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Mahatma Gandhi Quotes
1869–1948 India
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and to later inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (Sanskrit: "great-souled", "venerable"), first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world.
India Activists Journalists Lawyers Memoirists Also known as: Gandhi, Gandhi, Mahatma, Mahatma Ghandi, Mohandas Gandhi, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Random Mahatma Gandhi quote
259 quotes
It is no use trying to fight these forces [of materialism] without giving up the idea of conversion, which I assure you is the deadliest poison which ever sapped the fountain of truth.
Posthumous publications (1950)
One of the objects of a newspaper is to understand popular feeling and to give expression to it; another is to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; and the third is fearlessly to expose popular defects.
Hind Swaraj (1909)
I am human, and I make mistakes. Therefore my commitment must be to truth and not to consistency.
Ahimsa is an attribute of the brave. Cowardice and ahimsa don't go together any more that water and fire.
Fundamentals of Gandhism (1995)
Hindu Dharma is like a boundless ocean teeming with priceless gems. The deeper you dive the more treasures you find.
Posthumous publications (1950)
Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilised—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals.
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.
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.
The lawlessness [of communalism] is a monster with many faces. It hurts all, in the end, including those who are primarily responsible for it.
I draw no distinction between error and sin. If a man commits a bona fide mistake and confesses it with a contrite heart before his Maker, the merciful Maker sterilizes it of all harm.
May God give power to every word of mine. In his name I began to write this, and in His name I close it.
To Every Briton (1940)
Prayer is not an asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one's weakness.
I am an irrepressible optimist, but I always base my optimism on solid facts.
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
To Every Briton (1940)
Homeopathy cures a larger percentage of cases than any other form of treatment and is beyond doubt safer and more economical.
Ahimsa is the highest ideal. It is meant for the brave, never for the cowardly. The highest religion has been defined by a negative word: Ahimsa.
Fundamentals of Gandhism (1995)
I want freedom for full expression of my personality.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Non-Violence in Peace and War (1948)
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 feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage—an inexorable demand—that we should cease to kill our fellow-creatures for satisfaction of our bodily wants.
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