Mahatma Quotes

We burn the evil men do with their mortal remains. We treasure the memory of the good they do, and distance magnifies it. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Exercise of faith will be the safest where there is a clear determination summarily to reject all that is contrary to truth and love. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Character alone will have real effect on the masses. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

It is necessary to correct the error that vegetarianism has made us weak in mind, or passive or inert in action. I do not regard flesh-food as necessary at any stage ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Let it be granted, that according to the letter of the Gita it is possible to say that warfare is consistent with renunciation of fruit. But after forty years' unremitting endeavour fully to enforce the teaching of the Gita in my own life, I have in all humility felt that perfect renunciation is impossible without perfect observance of ahimsa in every shape and form. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Khaddar is an attempt to revise and reverse the process and establish a better relationship between the cities and villages. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I trust men only because I trust God. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

To yield to the threat or actual use of violence is a surrender of one's self respect and religious conviction. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

In Hinduism we have got an admirable foot-rule to measure every shastra and every rule of conduct, and that is truth. ~ 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

Nonviolence is a universal principle and its operation is not limited by a hostile environment. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Once one assumes an attitude of intolerance, there is no knowing where it will take one. Intolerance, someone has said, is violence to the intellect and hatred is violence to the heart. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Faith is a function of the heart ... ~ Mahatma Gandhi

A man, whilst he is dreaming, believes in his dream; he is undeceived only when he is awakened from his slumber. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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

I shall content myself with merely declaring my firm conviction that, for the seeker who would live in fear of God and who would see Him face to face, restraint in diet both as to quantity and quality is as essential as restraint in thought and speech. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

If all were nonviolent, there would be no anarchy and there would be no question of anybody being armed for meeting aggression from without. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Men of stainless character and self purification will easily inspire confidence and automatically purify the atmosphere around them. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I have no weapon but nonviolence. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

The spinning wheel means national consciousness and a contribution by every individual to a definite constructive national work. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Marriage must cease to be a matter of arrangement made by parents for money. ~ 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

Nothing is so aggravating as calmness. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

A certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary, but above a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help. Therefore the ideal of creating an unlimited number of wants and satisfying them seems to be a delusion and a snare. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

For me the present is merged in eternity. I may not sacrifice the latter for the present. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

The only safe and honorable course for a self-respecting man is to do what I have decided to do, that is, to submit without protest to the penalty of disobedience ... not for want of respect for lawful authority, but in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is an active force of the highest order. It is soul force or the power of the godhead within us. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

There are innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are innumerable. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is an intensely active force when properly understood and used. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

There is only one God for us all, whether we find him through the Koran, the Zend-Avesta, The Tolmud, or the Gita. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I know of no system other than Hinduism under which a class has been set apart from generation to generation for the exclusive pursuit of divine knowledge and consigned to voluntary poverty. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

What is a man if he is not a thief who openly charges as much as he can for the goods he sells? ~ Mahatma Gandhi

The dry knowledge of the three R's is not even now, it can never be, a permanent part of the villagers' life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Through realization of freedom of India, I hope to realize and carry on the mission of brotherhood of man. ~ 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

A fear-stricken person can never know God, and one who knows God will never fear a mortal man. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Mass illiteracy is India's sin and shame and must be liquidated. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

All that appears and happens about and around us is uncertain, transient. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I read with interest Max Muller's book, India - What Can It Teach Us? and the translation of the Upanishads published by the Theosophical Society. All this enhanced my regard for Hinduism, and its beauties began to grow upon me. It did not, however, prejudice me against other religions. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

A worker's capital is inexhaustible, incapable of being stolen, and bound to pay him a generous dividend all the time. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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

Yajna having come to us with our birth, we are debtors all our lives, and thus for ever bound to serve the universe. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Carefully watch your thoughts, for they become your words. Manage and watch your words, for they will become your actions. Consider and judge your actions, for they have become your habits. Acknowledge and watch your habits, for they shall become your values. Understand and embrace your values, for they become your destiny. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked, always deserves respect or pity as the case may be. "Hate the sin and not the sinner" is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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

