Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.

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.

My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realising Him.

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.

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.

It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife.

It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.

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.

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

Partition is bad. But whatever is past is past. We have only to look to the future.

My life is my message.

The good man is the friend of all living things.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

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.

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.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

Faith… must be enforced by reason… when faith becomes blind it dies.

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.

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.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

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.

Peace is its own reward.

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

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.

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.

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.

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?

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.

Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.

God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us.

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

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

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.

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.

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.

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.

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

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.

Each one prays to God according to his own light.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?

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.

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.

I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian.

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.