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Mahatma Gandhi
276 quotes
“It would be a great things, a brave thing, for the Hindus to achieve act of self-denial.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (12 March 1931), Selections from Gandhi (1950), Nirmal Kumar Bose, p. 161.
“My implicit faith in non-violence does mean yielding to minorities when they are really weak. The best way to weaken communalists is to yield to them. Resistance will only rouse their suspicion and strengthen their opposition. A satyagrahi resists when there is threat of force behind obstruction. I know that I do not carry the Congressmen in general with me in this to me appears as very sensible and practical point of view. But if we are to come to Swaraj through non-violent means, I know that this point of view will be accepted.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (2 July 1931), Selections from Gandhi (1950), Nirmal Kumar Bose, p. 161.
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview to the Press" in Karachi about the execution of Bhagat Singh (23 March 1931); published in Young India (2 April 1931), reprinted in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Online Vol. 51. Gandhi begins by making a s…
“On all occasions of trial He has saved me. I know that the phrase 'God saved me' has a deeper meaning for me today, and still I feel that I have not yet grasped its entire meaning. Only richer experience can help me to a fuller understanding. But in all my trials — of a spiritual nature, as a lawyer, in conducting institutions, and in politics — I can say that God saved me. When every hope is gone, 'when helpers fail and comforts flee', I experience that help arrives somehow, from I know not where.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (24 April 1931), p. 274
“I say without fear of my figures being successfully challenged that India today is more illiterate than it was before a fifty or hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root and left the root like that and the beautiful tree perished.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahatma Gandhi, Speech at Chatham House, London, on October 20, 1931. Quoted in Essential Writings of Dharampal by Dharampal, and quoted in S.R. Goel, Hindu Society under siege
“England has got successful competitors in America, Japan, France, Germany. It has competitors in the handful of mills in India, and as there has been an awakening in India, even so there will be an awakening in South Africa with its vastly richer resources — natural, mineral, and human. The mighty English look quite pigmies before the mighty races of Africa. They are noble savages, after all, you will say. They are certainly noble, but no savages and in the course of a few years the Western nations may cease to find in Africa a dumping ground for their wares.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement at Oxford (24 October 1931), published in Young India Vol. 13 (1931), p. 355
“If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children; and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won't have to struggle, we won't have to pass fruitless idle resolutions. But we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which, consciously or unconsciously, the whole world is hungering.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (19 November 1931, p. 361)
“Vegetarians should have that moral basis—that a man was not born a carnivorous animal, but born to live on the fruits and herbs that the earth grows.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Meeting of London Vegetarian Society (20 November 1931), in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (New Delhi: Publications Division Government of India, 1999 electronic edition), Volume 54, p. 189.
“I favor a unified calendar for the whole world, just as I am in favor of one currency for all coun- tries and a world auxiliary language such as Esperanto for all peoples.” or sometimes “I am for the same calendar for the whole world, as I am for the same currency for all the people and a world auxiliary language like the Esperanto for all the people.” (only one source is not esperantist, and the only source that gives a date is esperantist and doesn’t name the involved recipient of the said letter)”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A letter”, 1931, attributed in American Esperanto Magazine, november-december 1949
“I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage—an inexorable demand—that we should cease to kill our fellow-creatures for satisfaction of our bodily wants.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Meeting in Lausanne (8 December 1931), in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (New Delhi: Publications Division Government of India, 1999 electronic edition), Volume 54, p. 272.
“I regard myself as a soldier, though a soldier of peace.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Victoria Hall, Geneva (10 December 1931)
“I do not believe in the doctrine of the greatest number. It means in its nakedness that in order to achieve the supposed good of 51 per cent the interests of 49 per cent may be, or rather, should be sacrificed. It is a heartless doctrine and has done harm to humanity.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Dairy of Mahadev Desai, (June 4, 1932) p. 149
“I have nothing of the communalist in me, because my Hinduism is all-inclusive.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Bombay Chronicle, 29-11-1932, in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 52, p. 71.
“To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse than starving the body.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, 15 April 1933,also in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 52, p. 77.
