyond redemption. — Mahatma Gandhi

The woman has circumvented man in a variety of ways in her unconsciously subtle ways, as the man has vainly and equally consciously struggled to thwart the woman in gaining ascendancy over him. — Mahatma Gandhi

Just as there are signs by which you can recognize violence with the naked eye, so is the spinning wheel to me a decisive sign of nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

About the same time I came in contact with another Christian family. At their suggestion I attended the Wesleyan church every Sunday. For these days I also had their standing invitation to dinner. The church did not make a favourable impression on me. The sermons seemed to be uninspiring. The congregation did not strike me as being particularly religious. They were not an assembly of devout souls; they appeared rather to be wordly-minded people, going to church for recreation and in conformity to custom. Here, at times, I would involuntarily doze. I was ashamed, but some of my neighbours, who were in no better case, lightened the shame. I could not go on long like this, and soon gave up attending the service. — Mahatma Gandhi

Bravery on the battlefield is impossible for us. Bravery of the soul still remains open to us. — Mahatma Gandhi

If you are left with only one piece of homespun,wear it with dignity — Mahatma Gandhi

We keep waiting for another Mahatma to make a difference in our society and nation. Well it is time to stop waiting. The mantra is "I change to change India". Which means each of us is the Mahatma and has the power to change this nation. Failing which we shall never change for the better. — Jeroninio Almeida

Women are special custodians of all that is pure and religious in life. — Mahatma Gandhi

Punishment is God's. He alone is the infallible Judge. — Mahatma Gandhi

It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say. — Mahatma Gandhi

I am a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. — Abdurrahman Wahid

Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

Nonviolence is not a cloistered virtue, confined only to the rishi and the cave-dweller. — Mahatma Gandhi

To a people famishing and idle, the only acceptable form in which God can dare appear is work and promise of food as wages. — Mahatma Gandhi

Yajna is duty to be performed, or service to be rendered, all twenty-four hours of the day. — Mahatma Gandhi

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nationalism, like virtue, has its own reward. — Mahatma Gandhi

The man has not the power to create life. Therefore, he has not either, the right to destroy it. — Mahatma Gandhi

The removal of untouchability is one of the highest expressions of ahimsa. — Mahatma Gandhi

One may detest the wickedness of a brother without hating him. — Mahatma Gandhi

Hinduism has absorbed the best of all the faiths of the world and in that sense Hinduism is not an exclusive religion. — Mahatma Gandhi

It is my conviction that the root of evil is the want of a living God. — Mahatma Gandhi

Rama was not only on the lips of Hanuman. He was enthroned in his heart. He gave Hanuman exhaustless strength. — Mahatma Gandhi

A government builds its prestige upon the apparently voluntary association of the governed. — Mahatma Gandhi

We find the general work of mankind is being carried on from day to day by the mass of people acting in harmony as if by instinct. If they were instinctively violent, the world would end in no time. — Mahatma Gandhi

Sympathy is what you have for someone after they die, pity you have for someone when they don't have a date to the biggest dance of the year. Empathy is what I do to you when you judge me. Envy is having pity on yourself. Can you discern the rest for yourself? — Mahatma Gandhi

A born democrat is a born disciplinarian. — Mahatma Gandhi

An ideal sanctified by the sacrifices of such master spirits as Lenin cannot go in vain, the noble example of their renunciation will be emblazoned for ever and quicken and purify the ideal as time passes. — Mahatma Gandhi

All the religions of the world describe God pre-eminently as the Friend of the friendless, Help of the helpless, and Protector of the weak. — Mahatma Gandhi

A devotee of Truth may not do anything in deference to convention. He must always hold himself open to correction, and whenever he discovers himself to be wrong he must confess it at all costs and atone for it. — Mahatma Gandhi

Indeed the very word, nonviolence, a negative word, means that it is an effort to abandon the violence that is inevitable in life. — Mahatma Gandhi

The only real and reliable guarantee for khadi would be honesty, truthfulness and sincerity of khadi workers. — Mahatma Gandhi

God alone is the judge of true greatness because He knows men's hearts. — Mahatma Gandhi

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following. — Mahatma Gandhi

Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth and the soul requires inward restfulness to attain its full height. — Mahatma Gandhi