` MAHATMA GANDHI

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real
must be unaffected by outside circumstances. 
 
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able
to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in
being able to remake ourselves. 
 
A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable
faith in their mission can alter the course of history. 
 
If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed
suicide. 
 
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. 
 
An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach
is more so. 
 
Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. 
 
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 greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals
are treated. 
 
Fear has its use but cowardice has none. 
 
I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence
are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in
both on as vast a scale as I could. 
 
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words
without a heart. 
 
I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to
know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to
admit that we love evil too well to give it up. 
 
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. 
 
God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He
be so to every one of us. 
 
We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar
to the meeting of hearts? 
 
Prayer is a confession of one's own unworthiness and
weakness. 

I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of

an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent
attribute of the soul.

 
In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place. 
 
Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England
belongs to the English or France to the French. 
 
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. 
 
Are creeds such simple things like the clothes which a man can
change at will and put on at will? Creeds are such for which
people live for ages and ages. 
Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as
self-sufficiency. Man is a social being. 
 
I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow
mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess
my errors and to retrace my steps. 
 
Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most
important that you do it.
 
What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole
nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope. 

I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it

is not based on brute force. 
 
Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to
submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent. 
 
My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which
one cannot remove, one must fast and pray. 
 
Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all
morality. 
 
There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court
of conscience. It supercedes all other courts. 
 
Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt
and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for
confession.
 
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest. 

 
I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth. 
 
Truth never damages a cause that is just. 
 
Man can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless
service with which nature has endowed her. 
 
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and
photographers. 
 
I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and
is in conflict with morality. 
 
Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down,
does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth. 
 
It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves
honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings. 
 
Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed.
Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be
well. 
 
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. 
 
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. 
 
Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be
inflicted upon us by the European, 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. 
 
Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive
tendencies of the human frame. 

Religion is more than life. Remember that his own religion is the
truest to every man even if it stands low in the scales of
philosophical comparison. 
 
Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his
acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts. 
 
Nobody can hurt me without my permission. 
 
A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of
the brave. 
 
An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.
 
The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives,
everything he does becomes tainted. 
 
Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for
the welfare of his fellow-men. 

All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other
respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but
Truth. 
 
Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-
sustained. 
 
Those who know how to think need no teachers. 
 
Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known
to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of
human nature. 
 
Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital
in some form or other will always be needed. 
 
I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act
is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating.
Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children, I began to
strive after self-control. There was endless difficulty in the task. 
 
Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth. 
 
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. 
 
Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that
swallows it up. 
 
We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be
enough if we did not run away from the battle. 
 
The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are
different. 
 
My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God.
Non-violence is the means of realising Him. 
 
Peace is its own reward. 
 
Self-respect knows no considerations. 
 
Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith
in man. 
 
But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac. 
 
We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party. 
 
I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless
myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others. 
 
Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high
thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man's
happiness really lies in contentment. 
 
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. 
 
There is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable
law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It
is no blind law; for no blind law can govern the conduct of living
beings. 
 
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. 
 
Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical
relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul. 
 
A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes'
merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble. 
 
In a gentle way, you can shake the world. 

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

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear
to them except in the form of bread. 
 
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a
thousand heads bowing in prayer. 

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. 
 
Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive
possession of no one race or religion. 
 
Each one prays to God according to his own light. 
 
Infinite striving to be the best is man's duty; it is its own reward.
Everything else is in God's hands. 
 
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. 
 
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 or
democracy? 
 
Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant
nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into
nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy. 
 
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. 
 
I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it
means getting along with people. 
 
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. 
 
Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is
full victory. 
 
Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the
growth of a true democratic spirit. 
 
I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking
care of the present. God has given me no control over the
moment following. 
 
The good man is the friend of all living things. 
 
Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into. 
 
The difference between what we do and what we are capable of
doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems. 
 
It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the
quantity. 
 
Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation
with good. 
 
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. 
 
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the
good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
 
Poverty is the worst form of violence. 
 
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within. 

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

everyone. 
 
We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in
thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our
goal and make strong progress towards it. 

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

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. 
 
What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very
good idea. 
 
Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress. 
 
No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive. 

 
I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die
unarmed. 
 
For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion. 
 
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. 
 
A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not
help to solve them is no religion. 
 
Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it
dies. 
 
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. 
 
Just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his
own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however
noble and great the latter may be. 
 
Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not
know what religion is. 
 
Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause. 
 
Where love is, there God is also. 
 
Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What
would a man not pay for living? 
 
Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it.
It comes without seeking and is retained without effort. 
 
Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion. 
 
He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire. 
 
A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect
beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every
moment limits of its compromise in practice. 
 
I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the
most becoming for an Indian. 
 
I took the vow of celibacy in 1906. I had not shared my thoughts
with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of
making the vow. She had no objection. 
 
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. 
 
Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man.
They die up to a point. 
 
I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the
world. 
 
Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God
and has fear of God. 
 
Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth
having. 

A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it

holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal. 
 
Partition is bad. But whatever is past is past. We have only to
look to the future. 

 
Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for
turning faith into a rich infallible experience. 
 
If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under
certain conditions is equally a duty. 
 
Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and
the same to us all. 
 
Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by
an appeal to the brain. 
 
Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart. 
 
God cannot be realized through the intellect. Intellect can lead
one to a certain extent and no further. It is a matter of faith and
experience derived from that faith. 
 
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. 
Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching
it. 
 
The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one's opponent. 
 
Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For
want of valour is want of religious faith. 
 
Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly
understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of
action. 
 
If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry
on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the
children. 
 
I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am
prepared to kill. 
 
Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot
command results, we can only strive. 
 
One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's
Maker and no one else's. 
 
Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be
sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up. 
 
Morality is contraband in war. 
 
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. 
 
If a man reaches the heart of his own religion, he has reached the
heart of the others, too. There is only one God, and there are
many paths to him. 
 
Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important
that you do it. 
 
I am in the world feeling my way to light 'amid the encircling
gloom.' 
 
A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is
unjust by accident. 
 
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. 
 
The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted
by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart. 

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to

put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence. 
 
God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes
to bless. 
 
Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace
to the world and to India herself. 

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the
hands of his brother, never by killing him. 
 
Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior
to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their
fulfilment. 
 
Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians - you are not
like him. 

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied

propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees
it. 

It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged

head then to crawl on one's belly, in order to be able to save
one's head. 
 
It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in
proportion as you subdue the flesh. 

Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for

building up a sound education. 

Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can

warrant abandonment of one's own religion. 
 
Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the
cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear. 
 
Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one
another. 
 
That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake. 
 
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. 

Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last

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

The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be

effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most
spotless. 

Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no
one lust for martyrdom. 
 
Non-violence is the article of faith. 
 
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. 
 
The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by
the still small voice of conscience. 
 
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to
err. 
 
Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or
woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the
purity of our hearts. 
 
God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands,
even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained. 
 
When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter
becomes irresistible. 
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you
do are in harmony.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the

strong. 

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 best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of

others. 

When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the

moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator. 

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

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live

forever.
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. 

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an

indomitable will.
 
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
 
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment
and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand
times more effective and permanent then the one derived from
fear of punishment. 

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

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

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

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. 

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he

becomes. 

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

Action expresses priorities.

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

Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a

punishment. 

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening. 
There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for
man's greed.