“But religion is not like a house or a cloak which can be changed at will. It is more an integral part of one's self than of one's body. Religion is the tie that binds one to one's Creator, and while the body perishes as it has to, religion persists even after that.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gandhi (1935) in response to a call by Dr. Ambedkar for mass conversions among the depressed classes. Quoted from Sri Aurobindo, ., Nahar, S., Aurobindo, ., & Institut de recherches évolutives (Paris). India's rebirth: …
“I look upon an increase in the power of the State with the greatest fear because, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality, which lies at the root of the progress. We know of so many cases where men have adopted trusteeship, but none where the State has really lived for the poor.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Modern Review (October, 1935) p. 412. Interview with Nirmal Kumar Bose (9/10 November 1934)
“It is my firm conviction that if the State suppressed capitalism by violence, it will be caught in the coils of violence itself, and fail to develop non-violence at any time. The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The Individual has a soul, but as the state is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Modern Review (October, 1935) p. 412. Interview with Nirmal Kumar Bose (9/10 November 1934)
“Only the other day, a missionary descended on a famine area with money in his pocket, distributed it among the famine-stricken, converted them to his fold, took charge of their temple and demolished it. This is outrageous. The temple could not belong to the converted Hindus, and it could not belong to the Christian missionary. But this friend goes and gets it demolished at the hands of the very men who, only a little while ago, believed that God was there.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘Harijan’, English weekly (founded by M.K. Gandhi), Poona, May 11, 1935
“This [Christian] proselytization will mean no peace in the world. Conversions are harmful to India. If I had power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all proselytizing. For Hindu households, the advent of a missionary has meant the disruption of the family, coming in the wake of change of dress, manners, language, food and drink.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘Harijan’, English weekly, Poona, founded by M.K. Gandhi, dated May 11, 1935
“Man's excellence lies in his readiness to let others live and lay down his own life. As he progresses, his food also changes for the better. He has the capacity to grow still further. There have been many more discoveries after Darwin's. The book which you have been reading seems to be an old one. Whether it is old or new, the "Principle of the greatest good of the greatest number," or "survival of the fittest" is false.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In his Letter to Premabehn Kantak, in Collected Works, , Delhi. Ministry of Information (1969-94)., 50:309-10
“Hinduism insists on the brotherhood of not only all mankind but of all that lives.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, 28-3-1936
“Today, I rebel against orthodox Christianity, as I am convinced it has distorted the message of Jesus. He was an Asiatic whose message was delivered through many media, and when it had the backing of a Roman emperor, it became an imperialist faith as it remains to this day.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, 30-5-1936
“That is why a thinker like Thoreau said that ‘that government is the best which governs the least.’ This means that when people come into possession of political power, the interference with the freedom of people is reduced to a minimum. In other words, a nation that runs its affairs smoothly and effectively without much State interference is truly democratic. Where such a condition is absent, the form of government is democratic in name.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, (Nov. 1. 1936). M.K. Gandhi, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol-62, New Delhi: Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India (1975) p. 92
“It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world's progress toward peace ... Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man?”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (30 January 1937) Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi
“For me the different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree. Therefore they are equally true, though being received and interpreted through human instruments equally imperfect.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, 30-1-1937, p. 407; In: My God (1962), Chapter 13. Pathways of God, Printed and Published by: Jitendra T. Desai, Navajivan Mudranalaya, Ahemadabad-380014 India
“The Allah of Islam is the same as the God of Christians and the Ishwara of Hindus. Even as there are numerous names of God in Hinduism, there are as many names of God in Islam. The names do not indicate individuality but attributes, and little man has tried in his humble way to describe mighty God by giving Him attributes, though He is above all attributes, Indescribable, Inconceivable, Immeasurable. Living faith in this God means acceptance of the brotherhood of mankind. It also means equal respect for all religions.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, 14-5-1938, pp. 110-11; and The Hindustan Times, 5-5-1938, in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 67, p. 64. Also in: My God (1962), Chapter 13. Pathways of God, Printed and Published by: Jitendra T. Desai, …
“my valued associates themselves flounder when they have to give expression to their innermost thoughts. They are strangers in their own homes. Their vocabulary in the mother tongue is so limited that they cannot always finish their speech without having recourse to English words and even sentences. Nor can they exist without English books. They often write to one another in English. I cite the case of my companions to show how deep the evil has gone. For we have made a conscious effort to mend ourselves.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (30-7-1938), My Own Experience, attributed in Towards New Education, 1953, pp. 50-51, a french translation mentioned elsewhere
“The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gandhi's Collected Works, Vol 74 (1938)
“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and in-human to impose the Jews on the Arabs.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gandhi's Collected Works, Vol 74 (1938)
“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (19 November 1938) p. 343
“If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (26 November 1938)
“If by abundance you mean everyone having plenty to eat and drink and to clothe himself with, enough to keep his mind trained and educated, I should be satisfied. But I should not like to pack more stuffs in my belly than I can digest and more things than I can ever usefully use. But neither do I want poverty, penury, misery, dirt and dust in India.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, (2 December 1938), p. 2
“You may never be able to come back to the place you have left, nor can you undo the wrongs that you have done. But you can always begin again. You can cleanse the heart, you can remake your life, you can rebuild character.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, 7 January 1939, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 68, p. 6.
