|
Mahatma Gandhi Quotes
Mahatma Gandhi Quotes IndexAction
"Action expresses priorities." "An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching." "Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it." "Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory." "Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it." "It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Adversity"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." "Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress." "Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress." "There will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything great and enduring, and that discipline will not come by mere academic argument and appeal to reason and logic. Discipline is learnt in the school of adversity." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Anger"Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding." "Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up." "Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep." "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." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Change"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." "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." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Children"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." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Christians"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Confession"Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Conscience"In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place." "The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within." "There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts." "There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e. the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state, to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Equality"No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive." "Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion." "I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers." "To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. The more helpless the creature, the more that it is entitled to protection by man from the cruelty of man." "It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings." "Woman in the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacities. She has the right to participate in the minutest details in the activities of man, and she has equal right to liberty of freedom and liberty with him." "My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the strongest… No country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak… Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism… True democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Evil"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." "The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Faith"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." "But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac." "Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into." "Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies." "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." "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." "Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience." "Indeed one’s faith in one’s plans and methods is truly tested when the horizon before one is the blackest." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Fear"Fear has its use but cowardice has none." "Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Forgiveness"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." "To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that the one that much be loved is not a friend. There is no merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Freedom"Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?" "Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err." "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." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Friendship"The test of friendship is assistance in adversity, and that too, unconditional assistance, Co-operation which needs consideration is as a commercial contract and not friendship. Conditional co-operation is like adulterated cement which does not bind." "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." "Friendship that insists on agreement on all matters is not worth the name. Friendship to be real must ever sustain the weight of honest differences, however sharp they be." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Goals"Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it." "A person who is worried about the outcome of his work does not see his goal; he sees only his opposition and the obstacles before him." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes God"It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity." "Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts." "God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained." "God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless." "God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us." "Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Good Advice"A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble." "I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others." "The good man is the friend of all living things." "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." "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." "A true soldier does not argue as he marches, how success is going to be ultimately achieved. But he is confident that if he only plays his humble part well, somehow or other the battle will be won. In is that spirit that every one of us should act. It is not given to us to know the future. But it is given to everyone of us to know how to do our own part well." "Literary education is of no value, if it is not able to build up a sound character." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Happiness"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." "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." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Humility"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." "The only virtue I want to claim is truth and non-violence. I lay no claim to super-human powers. I want none. I wear the same corruptible flesh that the weakest of my fellow beings wears, and am therefore as liable to err as any. My services have many limitations, but God has up to now blessed them in spite of the imperfections." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Humor"If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Insightful"Nobody can hurt me without my permission." "A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people." "A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident." "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." "Imitation is the sincerest flattery." "Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been know to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature." "The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated." "The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience." "The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart." "There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed." "There is more to life than increasing its speed." "To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest." "We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party." "Never has man reached his destination by persistence in deviation from the straight path." "Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow men." "You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." "The badge of the violent is his weapon, spear, sword or rifle. God is the shield of the non-violent." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Inspirational"You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind." "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." "My life is my message." "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 claim to be an average man of less than average ability. I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith." "I am but a poor struggling soul yearning to be wholly good, wholly truthful and wholly non-violent in thought, word and deed, but ever failing to reach the ideal which I know to be true. It is a painful climb, but the pain of it is a positive pleasure to me. Each step upwards makes me feel stronger and fit for the next." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Jesus"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." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Leadership"I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Live in the Now"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." "For me the present is merged in eternity. I may not sacrifice the latter for the present." "I do not want to forsee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Love"Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents, never revenges itself." "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." "We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?" "Where love is, there God is also." "Where there is love there is life." "Hatred ever kills, Love never dies, such is the vast difference between the two. What is ordained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality, for it increases hatred." "Justice that love gives is a surrender; justice that law gives is a punishment." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Money/Wealth"Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed." "It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Morality"Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort." "Morality is contraband in war." "Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality." "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." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Non-Violence"I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill." "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 a gentle way, you can shake the world." "Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him." "The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one's opponent." "Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another." "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." "Non-violence is the article of faith." "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." "Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain." "Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed." "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." "However much I may sympathise with and admire worthy motives, I am an uncompromising opponent of violent methods even to serve the noblest of causes." "Non-violence is not a quality to be evolved or expressed to order. It is an inward growth depending for sustenance upon intense individual effort." "Non-violence and cowardice are contradictory terms. Non-violence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice. Non-violence springs from love, cowardice from hate. Non-violence always suffers, cowardice would always inflict suffering. Perfect non-violence is the highest bravery. Non-violent conduct is never demoralising; cowardice always is." "An opponent is entitled to the same regard for his principles as we would expect others to have for ours. Non-violence demands that we should see every opportunity to win over opponents." "It is through truth & non-violence that I can have some glimpse of God. Truth & non-violence are my God. They are the obverse and reverse of the same coin." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Peace"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." "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." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Politics"For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Poverty"Poverty is the worst form of violence." "There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Prayer"In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart." "Each one prays to God according to his own light." "Prayer is a confession of one's own unworthiness and weakness." "Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action." "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." "Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening." "To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." "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." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Profound"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." "Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man." "The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problem." "Before you do anything, stop and recall the face of the poorest most helpless destitute person you have seen and ask yourself, 'Is what I am about to do going to help him?'" "Suffering cheerfully endured, ceases to be suffering and is transmuted into an ineffable joy." "Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Purity"Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education." "The real ornament of woman is her character, her purity." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Religion"The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different." "A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion." "All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth." "Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent." "I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world." "I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality." "My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realising Him." "One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's." Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one's own religion." "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." "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." "No religion which is narrow and which cannot satisfy the test of reason, will survive the coming reconstruction of society in which the values will have changed and character, not possession of wealth, title or birth, will be the test of merit." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Service"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." "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." "That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake." "Consciously or unconsciously, everyone of us does render some service or another. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and it will make not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at large." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Society"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." "Public opinion alone can keep a society pure and healthy." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Spirituality"When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator." "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." "Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone." "Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul." "To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means." "It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh." "Power invariably elects to go into the hands of the strong. That strength may be physical or of the heart or, if we do not fight shy of the word, of the spirit. Strength of the heart connotes soul-force. Let it be remembered that physical force is transitory, even as the body is transitory. But the power of spirit is permanent even as the spirit is everlasting." "Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state. There is as little reason to deplore the one as there is to be pleased over the other." "In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth." "Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands." "I believe in absolute oneness of God and therefore also of humanity." "Human society is a ceaseless growth, and unfoldment in terms of spirituality." "Of all the animal creations of God, man is the only animal who has been created in order that he may know his Maker. Man’s aim is life is not therefore to add from day to day to his material prospects and to his material possessions, but his predominant calling is, from day to day to come nearer to his own Maker." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Strength"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Thoughts"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes." "I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet." "Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well." "Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Truth"Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth." "An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it." "Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear." "Truth never damages a cause that is just." "Truth quenches untruth, love quenches anger, self-suffering quenches violence. This eternal rule is a rule not for saints only but for all." "Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it." "Breach of promise is a base surrender of truth." "Breach of promise is no less an act of insolvency than a refusal to pay one’s debt." "Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Violence"The destructive Seven Blunders of the World that cause violence: 1. Wealth without work. 2. Pleasure without conscience. 3. Knowledge without character. 4. Commerce without morality. 5. Science without humanity. 6. Religion without sacrifice. 7. Politics without principle." "An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so." "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent." "Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself." "Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point." "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?" "Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary." "Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit." "Experience convinces me that permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth & violence. Even if my belief is a fond delusion, it will be admitted that it is a fascinating delusion." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Wisdom"Even as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes." "Those who know how to think need no teachers." "It is unwise to be too sure one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Woman"Man can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her." "I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice." "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." Return to Index of Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Return to Quotes by Famous People Quotes - from Mahatma Gandhi Quotes
|
you get when you signup
for my ezine.
The Dash
It's not the date you were born, or the date you died, that really matters. It's "the dash" between those years and what you do with it, to make a difference with your life.
