Home / Books / Collected Works

Collected Works

Book by Mahatma Gandhi · 50 quotes · Ifs, Men, Nonviolence

This collection brings together a wide array of writings, including novels, short stories, essays, and poems, providing a comprehensive overview of the author's or authors' literary contributions and evolution.

Book detail: Collected Works is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.

This collection brings together a wide array of writings, including novels, short stories, essays, and poems, providing a comprehensive overview of the author's or authors' literary contributions and evolution.

The quotes below use the same card format as the rest of the site, including topics, source notes, copy actions, image creation, and sharing controls.

Filter quotes by topic

All Ifs Men Nonviolence God India Violence World Should May Doe Language Untouchability English Language Englishmen Mankind Spinning Way Government Knows Nations

Collected Works Quotes

“If anybody said that I should die if I did not take beef-tea or mutton, even under medical advice, I would prefer death.”

Ifs Should Said Dies Advice Medical Tea Beef Mutton

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“We find the general work of mankind is being carried on from day to day by the mass of people acting in harmony as if by instinct. If they were instinctively violent, the world would end in no time.”

People Ifs World Ends Acting Mankind Mass Harmony Instinct Violent Day To Day

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If we are to stand the final heat of the battle, we must learn to stand our ground in the face of cavalry or baton charges and allow ourselves to be trampled under horses' hooves, or be bruised with baton charges.”

Ifs Faces Atheism Battle Horse Finals Positive Atheism Heat Bruised Baton Cavalry

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If there were no hell, we would be like the animals. No hell, no dignity.”

Ifs Would Be Animal Hell Dignity Criminal Mind Used In Criminal Minds

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Every affliction has its own rich lesson to teach, if we would learn it.”

Ifs Teach Rich Lessons Affliction

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Untouchability, I hold, is a sin, if Bhagavadgita is one of our Divine Books.”

Ifs Book Sin Divine Gita Untouchability

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“The spinning wheel and the spinning wheel alone will solve, if anything will solve, the problem of the deepening poverty of India.”

Ifs Problem Poverty India Solve Wheels Spinning

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If we are true servants of the masses, we would take pride in spinning for their sake.”

Ifs Pride Mass Sake Servant Spinning

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If the English educated neglect, as they have done and even now continue, as some do, to be ignorant of their mother tongue, linguistic starvation will abide.”

Ifs Done Mother Language Tongue Ignorant Educated Neglect English Language Englishmen Starvation Mother Tongue

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“It would be a sad day for India if it has to inherit the English scale and the English tastes so utterly unsuitable to the Indian environment.”

Ifs Would Be Language Environment Taste India Scales Indian English Language Englishmen Sad Day

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If you must kill English officials, why not kill me instead?”

Ifs Language Officials Why Not Kill Me English Language Englishmen

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

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

Ifs Men Children Faith Activity Men And Women Available Have Faith

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“God will cease to be God, if he brought into being a single person with the hall-mark of inferiority.”

Ifs Persons God Mark Cease Gods Will Halls Inferiority Single Person

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“I can neither serve God nor humanity if as an Indian I do not serve India, and as a Hindu I do not serve Indian Mussalmans.”

Ifs I Can God Humanity India Indian Serving God

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If I arrogate to myself the exclusive title of being in the right, I usurp the function of the Deity.”

Ifs God Function Titles Exclusive Deities

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Hinduism dies if untouchability lives, and untouchability has to die if Hinduism is to live.”

Ifs Dies Hinduism Untouchability

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Hinduism loses its right to make a universal appeal if it closes its temples to Harijans.”

Ifs Loses Universal Appeals Temples Hinduism

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Hinduism would not have been much of a religion if Rama had not steeled his heart against every temptation.”

Ifs Heart Has Beens Temptation Hinduism Rama

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If God gives me the privilege of dying for the Hinduism of my conception, I shall have sufficiently died for the unity of all and even for Swaraj.”

Ifs Giving Dying Give Me Died Unity Privilege Conception Hinduism

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If I know Hinduism at all, it is essentially inclusive and ever-growing, ever-responsive. It gives the freest scope for imagination, speculation and reason.”

Ifs Knows Giving Reason Imagination Growing Hinduism Speculation Scope

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If the Commander-in-Chief will look beyond the defence forces, he will discover that the real India is not military but peace-loving.”

Ifs Looks Real Force Military India Chiefs Defence Commanders Commander In Chief

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Khadi will cease to have any value in my eyes if it does not usefully employ the millions.”

Ifs Doe Eye Values Millions Cease

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If treachery is the reward of trust, will the man who trusts come to harm?”

Ifs Men Mankind He Man Rewards Harm Treachery

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If every component part of the nation claims the right of self-determination for itself, there is no one nation and there is no independence.”

Ifs Self Nations Determination Claims Independence Nationalism Self Determination Components

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If my nonviolence is to be contagious and infectious, I must acquire greater control over my thoughts.”

Ifs Greater Acquire Nonviolence My Thoughts Contagious

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“In a nonviolent army, the general and the officers are elected, or are as if elected, when their authority is moral and rests solely on the willing obedience of the rank and file.”

