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Mahatma Gandhi
276 quotes
“If individual liberty goes, then surely all is lost, for, if the individual ceases to count, what is left of society? Individual freedom alone can make a man voluntarily surrender himself completely to the service of society. If it is wrested from him, he becomes automaton and society is ruined.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (1 February 1942) p. 27
“No society can possibly be built upon a denial of individual freedom.It is contrary to the very nature of man. Just as a man will not grow horns or a tail, so will he not exist as man if he has no mind of his own. In reality even those who do not believe in the liberty of the individual believe in their own.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict by Joan V. Bondurant (1965) University of California Press, Berkeley: CA, p. 174. Harijan (1 February 1942) p. 27
“My conception of freedom is no narrow conception. It is co-extensive with the freedom of man in all his majesty.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (June 1942)
“I have no weapon but love.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From the Quit India speech in Bombay, on the eve of the Quit India movement (8 August 1942)
“Holding the view I do, it is superfluous for me now to answer your argument that “this war has split the world into two camps.” Between Scylla and Charybdis, if I sail in either direction, I suffer shipwreck. Therefore I have to be in the midst of the storm. I suggested a way out. Naturally, it has been rejected, because the powers that be do not want to relax their grip on India.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 30 July 1944, in Collected Works, vol. 77, p. 434. Quoted in Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1951) by , vol. 6, p. 331.
“Coercion cannot but result in chaos in the end.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Mahatma, edit., D.G. Tendulkar, Vol. 7 (1945-1947), first edition, New Delhi, India, Publication Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (1953) p. 138
“The man who uses coercion is guilty of deliberate violence. Coercion is inhuman.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Mahatma, edit., D.G. Tendulkar, Vol. 7 (1945-1947) first edition, New Delhi, India, Publication Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (1953) p. 82
“The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. He frees himself and shows the way to others. Freedom and slavery are mental states. Therefore, the first thing to say to yourself: 'I shall no longer accept the role of a slave. I shall not obey orders as such but shall disobey them when they are in conflict with my conscience.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (24 February 1946). As quoted in The Politics Of Nonviolent Action, Gene Sharp, Porter Sargent Publishers (1973), p. 59
“Hitler killed five million [sic] Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.....It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany.... As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahatma Gandhi, June 1946, in an interview with his biographer Louis Fischer. Quoted in "Gandhi on the Holocaust", Jewish Virtual Library.
“I draw no distinction between error and sin. If a man commits a bona fide mistake and confesses it with a contrite heart before his Maker, the merciful Maker sterilizes it of all harm.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (20 October 1946); as quoted in The Encyclopaedia of Gandhian Thoughts (1985)
“The only thing lawful is non-violence. Violence can never be lawful in the sense meant here, i.e., not according to man-made laws, but according to the laws made by Nature for man.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (27 October 1946) p. 369
“I believe that independent India can only discharge her duty towards a groaning world by adopting a simple but ennobled life by developing her thousands of cottages and living at peace with the world. High thinking is inconsistent with complicated material life based on high speed imposed on us by Mammon worship. All the graces of life are possible only when we learn the art of living nobly.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, (9 January 1946), p. 285
“The human body is meant solely for service, never for indulgence. The secret of happy life lies in renunciation. Renunciation is life. Indulgence spells death.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, (24 February 1946), p. 19
“Hindus should never be angry against the Muslims even if the latter might make up their minds to undo even their existence.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahatma Gandhi post-prayer speech at Birla Mandir, New Delhi, on April 6, 1947. quoted in Arvind Lavakare, Of Sabarmati secularism & non-violence, 16 April 2002, Rediff.
“We both may be killed by the Muslims, and must put our purity to the ultimate test, so that we know that we are offering the purest of sacrifices, and we should now both start sleeping naked.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gandhi's comments privately told to Manuben in 1947. Quoted from Hiro, D. (2015). The longest August: The unflinching rivalry between India and Pakistan. New York, NY: Nation Books.
