Thoughts by Mahatma Gandhi Quotes in English Quotation

Carefully watch your thoughts, for they become your words. Manage and watch your words, for they will become your actions. Consider and judge your actions, for they have become your habits. Acknowledge and watch your habits, for they shall become your values. Understand and embrace your values, for they become your destiny.

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.

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.

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it – always.

I know that I have still before me a difficult path to traverse. I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility.

Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.

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.

Mahatma Gandhi Slogan in English

Do or die

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Hatred ever kills, love never dies. Such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred.

It does not require money, to live neat, clean and dignified.

Every home is a university and the parents are the teachers.

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Service without humility is selfishness and egotism.

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Speak only if it improves upon the silence.

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Hate the sin, love the sinner.

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Strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from indomitable will.

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Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral.

To lose patience is to lose the battle.

Peace is the most powerful weapon of mankind.

Nothing is impossible for pure love.

Love never claims, it ever gives.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

Imitation is the sincerest flattery.

There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.

- Quotation

Mahatma Gandhiji Thoughts in English

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment.

If you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly.

Continue to grow and evolve.

Fear has its use but cowardice has none.

Nothing is so aggravating as calmness.

Peace is its own reward.

If you want to change the world, start with yourself.

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

My faith is brightest in the midst of impenetrable darkness.

Prayer from the heart can achieve what nothing else can in the world.

Real education consists in drawing the best out of yourself.

They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.

It’s easy to stand in the crowd but it takes courage to stand alone.

Nothing has saddened me so much in life as the hardness of heart of educated people.

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

Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.

Champions are made from something they have deep inside of them – a desire, a dream, a vision.

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

My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

God has no religion.

Full effort is full victory.

Find purpose. The means will follow.

True beauty consists of purity of heart.

Your action expresses your priorities.

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

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

The future depends on what we do in the present.

People cannot hurt you without your permission.

Our greatest ability as humans is not to change the world; but to change ourselves.

A small group of determined and like-minded people can change the course of history.

Fear of disease killed more men than disease itself.

The law of love could be best understood and learned through little children.

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.

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Cultivation of tolerance for other faiths will impart to us a truer understanding of our own.

Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.

No man loses his freedom except through his own weakness.

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Seek not greater wealth, but simpler pleasure; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity.

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

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One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.

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Live simply so that others may simply live.

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Find purpose. The means will follow.

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Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use.

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Be the change you are trying to create.

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Be the change you wish to see in the world.

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There is no ‘way to peace’, there is only ‘peace’.

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The enemy is fear. We think it is hate but it is fear.

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Where there is love there is light.

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Where there is love there is life.

My life is my message.

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Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

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You may think your actions are meaningless and that they won’t help, but that is no excuse, you must still act.

My religion is based on truth and nonviolence. Truth is my God. Nonviolence is the means of realising Him.

When you are right, you have no need to be angry. When you are wrong, you have no right to be angry.

I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth.

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

Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.

Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.

The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear.

See the good in people and help them.

Let your life be your message.

Self-respect knows no considerations.

Change yourself – you are in control.

Action expresses priorities.

In true democracy every man and women is taught to think for himself or herself.

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

Man is a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.

Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature.

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

Education must be of a new type for the sake of the creation of a new world.

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

I call him religious who understands the suffering of others.

If we weep for all the deaths in our country, the tears in our eyes would never dry.

It is for you and me to show that no vice is inherent in man.

I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, and Confucian.

The greater our innocence, the greater our strength and the swifter our victory.

I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force.

If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty.

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

You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.

Life and death are but phases of the same thing, the reverse and obverse of the same coin. Death is as necessary for man’s growth as life itself.

God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.

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

I came alone in this world, I have walked alone in the valley of the shadow of death, and I shall quit alone when the time comes.

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 look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.

I learned from Hussain how to be wronged and be a winner, I learnt from Hussain how to attain victory while being oppressed.

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.

People say true friends must always hold hands, but true friends don’t need to hold hands because they know the other hand will always be there.

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.

Look at the sparrows; they do not know what they will do in the next moment. Let us literally live from moment to moment.

If we are to teach real peace in this world, & if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children.

I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.

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.

When there is war, the poet lays down the lyre, the lawyer his law reports, the schoolboy his books.

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

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

I don’t reject Christ. I love Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ.

Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands.

Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.

Non-cooperation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it demands respect for the opposite views.

A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul. Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty.

If we were strong, self-respecting and not susceptible to frightfulness, the foreign rulers would have been powerless for mischief.