“It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state. Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be? Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success?”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter addressed to Hitler. 23 July 1939 (Collected Works, vol. 70, pp. 20–21). Available online at .
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, 9 December 1939, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 70, p. 40.
“The very word Islam means peace, which is non-violence.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Trial (1939), in , Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1952), vol. 5, p. 212.
“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.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (17 February 1940)
“I do not share the socialist belief that centralization of the necessaries of life will conduce to the common welfare, when the centralized industries are planned and owned by the State. The socialistic concept of the West was born in an environment reeking with violence.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (27 January 1940) p. 428
“My whole soul rebels against the idea that Hinduism and Islam represent two antagonistic cultures and doctrines.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, April 13, 1940, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol 71, p. 412.
“I have always held that social justice, even to the least and lowliest, is impossible of attainment by force.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (20 April 1940) p. 97
“But my object in writing this letter is not to ventilate my grievances. It is to place before you my reaction to the war situation. The latest development seems to be most serious. Want of truthful news is tantalizing. I suppose it is inevitable. But assuming that things are as black as they appear to be for the Allied cause, is it not time to sue for peace for the sake of humanity? I do not believe Herr Hitler to be as bad as he is portrayed. He might even have been a friendly power as he may still be. It is due to suffering humanity that this mad slaughter should stop.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to [the viceroy of India] Lord Linlithgow, May 26, 1940 p. 253 (Mahatma Gandhi, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (New Delhi: Publications Division Government of India, 1999), vol. 78,
“I do not want to see the allies defeated. But I do not consider Hitler to be as bad as he is depicted. He is showing an ability that is amazing and seems to be gaining his victories without much bloodshed. Englishmen are showing the strength that Empire builders must have. I expect them to rise much higher than they seem to be doing.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, regarding the military situation between England and Germany (May 1940), quoted in Collected Works (1958), p. 70.
“A seeker after Truth cannot afford to indulge in generalisation. Darwin for the greater part of his book Origin of the Species [sic] has simply massed fact upon fact without any theorising, and only towards the end has formulated his conclusion which, because of the sheer weight of testimony behind it, becomes almost irresistible. Yes I have criticised even Darwin's generalisation as being unwarranted. Science tells us that a proposition may hold good in nine hundred ninety-nine cases and yet fail in the thousandth case and thus be rendered untenable as a universal statement.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Generalisation", from Harijan (6 July 1940). Quoted in Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi (1945), edited by Jag Parvesh Chander, Indian Printing Works, pages 243-244.
“A society organized and run on the basis of complete nonviolence would be the purest anarchy... That State is perfect and non-violent where the people are governed the least.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (21 July 1940)
“But to me both the parties [Axis and Allies] seem to be tarred with the same brush.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Bardoli on 8 January 1942, which was printed in Harijanbandhu the same day and later in Collected Works (vol. 79, p. 205). Quoted in Gandhi and Godse: A Review and a Critique (2001) by Koenraad Elst, p. 49.
“The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Discussion with BG Kher and others, 15 August 1940. Gandhi's Wisdom Box (1942), edited by Dewan Ram Parkash, p. 67 also in Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol. 79 (PDF), p. 122
“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Non-Violence in Peace and War, 1942, Vol. 1, Ch. 142
“Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plain living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. History gives ample proof of this. Man's happiness really lies in contentment. He who is discontented, however much he possesses, becomes a slave to his desires. And there is really no slavery equal to that of the desires. All the sages have declared from the house-tops that man can be his own worst enemy as well as his best friend. To be free or to be a slave lies in his own hands. And what is true for the individual is true for society.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Harijan, (2 January 1942), p. 27”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I suggest that, if India is to evolve along nonviolent lines, it will have to decentralize many things. Centralization cannot be sustained and defended without adequate force . . .Centralization as a system is inconsistent with non-violent structure of society.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (18 January 1942) p. 5