“[During his prayer meeting on 1 May 1947, he prepared the Hindus and Sikhs for the anticipated massacres of their kind in the upcoming state of Pakistan with these words:] ‘I would tell the Hindus to face death cheerfully if the Muslims are out to kill them. I would be a real sinner if after being stabbed I wished in my last moment that my son should seek revenge. I must die without rancour. [...] You may turn round and ask whether all Hindus and all Sikhs should die. Yes, I would say. Such martyrdom will not be in vain.’”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I went to Noakhali and let no one imagine that, because it is now to be included in Pakistan, I would not go there again. A part of me lies there. I shall tell the Hindus there that they should not fear anyone even if they are surrounded by [Muslim] murderers.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prarthana Pravachan - I, pp. 166-70; The Hindu, 17 June 1947.
“The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, 22 July 1947, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 88, p. 239.
“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, 5 July 1947, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 87, p. 390.
“Impure means result in an impure end... One cannot reach truth by untruthfulness. Truthful conduct alone can reach Truth.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (13 July 1947) p. 232
“[Government] control gives rise to fraud, suppression of truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help...It makes them spoon-fed.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Delhi Diary (3 November 1947 entry), Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, (March 1948) pp. 68-70
“Hindus should not harbour anger in their hearts against Muslims even if the latter wanted to destroy them. Even if the Muslims want to kill us all, we should face death bravely. If they established their rule after killing Hindus, we would be ushering in a new world by sacrificing our lives.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: SPEECH AT PRAYER MEETING NEW DELHI, April 6, 1947. VOL. 94: 17 FEBRUARY, 1947 - 29 APRIL, 1947 247 243. p. 248
“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.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan, 10 August 1947, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 89, p. 137.
“Muslims must realize and admit the wrongs perpetrated under the Islamic rule.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 25 December 1947, in reaction to a Urdu poem protesting against the planned rebuilding of the Somnath temple and calling for "a new Ghaznavi to avenge the renovation of the Somnath temple", quoted by Rajmohan Gandhi: Re…
“You may never know what results come of your actions. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at a prayer meeting, New Delhi, 1947; also in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 90, p. 55.
“If I am to die by the bullet of a madman, I must do so smiling. There must be no anger within me. God must be in my heart and on my lips. And you promise me one thing. Should such a thing happen, you are not to shed one tear.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To , January 28, 1948, two days before his assassination, as quoted in , Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1954), vol. 8, p. 436.
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Non-Violence in Peace and War (1948); also in Gandhi on Non-violence: Selected Texts from Mohandas K. Gandhi's Non-Violence in Peace and War (1965) edited by Thomas Merton
Also quoted by: English proverb (english)
“In the dictionary of Satyagraha, there is no enemy.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Non-Violence in Peace and War (1948); also in Gandhi on Non-violence: Selected Texts from Mohandas K. Gandhi's Non-Violence in Peace and War (1965) edited by Thomas Merton
Also quoted by: マハトマ・ガンジー (ja)
“I have, therefore, not hesitated to say that it is better to be violent, if there is violence in our breasts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Non-Violence in Peace and War p. 254 (1948); also in Gandhi on Non-violence: Selected Texts from Mohandas K. Gandhi's Non-Violence in Peace and War (1965) edited by Thomas Merton; this has also appeared in paraphrased f…
“Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harijan (28 July 1949) p. 219
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need but not for every man's greed.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Pyarelal Nayyar in Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase (Volume 10), page 552 (1958)
“Whatever the ultimate fate of my country, my love for you remains, and will remain, undiminished. My non-violence demands universal love, and you are not a small part of it. It is that love which has prompted my appeal to you.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“May God give power to every word of mine. In his name I began to write this, and in His name I close it. May your statesman have the wisdom and courage to respond to my appeal. I am telling His Excellency the Viceroy that my services are at the disposal of His Majesty's Government, should they consider them of any practical use in advancing the object of my appeal.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Gandhi in Stone, The Full Spectrum Synthesis Bible, iUniverse, 2001. link to Google Books. However, very similar quotes are found in the nineteenth century:
Also quoted by: Mahatma Gandhi (disputed)