It is derogatory to the dignity of mankind, it is derogatory to the dignity of India, to entertain for one single moment hatred towards Englishmen.

Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith.

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

In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals.

You don’t know who is important to you until you actually lose them.

The rich cannot accumulate wealth without the co-operation of the poor in society.

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.

There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed.

If we want to reach real peace in this world, we should start educating children.

Each one prays to God according to his own light.

The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law, to the strength of the spirit.

There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for.

If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior.

A courageous man prefers death to the surrender of self-respect.

Prayer is a confession of one’s own unworthiness and weakness.

If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.

A man of truth must also be a man of care.

Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.

That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.

The good man is the friend of all living things.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.

The future depends on what you do today.

In the midst of death life persists.

Those with the greatest awareness have the greatest nightmares.

What barrier is there that love cannot break?

Doubt is invariably the result of want or weakness of faith.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.

Truth never damages a cause that is just.

A definite forgiveness would mean a definite recognition of our strength.

Anger is the enemy of nonviolence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.

Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong, but of the weak.

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

I am a man of peace. I believe in peace. But I do not want peace at any price.

There are two days in the year that we can not do anything, yesterday and tomorrow.

Love is the strongest force the world possesses and yet it is the humblest imaginable.

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.

If you take care of your immediate surroundings, the universe will take care of itself.

In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

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

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.

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

To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman.

I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.

Hypocrisy and distortion are passing currents under the name of religion.

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

A democrat must be utterly selfless. He must think and dream not in terms of self or of party, but only of democracy.

Close the day with prayer so that you may have a peaceful night free from dreams and nightmares.

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

In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be.

The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.

Prayer needs no speech. It is in itself independent of any sensuous effort. But it must be combined with the utmost humility.

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

The real love is to love them that hate you, to love your neighbor even though you distrust him.

One must become as humble as the dust before he can discover truth.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

It is better to allow our lives to speak for us than our words.

There is goodness as well as greatness in simplicity, not in wealth.

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

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

Truth is one, paths are many.

I refuse to believe that the tendency of human nature is always downward.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but nonviolent man is unjust by accident.

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent.

It has often occurred to me that a seeker after Truth has to be silent.

Friendship that insists upon agreement on all things isn’t worth the name.

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

So far as I can see the atomic bomb has deadened the finest feeling that has sustained mankind for ages.

A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.

My life is dedicated to service of India through the religion of nonviolence which I believed to be the root of Hinduism.

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.

The greatness of a nation and it’s moral progress can be judged by the way it’s animals are treated.

Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.

Nonviolence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.

To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

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

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.

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.

No nation being under another nation can accept gifts, and kick at the responsibility attached to those gifts, imposed by the conquering nation.

Truth, purity, self-control, firmness, fearlessness, humility, unity, peace, and renunciation – these are the inherent qualities of a civil resister.

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.

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.

The first condition of humaneness is a little humility and a little diffidence about the correctness of one’s conduct and a little receptiveness.

Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

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

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

What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.

The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women.

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

To me I seem to be constantly growing. I must respond to varying conditions, yet remain changeless within.

Knowledge gained through experience is far superior and many times more useful than bookish knowledge.

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

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.

I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings.

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.

We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?

Every person in a well-ordered state is fully conscious of both his responsibilities and his rights.

There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to men.

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.

The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

Relationships are based on four principles: respect, understanding, acceptance and appreciation.

Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Unless discipline is rooted in nonviolence, it might prove to be a source of infinite mischief.

There is force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.

Prayer is for remembering God, and for purifying the heart and can be offered even when observing silence.

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness.

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

The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.

It’s not too late at all. You just don’t yet know what you are capable of.

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

In doing something, do it with love or never do it at all.

Nonviolence is impossible without humility.

It’s easy to stand with the crowd. It takes courage to stand alone.

God can never be realized by one who is not pure of heart.

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.

To lose patience is to lose the battle.

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

Prayer is a confession of one’s own unworthiness and weakness.

I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

Good government is no substitute for self-government.

Poverty is the worst form of violence.

But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac.

Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.

Take care of this moment.

You yourself as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.

The golden way is to be friends with the world and to regard the whole human family as one.

I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him.

Nonviolence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.

Independence means voluntary restraints and discipline, voluntary acceptance of the rule of law.

God’s word is: ‘He who strives never perishes’. I have implicit faith in that promise.

Nonviolence 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.

Responsibility will mellow and sober the youth and prepare them, for the burden they must discharge.

