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Mahatma Gandhi

276 quotes

“The Indians do not regret that capable natives can exercise the franchise. They would regret if it were otherwise. They, however, assert that they too, if capable, should have the right. You, in your wisdom, would not allow the Indian or the native the precious privilege under any circumstances, because they have a dark skin.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1894 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Times of Natal, October 26, 1894, in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1, pp. 166-67.
“Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address given in Bombay (26 September 1896), Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 1, p. 410 (Electronic Book), New Delhi, Publications Division Government of India, 1999, 98 volumes.
“Why, of all places in Johannesburg, the Indian location should be chosen for dumping down all kaffirs of the town, passes my comprehension. Of course, under my suggestion, the Town Council must withdraw the Kaffirs from the Location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians I must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population, and it is an undue tax on even the proverbial patience of my countrymen.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Dr. Porter, Medical Officer of Health for Johannesburg (15 February 1905); later published in The Indian Opinion.
“In this instance of the fire-arms, the Asiatic has been most improperly bracketed with the native. The British Indian does not need any such restrictions as are imposed by the Bill on the natives regarding the carrying of fire-arms. The prominent race can remain so by preventing the native from arming himself. Is there a slightest vestige of justification for so preventing the British Indian?”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comments on a court case in The Indian Opinion (25 March 1905)
“You say that the magistrate's decision is unsatisfactory because it would enable a person, however unclean, to travel by a tram, and that even the Kaffirs would be able to do so. But the magistrate's decision is quite different. The Court declared that the Kaffirs have no legal right to travel by tram. And according to tram regulations, those in an unclean dress or in a drunken state are prohibited from boarding a tram. Thanks to the Court's decision, only clean Indians or coloured people other than Kaffirs, can now travel in the trams.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1906 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comments on a court case in The Indian Opinion (2 June 1906)
“A general belief seems to prevail in the colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than the savages or natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kafir.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilised—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: My Experience in Gaol", Indian Opinion (7 March 1908). Also: Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, op cit., Vol. 8, p. 199.
“Leo Tolstoy's life has been devoted to replacing the method of violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of nonresistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence by love expressed in selfsuffering. He admits of no exception to whittle down this great and divine law of love. He applies it to all the problems that trouble mankind.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to the publication of Tolstoy's A Letter to a Hindu, Indian opinion, 25 December, (1909)
“We are our own slaves, not of the British. This should be engraved on our minds. The whites cannot remain if we do not want them. If the idea is to drive them out with firearms, let every Indian consider what precious little profit Europe has found in these.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to the publication of Tolstoy's A Letter to a Hindu, Indian opinion, 25 December, (1909)
“In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals.... Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads, so long as we reach the same goal. Wherein is the cause for quarreling?”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The English have taught us that we were not one nation before and that it will require centuries before we become one nation. This is without foundation. We were one nation before they came to India. One thought inspired us. Our mode of life was the same. It was because we were one nation that they were able to establish one kingdom. Subsequently they divided us.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not wish to suggest that because we were one nation we had no differences, but it is submitted that our leading men travelled throughout India . . . They learned one another's languages . . . they saw that India was one undivided land so made by nature. They, therefore, argued that it must be one nation. Arguing thus, they established holy places in various parts of India, and fired the people with an idea of nationality in a manner unknown in other parts of the world. Any two Indians are one as no two Englishmen are.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the objects of a newspaper is to understand popular feeling and to give expression to it; another is to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; and the third is fearlessly to expose popular defects.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India, 2 July 1925, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 27, p. 326.
“We who seek justice will have to do justice to others.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only real, dignified, human doctrine is the greatest good of all, and this can only be achieved by uttermost self-sacrifice.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Adapted from Hind Swaraj, 1909, Chapter 17: Summary, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 10, pp. 83–84.
“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.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an article on dealing with snake bites, published in Indian Opinion dated August 9th, 1913, in the Gujarti language edition, English translation available in the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 12, April 19…
“Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Satyagraha Leaflet No. 13 (3 May 1919)
Also quoted by: マハトマ・ガンジー (ja)
“[I]t is not true that we shall necessarily progress if our political conditions undergo a change, irrespectively of the manner in which it is brought about. If the means employed are impure, the change will not be in the direction of progress but very likely in the opposite.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Gandhi’s Experiments With Truth: Essential Writings by and about Mahatma Gandhi, Richard L. Johnson (edit), Lexington Books (2006) p. 118. Original source: Forward to volume of Gokhale's speeches, Gopal Kri…
“In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (4 August 1920)
“When there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence… I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than to remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India, 11 August 1920, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 21, p. 133.
“Cowardice is impotence worse than violence. The coward desires revenge but being afraid to die, he looks to others… to do the work of defense for him.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India, 11 August 1920, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 21, p. 133.
“For me the only training in Swaraj we need is the ability to defend ourselves against the whole world and to live our natural life in perfect freedom, even though it may be full of defects. Good government is no substitute for self-government.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (2 September 1920) p. 1
“Complete civil disobedience is a state of peaceful revolution, a refusal to obey every single state-made law.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1920-1929), D.G. Tendulkar, Vol. 2, (1920-1929), 2nd edition, Publications Division (1960), p 52
“I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (15 September 1920), reprinted in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 21 (electronic edition), p. 252.
“There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India, 15 November 1920, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 22, p. 169.
