Archive

Quotes/entries for ‘Gandhi, Mohandas’

 

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the ‘still small voice’ within me.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

Fear has its use but cowardice has none.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

We must become the change we want to see.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

Human life is a series of compromises and it is not always easy to achieve in practice what one has found to be true in theory.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

My non-violence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice. I can no more preach non-violence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes. … Nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence. But the message of nonviolence is for those who know how to die, not for those who are afraid of death. If one has not that courage, I want him to cultivate the art of killing and being killed, rather than in a cowardly manner to flee from danger.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

A “no” uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a “yes” merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

You must watch my life, how I live, eat, sit, talk, behave in general. The sum total of all those in me is my religion.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 12-May-04 | Last updated 12-May-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

I have only three enemies. My favorite enemy, the one most easily influenced for the better, is the British Empire. My second enemy, the Indian people, is far more difficult. But my most formidable opponent is a man named Mohandas K. Gandhi. With him I seem to have very little influence.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 30-Jun-04 | Last updated 30-Jun-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

The best politics is right action.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
(Attributed)

Added on 16-Nov-12 | Last updated 16-Nov-12
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

He who would be friends with God must remain alone or make the whole world his friend.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1.6 (1929) [tr. Desai (1940)]

Added on 10-Sep-10 | Last updated 10-Sep-10
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and fearlessly following it.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Ethical Religion, ch. 2 (1930)

Added on 3-Dec-12 | Last updated 3-Dec-12
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

We are all children of one and the same God and, therefore, absolutely equal.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Harijan (2 Feb 1934)

Added on 14-Dec-09 | Last updated 14-Dec-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Harijan (28 Jul. 1940)

Added on 24-Aug-07 | Last updated 24-Aug-07
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

If I could persuade myself that I should find Him in a Himalayan cave, I would proceed there immediately. But I know that I cannot find Him apart from humanity.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Harijan (29 Aug 1936)

Added on 3-Dec-10 | Last updated 3-Dec-10
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

I love those who never preach but live the life according to their lights. Their lives are silent, yet most effective, testimonies. Therefore I cannot say what to preach, but I can say that a life of service and uttermost simplicity is the best preaching. A rose does not need to preach. It simply spreads its fragrance. The fragrance is its own sermon. If it had human understanding and if it could engage a number of preachers, the preachers would not be able to sell more rose than the fragrance itself could do. The fragrance of religious and spiritual life is much finer and subtler than that of the rose.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Harijan (29 Mar 1935)

Full text.

Added on 14-Jul-09 | Last updated 14-Jul-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Harijan (6-Jul-1947)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Last Phase, Vol. II (written 1948, published 1958)

Added on 16-Jun-09 | Last updated 16-Jun-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

All progress is gained through mistakes and their rectification. No good comes fully fashoned, out of God’s hand, but has to be carved out through repeated experiments and repeated failures by ourselves. This is the law of individual growth. The same law controls social and political evolution also. The right to err, which means the freedom to try experiments, is the universal condition of all progress.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
M. K. Gandhi: Speeches and Writings (1918)

Added on 25-Sep-12 | Last updated 25-Sep-12
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our fellow creatures.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism, Speech to the London Vegetarian Society (20 Nov. 1931)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

He who cannot protect himself or his nearest and dearest or their honor by non-violently facing death, may and ought to do so by violently dealing with the oppressor. He who can do neither of the two is a burden.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Young India (10 Nov. 1928)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

Faith does not admit of telling.  It has to be lived and then it becomes self-propagating.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Young India (20 Oct 1927)

Added on 5-Apr-10 | Last updated 5-Apr-10
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

The golden rule of conduct, therefore, is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall see Truth in fragment and from different angles of vision. Conscience is not the same thing for all. Whilst, therefore, it is a good guide for individual conduct, imposition of that conduct upon all will be an insufferable interference with everybody’s freedom of conscience.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Young India (23 Sep 1926)

Full text.

Added on 7-Jul-09 | Last updated 7-Jul-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

The still small voice within you must always be the final arbiter when there is a conflict of duty.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Young India (4 Aug 1920)

Added on 30-Oct-09 | Last updated 30-Oct-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Young India (4 Aug. 1920)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion —- human religion -— but any number of faiths.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Young India (Bulletin) (2 Oct 1930)

Some versions omit "-- human religion --".  Full text.

Added on 23-Jun-09 | Last updated 23-Jun-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Article, Young India, (22 Oct 1925)

Added on 12-Sep-07 | Last updated 12-Sep-07
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Attributed

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

There can be no rule of God in the present state of iniquitous inequalities in which a few roll in riches and the masses do not get enough to eat.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Harijan (1 Jun 1947)

Added on 23-Feb-11 | Last updated 23-Feb-11
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Harijan (19 Nov 1938)

Added on 14-Nov-12 | Last updated 14-Nov-12
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

At the time of writing I never think of what I have said before. My aim is not to be consistent with my previous statements on a given question, but to be consistent with truth as it may present itself to me [at the] given moment. The result has been that I have grown from truth to truth.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Harijan (30 Sep 1939)

Added on 7-May-09 | Last updated 7-May-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Young India (13 Jan 1927)

Added on 12-Sep-11 | Last updated 12-Sep-11
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Young India (13 Oct 1921)

Added on 13-Oct-09 | Last updated 13-Oct-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

Intolerance betrays a want of faith in one’s own cause.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Young India (2 Feb 1921)

Added on 19-Apr-11 | Last updated 19-Apr-11
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

No human being is so bad as to be beyond redemption.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Young India (26 Mar 1931)

Added on 18-Dec-12 | Last updated 18-Dec-12
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

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

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Young India (9 Mar 1992)

Added on 17-Nov-09 | Last updated 17-Nov-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

Do not undertake anything beyond your capacity and at the same time do not harbor the wish to do less than you can. One who takes up tasks beyond his powers is proud and attached. On the other hand, one who does less than he can is a thief.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Letter to Narandas Gandhi (10 Jul 1932)

Added on 16-Nov-09 | Last updated 16-Nov-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

I have become disconsolate. In the secret of my heart I am in perpetual quarrel with God that He should allow such things to go on. My non-violence seems almost impotent. But the answer comes at teh end of the daily quarrel that neither God nor non-violence is impotent. Impotence is in men. I must try on without losing faith even though I break in the attempt.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Press statement (5 Sep 1939)

On the impending war in Europe.

Added on 10-Dec-10 | Last updated 10-Dec-10
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

Do not worry about what others are doing! Each of us should turn the searchlight inward and purify his or her own heart as much as possible.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Radio broadcast (16 Mar 1948)

Added on 10-Nov-10 | Last updated 10-Nov-10
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

I am very imperfect. Before you are gone you will have discovered a hundred of my faults, and if you don’t, I will help you to see them.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Remark (1942)

To Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, ch. 38 (1950)

Added on 5-May-10 | Last updated 5-May-10
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas

 

A civilization is to be judged by its treatment of minorities.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Remark (Jul 1946)

In L. Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, ch. 43 (1950)

Added on 18-May-09 | Last updated 18-May-09
Link to this quotation No comments
More quotes by Gandhi, Mohandas