For me the voice of God, of Conscience, of Truth or the Inner Voice or ‘the still small Voice’ mean one and the same thing.

The difficulty one experiences in meeting himsa arises from weakness of mind.

Strength does not come from winning. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.

Study not man in his animal nature – man following the laws of the jungle – but study man in all his glory.

I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.

It is weakness which breeds fear, and fear breeds distrust.

The Swaraj of my dream recognizes no race or religious distinctions.

Some form of common worship and a common place of worship appear to be a human necessity.

Violence is a concession to human weakness, satyagraha is an obligation.

America aims at having a car for every citizen. I do not.

A man’s true wealth hereafter is the good he has done to his fellowmen.

Perfect nonviolence is difficult. It admits to no weakness.

The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.

The best way of losing a cause is to abuse your opponent and to trade upon his weakness.

Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself.

It is beyond my power to induce in you a belief in God. There are certain things which are self proved and certain which are not proved at all.

Man has always desired power. Ownership of property gives this power. Man hankers also after posthumous fame based on power.

Man is oftentimes weak-minded enough to be caught in the snare of greed and honeyed words.

A wise parent allows the children to make mistakes. It is good for them once in a while to burn their fingers.

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

Nonviolence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.

Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time.

There are two days in the year that we can not do anything – yesterday and tomorrow.

A man who would interpret the scriptures must have the spiritual discipline.

Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking.

Civilization is the encouragement of differences.

Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love.

Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong.

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

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

It’s my conviction that nothing enduring can be built on violence.

Where love is, there God is also.

Live simply so that others may simply live.

Those who know how to think need no teachers.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.

You can’t shake hands with a closed fist.

Life is but an endless series of experiments.

Distinguish between real needs and artificial wants and control the latter.

Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point.

If you want real peace in the world, start with children.

But it is impossible for us to realize perfect truth so long as we are imprisoned in this mortal frame.

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word.

I regard myself as a soldier, though a soldier of peace.

Hinduism insists on the brotherhood of not only all mankind but of all that lives.

I first learned the concepts of nonviolence in my marriage.

No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.

Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.

What is imprisonment to the man who is fearless of death itself?

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

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacity.

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

It is difficult, but not impossible, to conduct strictly honest business.

To die in the act of killing is, in essence, to die defeated.

A living faith in God means acceptance of the brotherhood of mankind.

Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilisation.

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

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

Unlike the animal, God has given man the faculty of reason.

There is no need of a teacher for those who know how to think.

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

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

Cow-slaughter and man-slaughter are in my opinion two sides of the same coin.

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

Faith becomes lame, when it ventures into matters pertaining to reason.

A leader is useless when he acts against the promptings of his own conscience.

Mahatma Gandhiji Quotes in English

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.

He who would sacrifice his life for others has hardly time to reserve for himself a place in the sun.

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.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

My life is an indivisible whole, and all my attitudes run into one another; and they all have their rise in my insatiable love for mankind.

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.

Human nature will find itself only when it fully realizes that to be human it has to cease to be beastly or brutal.

If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them.

Nonviolence is not to be used ever as the shield of the coward. It is the weapon of the brave.

Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.

To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.

Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.

God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.

Men aspiring to be free can hardly think of enslaving others.

Man will ever remain imperfect, and it will always be his part to try to be perfect.

Man can never be a woman’s equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.

The person who discovered the law of love was a far greater scientist than any of our modern scientists.

When I see a cow, it is not an animal to eat, it is a poem of pity for me and I worship it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world.

True humility means most strenuous and constant endeavor entirely directed towards the service of humanity.

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

The students should be, above all, humble and correct… The greatest to remain great has to be the lowliest by choice.

When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.

Every man has an equal right to the necessaries of life even as birds and beasts have. *

There can be no knowledge without humility and the will to learn.

Craft, art, health and education should all be integrated into one scheme.

Those who cannot renounce attachment to the results of their work are far from the path.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.

Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lust for martyrdom.

It is the faith that steers us through stormy seas, faith that moves mountains and faith that jumps across the ocean.

Literary training by itself adds not an inch to one’s moral height and that character-building is independent of literary training.

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.

Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.

I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world.

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts.

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

One, who abandons all desires, is free from pride and selfishness and behaves as one apart, finds peace.

All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth.

Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.

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

The wise are unaffected either by death or life. These are but faces of the same coin.

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

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

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

Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one’s own religion.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

If India is not to declare spiritual bankruptcy, religious instruction of its youth must be held to be at least as necessary as secular instruction.

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.

Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.

