Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.

Where there is love there is life.

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French.

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

It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife.

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.

Man is supposed to be the maker of his destiny. It is only partly true. He can make his destiny, only in so far as he is allowed by the Great Power.

Action expresses priorities.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

Let not the 12 million Negroes be ashamed of the fact that they are the grandchildren of slaves. There is dishonor in being slave-owners.

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.

Sense perceptions can be and often are false and deceptive, however real they may appear to us. Where there is realization outside the senses, it is infallible. It is proved not by extraneous evidence but in the transformed conduct and character of those who have felt the real presence of God within.

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.

I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another.

One’s own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one’s Maker and no one else’s.

Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.

It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful?

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.

There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian.

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness.

To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body.

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.

Prayer is a confession of one’s own unworthiness and weakness.

Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.

God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us.

I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.

Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.

Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.

Non-violence is the article of faith.

The good man is the friend of all living things.

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.

Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force.

God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.

But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

The real ornament of woman is her character, her purity.

Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?

I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.

We should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.

Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

I did once seriously think of embracing the Christian faith. The gentle figure of Christ, so full of forgiveness that he taught his followers not to retaliate when abused or struck, but to turn the other cheek – I thought it was a beautiful example of the perfect man.

Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.

I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God’s creation, woman, the object of our lust.

Poverty is the worst form of violence.

Self-respect knows no considerations.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realising Him.

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.

Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

I know, to banish anger altogether from one’s breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God’s grace.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent.

My life is my message.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.

I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.

Peace is its own reward.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Truth never damages a cause that is just.

It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.

Each one prays to God according to his own light.

If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.

Faith… must be enforced by reason… when faith becomes blind it dies.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.

A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.

Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.

Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.

The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.