“I came in contact with every known Indian anarchist in London. Their bravery impressed me, but I felt that their zeal was misguided. I felt that violence was no remedy for India's ills, and that her civilisation required the use of a different and higher weapon for self-protection.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Word of Explanation" on his work Hind Swaraj (1908) in Young India (January 1921)
“If India adopted the doctrine of love as an active part of her religion and introduced it in her politics. Swaraj would descend upon India from heaven. But I am painfully aware that that event is far off as yet.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Word of Explanation" in Young India (January 1921)
“I have even seen the writings suggesting that I am playing a deep game, that I am using the present turmoil to foist my fads on India, and am making religious experiments at India's expense. I can only answer that Satyagraha is made of sterner stuff. There is nothing reserved and nothing secret in it.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Word of Explanation" in Young India (January 1921)
“The pre-British period was not a period of slavery. We had some sort of swaraj under Mogul rule. In Akbar’s time the birth of a Pratap was possible, and in Aurangzeb’s time a Sivaji could flourish. Has 150 years of British rule produced any Pratap and Sivaji?”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India, April 13, 1921, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol 19, p. 477. Quoted in "Gandhi predicted communal discord would poison education, distort history", The Leaflet , September 5, 2021.
“I would, in a sense, certainly assist the Amir of Afghanistan if he waged war against the British Government. That is to say, I would openly tell my countrymen that it would be a crime to help a government which had lost the confidence of the nation to remain in power.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: May 4, 1921. Gandhi commenting on the appeal to the Amir of Afghanistan to invade British India proposed by some Muslim leaders. Quoted from B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1946)
“It is no part of the duty of a non-violent non-co-operator to assist the Government against war made upon it by others. A non-violent non-co-operator may not secretly or openly encourage or assist any such war. But it is no part of his duty to help the Government to end the war. On the contrary his prayer could be, as it must be, for the defeat of a power which he seeks to destroy. I, therefore, so far as my creed of non-violence is concerned, can contemplate an Afghan invasion with perfect equanimity, and equally so far as India’s safety is concerned.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India, 18-5-1921 quoted in https://archive.org/stream/the-tragic-story-of-partition-hv-sheshasdri/The%20Tragic%20Story%20of%20Partition%20-%20HV%20Sheshasdri_djvu.txt
“It has always been easier to destroy than to create.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India, 8 September 1921, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 25, p. 224.
“There is nothing in the Koran to warrant the use of force for conversion. The holy book says in the clearest language possible, “There is no compulsion in religion.” The Prophet’s whole life is a repudiation of compulsion in religion. No Mussulman, to my knowledge, has ever approved of compulsion. Islam would cease to be a world religion if it were to rely upon force for its propagation.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India, 29-9-1921, in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 21, p. 217.
“The Hindus have written to me complaining that I was responsible for unifying and awakening the Mussalmans and giving prestige to the Moulvis which they never had before. Now that the Khilafat question was over, the awakened Mussalmans have proclaimed a kind of jehad against the Hindu... The tales that are reported. from Bengal of outrages upon Hindu women are the most disquieting if they are even half-true.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India, 1924, quoted in M.A. Karandikar, Islam, 126 quoted in https://archive.org/stream/the-tragic-story-of-partition-hv-sheshasdri/The%20Tragic%20Story%20of%20Partition%20-%20HV%20Sheshasdri_djvu.txt
“I cannot understand why the Ali Brothers are going to be arrested as the rumours go, and why I am to remain free. They have done nothing which I would not do. If they had sent a message to the Amir, I also would send one to inform the Amir that if he came, no Indian so long as I can help it, would help the Government to drive him back.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi (1969), , p. 390.
“I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung. We are, therefore, suffering from galloping consumption. The restoration of the wheel arrests the progress of the fell disease.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Great Sentinel in Young India 13 October 1921
“There is no such thing as slow freedom. Freedom is like a birth. Till we are fully free we are slaves.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (15 December 1921)
“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (15 December 1921)
“I hold the opinion firmly that Civil Disobedience is the purest type of constitutional agitation. Of course, it becomes degrading and despicable if its civil, i.e. non-violent character is a mere camouflage.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (15 December 1921)
“Disobedience without civility, discipline, discrimination, non-violence, is certain destruction. Disobedience combined with love is the living water of life. Civil disobedience is a beautiful variant to signify growth, it is not discordance which spells death.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (1 May 1922)
“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Ethical Religion, (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1922), p. 62, Scan from Harvard University Library (both only work with an U.S. source IP address)
“Any action that is dictated by fear or by coercion of any kind ceases to be moral.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ethical Religion, S. Ganesan, Madras (1922) p. 8
“No action which is not voluntary can be called moral.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ethical Religion, S. Ganesan, Madras (1922) p. 8
“Satan's successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Inwardness of Non-Co-operation". Quoted in Freedom's Battle: Being a Comprehensive Collection of Writings and Speeches (1922), p. 144.
“The only tyrant I accept in this world is the "still small voice" within me. And even though I have to face the prospect of being a minority of one, I humbly believe I have the courage to be in such a hopeless minority.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Young India (2 March 1922). Quoted in The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas edited by Louis Fischer (2002), p. 160.
“Under democracy individual liberty of opinion and action is jealously guarded.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (2 March 1922)
“If one has no affection for a person or a system, one should feel free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite violence.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement during his trial for "exciting disaffection toward His Majesty's Government as established by law in India" (18 March 1922)
Also quoted by: マハトマ・ガンジー (ja)
“Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Opening words of his defense speech at his trial Young India (23 March 1922)
Also quoted by: マハトマ・ガンジー (ja)
“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Written statement in trial for sedition, March 1922
“Always believe in your dreams, because if you don't, you'll still have hope.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (23 March 1924)