The golden rule to apply in all such cases is resolutely to refuse to have what millions cannot.

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

I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

One’s own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one’s Maker and no one else’s.

Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind.

Satan’s successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips.

Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.

I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.

Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul.

I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to 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.

Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.

I’m a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply want to please my own conscience, which is God.

What is Truth? A difficult question; but I have solved it for myself by saying that it is what the “voice within” tells you.

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.

There is nothing on earth that I would not give up, excepting of course, two things and two things only, truth and nonviolence.

My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet.

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

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.

Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock.

The very first step in nonviolence is that we cultivate in our daily life, as between ourselves, truthfulness, humility, tolerance, loving kindness.

Character cannot be built with mortar and stone. It cannot be built by hands other than your own. The Principal and the Professor cannot give you character from the pages of books. Character building comes from their very lives really speaking, it must come from within yourselves.

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.

I hold that, as the largest part of our time is devoted to labour for earning our bread, our children must from their infancy be taught the dignity of such labour.

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.

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.

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stifled. I want all the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.

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.

The utterly false idea that intelligence can be developed only through book-reading should give place to the truth that the quickest development of the mind can be achieved by artisan’s work being learnt in a scientific manner.

Knowledge without character is a power for evil only, as seen in the instances of so many talented thieves and ‘gentlemen rascals’ in the world.

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.

You have to train the boys in one occupation or another. Round this special occupation you will train up his mind, his body, his handwriting, his artistic sense, and so on. He will be master of the craft he learns.

The basis of my vegetarianism is not physical, but moral. If anybody said that I should die if I did not take beef tea or mutton, even on medical advice, I would prefer death. That is the basis of my vegetarianism.

Not until we have reduced ourselves to nothingness can we conquer the evil in us. God demands nothing less than complete self-surrender as the price for the only real freedom that is worth having.

Real education has to draw out the best from the boys and girls to be educated. This can never be done by packing ill-assorted and unwanted information into the heads of the pupils. It becomes a dead weight crushing all originality in them and turning them into mere automata.

True meditation consists in closing the eyes and ears of the mind to all else except the object of one’s devotion. Hence closing of eyes during the prayers is an aid to such concentration.

There is nothing more potent than thought. Deed follows word and word follows thought. The word is the result of a mighty thought, and where the thought is mighty and pure the result is always mighty and pure.

I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth.

I submit that scientists have not yet explored the hidden possibilities of the innumerable seeds, leaves and fruits for giving the fullest possible nutrition to mankind.

When it is remembered that the primary aim of all education is, or should be, the moulding of the character of pupils, a teacher who has a character to keep need not lost heart.

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.

We have up to now concentrated on stuffing children’s minds with all kinds information, without ever thinking of stimulating and developing them. Let us now cry a halt and concentrate on education the child properly through manual work, not as a side activity, but as the prime means of intellectual training.

As for food, India has plenty of fertile land, there is enough water and no dearth of man power… The public should be educated to become self reliant. Once they know that they have got to stand on their own legs, it would electrify the atmosphere.

Where death without resistance or death after resistance is the only way, neither party should think of resorting to law-courts or help from the government.

An intellect that is developed through the medium of socially useful labour will be an instrument for service and will not easily be led astray or fall into devious paths.

If teachers impart all the knowledge in the world to their students but inculcate not truth and purity among them, they will have betrayed them and instead of raising them set them on the downward road to perdition.

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.

Monotony is the law of nature. Look at the monotonous manner in which the sun rises. The monotony of necessary occupation is exhilarating and life giving.

A ‘No’ uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.

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 purpose of life is undoubtedly to know oneself. We cannot do it unless we learn to identify ourselves with all that lives. The sum-total of that life is God.

We do not know whether it is good to live or to die. Therefore, we should not take delight in living, nor should we tremble at the thought of death. We should be equiminded towards death.

Whether humanity will consciously follow the law of love, I do not know. But that need not disturb me. The law will work just as the law of gravitation works, whether we accept it or not.

All that I can in true humility present to you is that Truth is not to be found by anybody who has not got an abundant sense of humility. If you would swim on the bosom of the ocean of Truth you must reduce yourself to zero.

Ethically they had arrived at the conclusion that man’s supremacy over lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower, and that there should be mutual aid between the two as between man and man. They had also brought out the truth that man eats not for enjoyment but to live.

The Seven Sins are: Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Religion without sacrifice. Politics without principle.

The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall always see Truth in fragment and from different points of vision.

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.