Without satyagraha carried out in the proper spirit, there is no victory, no Swaraj. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Live simply that others might simply live. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Simplicity is the essence of universality. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Violence is the fear to other's ideals. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Why
should I, who have no need to work for food, spin? ' may be the question
asked. Because I am eating what does not belong to me. I am living on the
spoliation of my countrymen. Trace the source of every coin that finds its way
into your pocket, and you will realise the truth of what I write. Every one
must spin. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:
- I shall not fear anyone on Earth.
- I shall fear only God.
- I shall not bear ill will toward anyone.
- I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.
- I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Poqerty is the worst form of violence ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Let's be grateful to all those who came in before us. Grateful to all those men and women, young and old alike, who paved the path forward for us, brick by brick. To those men and women who marched across the bridge in Selma on that great day, those men and women who rallied behind the Gandhis and the Mandelas every single time they were needed, to those men and women who stood up for voting rights and civil rights and gay rights and equality and justice and a free world, those men and women who invented the future by inventing things that fundamentally changed the world from the electricity to vaccinations, from airplanes to birth control pills, from the printing press to the internet. ~ Sharad Vivek Sagar

War with all its glorification of brute force is essentially a degrading thing. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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

Peace is unattained by part performance of conditions, even as a chemical combination is impossible without complete fulfillment of the conditions of attainment thereof. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I want freedom for the full expression of my personality. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Even Ramanama is by itself lifeless, but it has become a living symbol of the deity because millions of people have consecrated it. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Unless discipline is rooted in nonviolence, it might prove to be a source of infinite mischief. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Calling them devadasis we insult God Himself in the name of religion. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Non-co-operation in itself is unnatural, vicious and sinful. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

He who is ever brooding over result often loses nerve in the performance of his duty. He becomes impatient and then gives vent to anger and begins to do unworthy things; he jumps from action to action never remaining faithful to any. He who broods over results is like a man given to objects of senses; he is ever distracted, he says goodbye to all scruples, everything is right in his estimation and he therefore resorts to means fair and foul to attain ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilized - the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

There is no 'as far as possible' on the question of untouchability. If it is to go, it must go in its entirety from the temples as from everywhere else. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

It is no non-violence if we merely love those that love us. It is non-violence only when we love those that hate us. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Healthy, well-informed, balanced criticism is the ozone of public life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

The reaction that a ruthless dictator sets up in us either that of awe or pity according respectively as we react to him violently on nonviolently. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

The punishment of evil doers consists in making them feel ashamed of themselves by doing them a great kindness. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

The force of love is the same as the force of the soul or truth. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

In the very act of my non-co-operation, I am seeking their co-operation in my campaign. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

A votary of ahimsa always prays for ultimate deliverance from the bondage of the flesh. ~ 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

My religion forbids me to belittle or disregard other cultures, as it insists, under pain of civil suicide, upon imbibing and living my own. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

A true man of piety will consider himself a sinner and, therefore, untouchable. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Relationships are based on four principles: respect, understanding, acceptance and appreciation. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

My non-co-operation is a token of my earnest longing for real heart co-operation in the place of co-operation falsely so called. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

A man who is truthful and does not mean ill even to his adversary will be slow to believe charges even against his foes. He will, however, try to understand the viewpoints of his opponents and will always keep an open mind and seek every opportunity of serving his opponents. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Untouchability is an error of long standing. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

It is the function of God Rama to destroy evil, wherever it occurs and it is equally the function of God Rama to give to his devotees like Bibhishana a free charter of irrevocable self-government. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Conservation of national sanitation is Swaraj work and it may not be postponed for a single day on any consideration whatsoever. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Facts mean truth, and once we adhere to truth, the law comes to our aid naturally. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

To get Swaraj is to get rid of our helplessness. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Therefore the Gita is not for those who have no faith. The author makes Krishna say: 'Do not entrust this treasure to him who is without sacrifice, without devotion, without the desire for this teaching and who denies Me. On ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I must try to live in society and yet remain untouched by its pitfalls. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

There is no God higher than the truth. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Prayer is no mere exercise of words or of the ears, it is no mere repetition of empty formula. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

The attack on untouchability is an attack on this high-and low-ness. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

You never know where your actions will lead to. But if you don't do anything they will lead you nowhere. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Every truth is self-acting and possesses inherent strength. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

All my actions have their rise in my inalienable love of mankind. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I may fight the British ruler, but I do not hate the English or their language. In fact, I appreciate their literary treasures. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

To say that God permits evil in the world may not be pleasing to the ear. But if He is held responsible for the good, it follows that He has to be responsible for the evil too. ~ Mahatma Gandhi