“I think I have understood Hinduism correctly when I say that it is eternal, all-embracing and flexible enough to suit all situations.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahatma Gandhi, as quoted in Relentless Brush Strokes : A Memoir (2008) by Lalitha Shankar, p. 185
“Hinduism has made marvelous discoveries in things of religion, of the spirit, of the soul. We have no eye for these great and fine discoveries. We are dazzled by the material progress that Western science has made. Ancient India has survived because Hinduism was not developed along material but spiritual lines.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hinduism is a living organism liable to growth and decay subject to the laws of Nature. One and indivisible at the root, it has grown into a vast tree with innumerable branches. The changes in the season affect it. It has its autumn and its summer, its winter and its spring. It is, and is not, based on scriptures. It does not derive its authority from one book. Non violence has found the highest expression and application in Hinduism.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hinduism is a living organism. One and indivisible at the root, it has grown into a vast tree with innumerable branches. Knowledge is limitless and so also the application of truth. Everyday we add to our knowledge of the power of Atman (soul) and we shall keep on doing so.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have no other wish in this world but to find light and joy and peace through Hinduism.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hindu Dharma is like a boundless ocean teeming with priceless gems. The deeper you dive the more treasures you find.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nor, do I believe in inequalities between human beings. We are all absolutely equal. But equality is of the souls and not the bodies. Hence, it is a mental state. We need to think of, and to assert, equality because we see great inequality in the physical world. We have to realize equality in the midst of this apparent external inequality. Assumption of superiority by any person over any other is a sin against God and man. Thus caste, in so far as it connotes distinctions in status, is an evil.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict, by Joan V. Bondurant (1965) University of California Press, Berkeley: CA, pp. 168-169
“Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. I must continue to bear testimony to truth even if I am forsaken by all. Mine may today be a voice in the wilderness, but it will be heard when all other voices are silenced, if it is the voice of Truth.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Basic Education (1951) p. 89
“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Non-Violence in Peace & War (1962) Vol. 2, edited by Mahadev Haribhai Desai, p. 144
“We were strangers to this sort of classification – ‘animists’, ‘aborigines’, etc., - but we have learnt it from English rulers.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahatma Gandhi, The Collected Works, Volume 35, New Delhi, 1968, pp. 462-63. Quoted from Goel, S.R. History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)
“My life is my message.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1869 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to a journalist's question about what his message to the world was. Mahatma: Life of Gandhi 1869-1948 (1968) Reel 13
“You assist an unjust administration most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil administration never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul. Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not regard Jainism or Buddhism as separate from Hinduism. Hinduism believes in the oneness not of merely all human life but in the oneness of all that lives.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahatma Gandhi. October 1927. The Collected Works, Volume 35, New Delhi, 1968, pp. 166-67. Quoted in Goel, S.R. History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)
“Unfortunately, Christianity in India has been inextricably mixed up for the last one hundred years with the British rule. It appears to us as synonymous with the materialistic civilization and imperialistic exploitation by the strong white races of the weaker races of the world. Its contribution to India has been therefore largely of a negative character. It has done some good in spite of its professors. It has shocked us into setting our own house in order.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahatma Gandhi, The Collected Works, Volume 40. New Delhi. 1970, pp. 58-59. as quoted in Goel, S.R. History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)
“Conversion in the sense of self-purification, self-realization, is the crying need of the hour. That, however, is not what is meant by proselytising. To those who would convert India, might it not be said, ‘physician heal thyself’?”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahatma Gandhi The Collected Works Volume 46, New Delhi, 1971, pp. 28-29. As quoted in Goel, S.R. History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)
“It is no use trying to fight these forces [of materialism] without giving up the idea of conversion, which I assure you is the deadliest poison which ever sapped the fountain of truth.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahatma Gandhi The Collected Works Vol 46, p. 203. As quoted in Goel, S.R. History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)