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 believe that the sum total of the energy of mankind is not to bring us down but to lift us up, and that is the result of the definite, if unconscious, working of the law of love.

Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-realization. The ideal must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections.

The less you possess, the less you want, the better you are. And better for what? Not for enjoyment of this life, but for enjoyment of personal service to the fellow-beings; service which you dedicate yourself, body, soul and mind.

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.

As I believe that silent prayer is often a mightier (force) than any overt act, in my helplessness I continuously pray in the faith that the prayer of a pure heart never goes unanswered.

I have been known as a crank, faddist, madman. Evidently the reputation is well deserved. For wherever I go, I draw to myself cranks, faddists, and madmen.

Nonviolent resistance implies the very opposite of weakness. Defiance combined with non-retaliatory acceptance of repression from one’s opponents is active, not passive.

The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then, and not till then, will he have a glimpse of truth.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I believe that prayer is the very soul and essence of religion, and therefore prayer must be the very core of life of man, for no man can live without religion.

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.

I have never found Him lacking in response. I have found Him nearest at hand when the horizon seemed darkest—in my ordeals in jails when it was not all smooth sailing for me. I cannot recall a moment in my life when I had a sense of desertion by God.

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.

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.

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?

That faith is of little value which can flourish only in fair weather. Faith in order to be of any value has to survive the severest trials. Your faith is a whited sepulcher if it cannot stand against the calumny of the whole world.

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 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.

Even if the paradise of material satisfactions, which they envisage as their final goal, were realize on earth, it would not bring mankind either contentment or peace.

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.

He who runs to the doctor, vaidya, or hakim for every little ailment, and swallows all kinds of vegetable and mineral drugs, not only curtails his life, but by becoming the slave of his body instead of remaining its master, loses self-control, and ceases to be a man.

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.

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.

I can give my own testimony and say that a heartfelt prayer is undoubtedly the most potent instrument that man possesses for overcoming cowardice and all other bad old habits.

The roots of violence: Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principles.

Faith is not a delicate flower which would wither under the slightest stormy weather. Faith is like the Himalaya mountains which cannot possibly change. No storm can possibly remove the Himalaya mountains from their foundations… And I want every one of you to cultivate that faith in God and religion.

To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that one that must be loved is not a friend. There is not merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend.

I do not believe that multiplication of wants and machinery contrived to supply them is taking the world a single step nearer its goal… I whole-heartedly detest this mad desire to destroy distance and time, to increase animal appetites and go to the ends of the earth in search of their satisfaction. If modern civilization stands for all this, and I have understood it to do so, I call it Satanic.

Silence has now become both a physical and spiritual necessity for me. Originally it was taken to relieve the sense of pressure. Then I wanted time for writing. After, however, I had practiced it for some time I saw the spiritual value of it. It suddenly flashed across my mind that that was the time when I could best hold communion with God. And now I feel as though I was naturally built for silence.

Just as one must not receive, so must one not possess anything which one does not really need. It would be a breach of this principle to possess unnecessary food-stuffs, clothing, or furniture. For instance, one must not keep a chair if one can do without it. In observing this principle one is led to a progressive simplification of one’s own life.

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.

I believe in the essential unity of all people and for that matter of all lives. Therefore, I believe that if one person gains spiritually, the whole world gains, and if one person falls, the whole world falls to that extent.

Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God.

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall – think of it, always.

Do not judge others. Be your own judge and you will be truly happy. If you will try to judge others, you are likely to burn your fingers.

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.

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.

Namaste. I honour the place in you where the entire universe resides… a place of light, of love, of truth, of peace, of wisdom. I honour the place in you where when you are in that place and I am in that place there is only one of us.

It is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others’ religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world’s religions is a sacred duty.

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.

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.

We notice that the mind is a restless bird; the more it gets the more it wants, and still remains unsatisfied. The more we indulge our passions the more unbridled they become. Our ancestors, therefore, set a limit to our indulgences. They saw that happiness was largely a mental condition. A man is not necessarily happy because he is rich, or unhappy because he is poor… Millions will always remain poor.

Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.

Mankind is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends from time to time. We require drums to be beaten into our ears, before we should wake from our trance and hear the warning and see that to lose oneself in all, is the only way to find oneself.

I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour. But I believe that nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment.

Given the right kind of teachers, our children will be taught the dignity of labour and learn to regard it as an integral part and a means of their intellectual growth, and to realize that it is patriotic to pay for their training through their labour.

A man must arrange his physical and cultural circumstances so that they do not hinder him in his service of humanity, on which all his energies should be concentrated.