Top 3198 Quotes & Sayings by Mahatma Gandhi - Page 3

Each one prays to God according to his own light.

I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth.

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

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

Where love is, there God is also.

Man is supposed to be the maker of his destiny. It is only partly true. He can make his destiny, only in so far as he is allowed by the Great Power.

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.

Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man's happiness really lies in contentment.

I 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.

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

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

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

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

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.

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

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

I did once seriously think of embracing the Christian faith. The gentle figure of Christ, so full of forgiveness that he taught his followers not to retaliate when abused or struck, but to turn the other cheek - I thought it was a beautiful example of the perfect man.

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

Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

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.

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

Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause.

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

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.

Morality is contraband in war.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Non-violence is the article of faith.

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

My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray.

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.

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

I am in the world feeling my way to light 'amid the encircling gloom.'

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

Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the European, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.

Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.

I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children, I began to strive after self-control. There was endless difficulty in the task.

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

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.

Sense perceptions can be and often are false and deceptive, however real they may appear to us. Where there is realization outside the senses, it is infallible. It is proved not by extraneous evidence but in the transformed conduct and character of those who have felt the real presence of God within.

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