Gandhi Nonviolence Quotes & Sayings

Complete independence will be complete only to the extent of our approach in practice to truth and nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

Truth stands for the fact, nonviolence negates the fact. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence requires more courage than the soldier of war. — 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

A country whose culture is based on nonviolence will find it necessary to have every home as much self-contained as possible. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

The fragrance of nonviolence was never sweeter than it was today amidst the stink of violence of the most cowardly type that was being displayed in the cities of India. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

I have been practicing, with scientific precision, nonviolence and its possibilities for an unbroken period of over fifty years. — Mahatma Gandhi

Carrying arms for the removal of the Arms Act can never fall under any scheme of nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

I will not have the power of nonviolence to be underestimated in order to cover my limitations or weaknesses. — Mahatma Gandhi

So many people around the world have used nonviolence as a way to resolve a conflict that they faced in their lives. And they continue to use it everywhere all over the world there. And I think, in a way, nonviolence is our nature. Violence is not really our nature. If violence was our nature, we wouldn't need military academies and martial arts institutes to teach us how to kill and destroy people. We ought to have been born with those instincts. But the fact that we have to learn the art of killing means that it's a learned experience. And we can always unlearn it. — Arun Manilal Gandhi

Nonviolence is the means, the end for everyone is complete independence. — Mahatma Gandhi

Unless you go on discovering new applications of the law of nonviolence, you do not profit by it. — Mahatma Gandhi

There is no such thing as compulsion in the scheme of nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is an unchangeable creed. It has to be pursued even in face of violence raging around you. — Mahatma Gandhi

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. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

In our struggle against racial segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, I came to see at a very early stage that a synthesis of Gandhi's method of nonviolence and the Christian ethic of love is the best weapon available to Negroes for this struggle for freedom and human dignity. It may well be that the Gandhian approach will bring about a solution to the race problem in America. His spirit is a continual reminder to oppressed people that it is possible to resist evil and yet not resort to violence. — Martin Luther King Jr.

To one who reads the spirit of the Gita, it teaches the secret of nonviolence, the secret of realizing self through the physical body. — Mahatma Gandhi

My creed of nonviolence is an extremely active force. — Mahatma Gandhi

If God holds me to be a pure instrument for the spread of nonviolence in place of the awful violence now ruling the earth, He will give me the strength and show me the way. — Mahatma Gandhi

Unless we learn the lesson of nonviolence fully, we shall never do away with the deadly feuds which have been the curse of the Frontier people. — Mahatma Gandhi

The power of unarmed nonviolence is any day far superior to that of armed force. — Mahatma Gandhi

There is nothing but nonviolence to fall back upon for retaining our freedom, even as we had to do for gaining it. — Mahatma Gandhi

You cannot build nonviolence on a factory civilization, but it can be built on self-contained villages. — Mahatma Gandhi

It is much more difficult to live for nonviolence than to die for it. — Mahatma Gandhi

Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent. — Mahatma Gandhi

When a man vowed to nonviolence as the law governing human beings dares to refer to war, he can only do it so as to strain every nerve to avoid it. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is not merely a personal virtue. It is also a social virtue to be cultivated like other virtues. — Mahatma Gandhi

The weapon of nonviolence does not need supermen or superwomen to wield it; even beings of common clay can use it and have used it before this with success. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence of the strong is infinitely braver than their violence. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence does not require any outside or outward training. — Mahatma Gandhi

India has an unbroken tradition of nonviolence from times immemorial. — Mahatma Gandhi

In a plan of life based on nonviolence, woman has as much right to shape her own destiny as man has to shape his. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger ... Between violence and cowardly flight I can only prefer violence to cowardice. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolent defence presupposes recklessness about one's life and property. — Mahatma Gandhi

Active nonviolence is necessary for those who will offer civil disobedience but the will and proper training are enough for the people to co-operate with those who are chosen for civil disobedience. — Mahatma Gandhi

There can be no nonviolence offered by the militarily strong. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is the law of the human race and is infinitely greater than, and superior to, brute force. — Mahatma Gandhi

Love is a rare herb that makes a friend even of a sworn enemy and this herb grows out of nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed. — Mahatma Gandhi

A little of true nonviolence acts in a silent, subtle, unseen way and leavens the whole society. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence cannot be learnt by staying at home. — Mahatma Gandhi

The way to truth lies through ahimsa (nonviolence). — Mahatma Gandhi

The rishis, who discovered the law of nonviolence in the midst of violence, were greater geniuses than Newton. — Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi rejects the Adam Smith notion of human nature as motivated by self-interest and brute needs and returns us to our spiritual dimension with its impulses for nonviolence, justice and equality. He exposes the fallacy of the claim that everyone can be rich and successful provided they work hard. He points to the millions who work themselves to the bone and still remain hungry. — Nelson Mandela

Nonviolence is impossible without humility. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence to be worth anything has to work in the face of hostile forces. — Mahatma Gandhi