Ifs Moral Willing Authority Army Obedience Officers Nonviolence Files

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If we are nonviolent through and through, our nonviolence would have been self-evident.”

Ifs Has Beens Self Nonviolence Evident

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Swaraj does not depend on jail going. If it did, there are thousands of prisoners in jail today. It depends on everyone doing his or her own task.”

Ifs Doe Today Depends Tasks Jail Prisoner

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“We are aware that the business of Swaraj will thrive only if the boycott of foreign cloth is successful.”

Ifs Successful Thrive Boycott

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“We shall make progress towards Swaraj only if we do everything thoughtfully and with understanding.”

Ifs Understanding Progress

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“We shall dig our own grave if we do not purge ourselves of this curse of untouchability.”

Ifs Graves Curse Untouchability

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“There is no 'as far as possible' on the question of untouchability. If it is to go, it must go in its entirety from the temples as from everywhere else.”

Ifs Temples Entirety Untouchability

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If there is violence, it will certainly be crushed because violence can only end in a disgraceful rout.”

Ifs Ends Violence Crushed Disgraceful

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Vehement writing, even if it is charged with truth, is no answer to violent action.”

Ifs Writing Action Answers Violence Truth Is Violent Vehement

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If they are truly nonviolent, they must also realize that civil disobedience is an impossibility till the preliminary work of construction is done.”

Ifs Done Realizing Construction Impossibility Disobedience Civil Disobedience

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Islam was nothing if it did not spell complete democracy.”

Ifs Democracy Islam Spells

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Freedom of worship, even of public speech, would become a farce if interference became the order of the day.”

Ifs Order Freedom Speech Worship Interference Farce

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If a man voluntarily allows himself to be crushed, he yields the oil of moral energy which sustains the world.”

Ifs Men World Suffering Energy Moral Oil Yield Crushed

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“It is wonderful, if we chose the right diet, what an extraordinarily small quantity would suffice.”

Ifs Wonderful Diets Quantity

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.”

Ifs Should May Enough Running Fall Battle Running Away

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Faith comes and goes. It rises and falls like the tides of an invisible ocean. If it is presumptuous to think that faith will stay with you forever, it is just as presumptuous to think that unbelief will.”

Ifs Thinking Fall Forever Ocean Invisible Tides Comes And Goes Unbelief Rise And Fall Presumptuous

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“We should be able to refuse to live if the price of living be the torture of sentient beings.”

Ifs Should Able Compassion Refuse Torture Sentient Beings

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

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

Ifs Thinking Heart Able Evil Learning Teaching Strength Criticism Educational Acquire Remove Criticism Of Others Criticism And Praise

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“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.”

Ifs Knows Values Faith Left Providence Astrology Doubtful Left Alone

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“... man was not born a carnivorous animal, but born to live on the fruits and herbs that the earth grows. I know we must all err. I would give up milk if I could, but I cannot. I have made that experiment times without number. I could not, after a serious illness, regain my strength, unless I went back to milk. That has been the tragedy of my life. But 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.”

Source: Collected Works

“Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. I must continue to bear testimony to truth even if I am forsaken by all. Mine may today be a voice in the wilderness, but it will be heard when all other voices are silenced, if it is the voice of Truth.”

Ifs May Today Voice Heard Mines Bears Endure Wilderness Tides Testimony Forsaken Swept Away

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“If we have listening ears, God speaks to us in our own language, whatever that language be”

Ifs God Speak Language Listening Ears Listening Ear

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“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.”

Ifs Trying Judging Judgment Fingers Truly Happy Do Not Judge

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“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. The fact that mankind persists shows that the cohesive force is greater than the disruptive force, centripetal force greater than centrifugal.”

Ifs Love Believe Facts Shows Law Energy Force I Believe Results Greater Mankind Lifts Unconscious Persist Definite Disruptive Centripetal Force

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

“Does not the history of the world show that there would have been no romance in life if there had been no risks?”

Ifs World Life Doe Has Beens Shows Romance Risk World History

Book:Collected Works

Source: Collected Works

About the Author

Mahatma GandhiBrowse author quotes
Flannery O'ConnorBrowse author quotes
Julian of NorwichBrowse author quotes
Karl MarxBrowse author quotes
Lorine NiedeckerBrowse author quotes
Ramana MaharshiBrowse author quotes
Antonin ArtaudBrowse author quotes
Abraham LincolnBrowse author quotes
Clement of AlexandriaBrowse author quotes
Elizabeth IBrowse author quotes

Books by Same Author

All Men Are BrothersBrowse source quotes

The Wit and Wisdom of GandhiBrowse source quotes

Collected Works of Mahatma GandhiBrowse source quotes

India of My DreamsBrowse source quotes

The Mind of Mahatma GandhiBrowse source quotes

The Encyclopaedia of Gandhian ThoughtsBrowse source quotes

All Men are Brothers: Autobiographical...Browse source quotes

Glorious Thoughts of Gandhi: Being a Tr...Browse source quotes

Related Topics

Ifs Men Nonviolence God India Violence World Should May Doe

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Similar Authors

No similar authors found.