Top 3198 Quotes & Sayings by Mahatma Gandhi - Page 50

... when all violence subsides in the human heart, the state which remains is love. It is not something we have to acquire; it is always present, and needs only to be uncovered. This is our real nature, not merely to love one person here, another there, but to be love itself.

The mice which helplessly find themselves between the cats teeth acquire no merit from their enforced sacrifice.

A non-violent revolution is not a program of seizure of power. It is a program of transformation of relationships, ending in a peaceful transfer of power.

Find yourself by losing yourself for others.

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

Breach of promise is a base surrender of truth.

By education, I mean an all-round drawing of the best in child and man in body, mind and spirit.

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

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.

The hardest metal yields to sufficient heat. Even so must the hardest heart melt before sufficiency of the heat of non- violence. And there is no limit to the capacity of non-violence to generate heat.

Your readiness to suffer will light the torch of freedom which will never be put out.

Just think out for yourselves, if a man who was good yesterday has become bad after having come in contact with me, is he responsible that he has deteriorated or am I? ... It is well to take the blame sometimes.

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

If an enemy strikes your left cheek, offer him your right.

I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him. I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest. Even if the sacrifice demanded my very life, I hope I may be prepared to give it.

The path of self-purification is hard and steep. One has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know that I have not in me as yet that triple purity in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world's praise fails to move me, indeed it very often stings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to me to be harder far than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms.

3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, but 9 is not prime; -in this incarnation.

No one can ride on the back of a man unless it is bent.

Live simply that others might simply live.

Everyone holds a piece of the truth.

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

It is necessary to correct the error that vegetarianism has made us weak in mind, or passive or inert in action. I do not regard flesh-food as necessary at any stage

I know nothing of the science of astrology and I consider it to be a science, if it is a science, of doubtful value, to be severely left alone by those who have any faith in Providence.

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry.

Everyone has faith in God though everyone does not know it. For everyone has faith in himself and that multiplied to the nth degree is God. The sum total of all that lives is God. We may not be God, but we are of God, even as a little drop of water is of the ocean.

Love has more force than a besieging army.

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.

A man who is swayed by negative emotions may have good enough intentions, may be truthful in word, but he will never find the Truth.

One who uses coercion is guilty of deliberate violence. Coercion is inhuman.

Basic education links the children, whether of the cities or the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India.

The socialism that India can assimilate is the socialism of the spinning wheel.

Ahimsa must be placed before everything else while it is professed. Then alone it becomes irresistible.

Those who are lacking in bhakti (devotion), lacking in faith, are ill qualified to interpret the scriptures.

The path of bhakti, karma and love as expounded in the Gita leaves no room for the despising of man by man.

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.

God has enabled me to affect the life of the country since 1920 without the necessity of office.

Ahimsa was preached to man when he was in full vigor of life and able to look his adversaries straight in the face.

Ahimsa can be practiced only towards those that are inferior to you in every way.

Self-realization is the object of the Gita, as it is of all scriptures.

What is it but my ahimsa that draws thousands of women to me in fearless confidence?

Love in the sense of ahimsa has only a limited number of votaries in the world.

I believe that it is impossible to end hatred with hatred.

Love and ahimsa are matchless in their effect.

Be the change you seek.

Unless the charkha adds to your ahimsa and makes you stronger every day, your Gandhism is of little avail.

A votary of ahimsa cannot subscribe to the utilitarian formula (of the greatest good of the greatest number). He will strive for the greatest good of all and die in the attempt to realize that ideal.

According to the letter of the Gita, it is possible to say that warfare is consistent with renunciation of fruit.

The restoration of spinning to its central place in India's peaceful campaign for deliverance from the imperial yoke gives her women a special status.

Khaddar is an activity that can absorb all the time of all available men and women and grown-up children, if they have faith.

Without proper, careful organisation of the spinning wheel and khaddar, there is absolutely no civil disobedience.

Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty. Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible terms. To observe morality is to attain mastery over our mind and our passions. So doing, we know ourselves.

Truth and non-violence are not cloistered virtues but applicable as much in the forum and the legislatures as in the market place.

I care so deeply about this matter that I'm willing to take on the legal penalties, to sit in this prison cell, to sacrifice my freedom, in order to show you how deeply I care. Because when you see the depth of my concern, and how civil I am in going about this, you're bound to change your mind about me, to abandon your rigid, unjust position, and to let me help you see the truth of my cause.

Legal imposition avoids the necessity of honour or good faith.

I see a clear breach of ahimsa even in driving away monkeys; the breach would be proportionately greater if they have to be killed.

God accepts the sacrifice of the pure in heart.

My personal religion enables me to serve my countrymen without hurting the English or, for that matter, anybody else.

The ally we must cultivate is the part of our enemy which knows the truth.

Ahimsa is no mere theory with me, but it is a fact of life based on extensive experience.

The Gita is not only my Bible and my Koran, it is more than that, it is my mother.