I might be ready to embrace a snake, but, if one comes to bite you, I should kill it and protect you. — Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi was such an important figure to the pacifists of the '30s, and he was such an extraordinary embodiment of nonviolence, that I thought it was necessary to have him in there. When he would say something about the war, it was to some extent news - and he was sure to have a response that was different from that of other world leaders. — Nicholson Baker

The very word Islam means peace, which is nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

The Charkha is the symbol of nonviolence on which all life, if it is to be real life, must be based. — Mahatma Gandhi

The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence in the sense of mere non-killing does not appear to me, therefore, to be of any improvement on the technique of violence. — Mahatma Gandhi

The nonviolence I teach is active nonviolence of the strongest. But the weakest can partake in it without becoming weaker. — Mahatma Gandhi

If my nonviolence is to be contagious and infectious, I must acquire greater control over my thoughts. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

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

What can be richer and more fruitful than a greater fulfillment of the vow of nonviolence in thought, word and deed or the spread of that spirit? — Mahatma Gandhi

Truth and nonviolence are perhaps the activest forces you have in the world. — Mahatma Gandhi

The universe is not for man alone, but is a theater of evolution for all living beings. Live and let live is its guiding principle. 'Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah' - Non-injury is the highest religion. — Virchand Gandhi

Most Americans think of Rosa Parks as a demur, pleasant-enough seamstress who backed into history by being too tired to get out of her seat on a bus one day, in reality she had been trained in nonviolence spirit and tactics at a famous institution, Highlander Folk School. It seems to be a difficult concept for most of us that peace is a skill that can be learned. We know war can be learned, but we seem to think that one becomes a peacemaker by a mere change of heart. (23) — Mahatma Gandhi

The basis of Gandhi's nonviolence is to appeal to the good in others and evoke sympathy to one's cause through self-suffering. — Arun Gandhi

Nonviolence is a quality not of the body but of the soul. — Mahatma Gandhi

Truth and nonviolence are both the means and the end, and given the right type of men, the legislatures can be the means of achieving the concrete pursuit of truth and nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence, when it becomes active, travels with extraordinary velocity, and then it becomes a miracle. — Mahatma Gandhi

Through Gandhi and my own life experience, I have learned about nonviolence. I believe that human life is a very special gift from God, and that no one has a right to take that away in any cause, however just. I am convinced that nonviolence is more powerful than violence. — Cesar Chavez

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. — Mahatma Gandhi

To my mind, Swaraj based on nonviolence is the fulfillment of the constructive programme. — Mahatma Gandhi

My nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving the dear ones unprotected. — Mahatma Gandhi

Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Ours has not been unadulterated nonviolence in thought, word and deed. — Mahatma Gandhi

The man or the woman who can display the nonviolence of the brave can easily stand against as external invasion. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is a universal law acting under all circumstances. — 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

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

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

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

If people knew the working of the law of truth and nonviolence, then they would themselves regulate the matter of its shortage. — Mahatma Gandhi

My faith in truth and nonviolence is ever growing, and as I am ever trying to follow them in my life, I too am growing every moment. — Mahatma Gandhi

To me Truth is God and there is no way to find Truth except the way of nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

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

Our struggle consists in showing that our nonviolence is neither a cloak to hide our violence or hatred, nor a preparation for violence in the near or distant future. — Mahatma Gandhi

Although I was too tactful to ask about politics or religion, I learned that she was socially and economically progressive. She believed in birth control, gun control, and rent control; she believed in the liberation of homosexuals and civil rights for all; she believed in Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thich Nhat Hanh; she believed in nonviolence, world peace, and yoga; she believed in the revolutionary potential of disco and the United Nations of nightclubs; she believed in national self-determination for the Third World as well as liberal democracy and regulated capitalism, which was, she said, to believe that the invisible hand of the market should wear the kid glove of socialism. Her — Viet Thanh Nguyen

The nation cannot be kept on the nonviolent path by violence. — Mahatma Gandhi

For me nonviolence is a creed. I must act up to it, whether I am alone or have companions. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is something very powerful, and the power behind it is not weapons, but the support of the people. — Arun Manilal Gandhi

Even a believer in nonviolence has to say between two combatants which is less bad or whose cause is just. — Mahatma Gandhi

There is no hope for the aching world except through the narrow and straight path of nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is not a weapon of the weak. It is a weapon of the strongest and bravest. — Mahatma Gandhi

I have no weapon but nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

My mission is to convert every Indian, every Englishman and finally the world to nonviolence for regulating mutual relations, whether political, economic, social or religious. — Mahatma Gandhi

My life is dedicated to the service of Indians through the religion of nonviolence which I believe to be the root of Hinduism. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is not an easy thing to understand, still less to practice, weak as we are. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is the summit of bravery. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice - nonviolence springs from love, cowardice from hate. — Mahatma Gandhi

I believe, with Gandhi, that we need to take an imaginative leap forward toward fresh and generous idealism for the sake of all humanity - that we neeed to renew this ancient wisdom of nonviolence, to strive for a disarmed world, and to create a culture of nonviolence. — Mairead Corrigan