Quotessence
Home / Authors / Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Civil rights leader

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsNonviolenceGodViolenceWorldIndiaReligionInspirationalShouldMayMankindDoeSelfMeanHeartSpiritualKnowsPeaceTruth

Famous Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

“It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world's progress toward peace. ... Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man?”

IfsMenWorldWantShouldIdeasTodayChristianChristianityProgressImpossibleStyleGoes OnIndiaErrorsConversionSatisfiedElsewhereGodlyReconcileImpedimentsHindu ReligionGodly Man
Book:Christian Missions, Their Place in India
Create image

“Just as one must learn the art of killing in the training for violence, so one must learn the art of dying in the training for non-violence. Violence does not mean the emancipation from fear, but discovering the means of combating the cause of fear. Nonviolence, on the other hand, has no cause for fear. The votary of nonviolence has to cultivate the capacity for sacrifice of the highest type in order to be free from fear. He recks not if he should lose his land, his wealth, his life.”

IfsShouldMeanDoeArtHandsOrderCausesLosesWealthViolenceSacrificeLandDyingTypeHighestTrainingCapacityKillingNonviolenceDiscoveringNon ViolenceEmancipation
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
Create image

“Animal experimentation is the blackest of all the black crimes that a man is at present committing... We should be able to refuse to live if the price of living be the torture of sentient beings... I abhor [animal] experimentation with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence... The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

IfsMenWayShouldSoulWholeAbleNationsBlackAnimalMoralProgressBloodCrimeGreatnessDiscoveryConsequenceRefuseTreatedInnocentTortureJudgedExperimentationSentient BeingsScientific DiscoveryAnimal Experimentation
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
Create image

“Ethically they had arrived at the conclusion that man's supremacy over lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower, and that there should be mutual aid between the two as between man and man. They had also brought out the truth that man eats not for enjoyment but to live.”

MenShouldTwoSpiritualAnimalHigherProtectAidsConclusionFormerEnjoymentLatterMutualVegetarianPreyVegetarianismSupremacyMutual Aid
Book:Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth
Create image

“I came to the conclusion long ago that all religions were true and that also that all had some error in them, and while I hold by my own religion, I should hold other religions as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we were Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu; but our innermost prayer should be that a Hindu should become a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, and a Christian a better Christian.”

IfsShouldLongChristianSpiritualReligionMy OwnPrayerPrayingErrorsDearConclusionHinduismLong AgoOrganized Religion
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
Create image

“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.”

ShouldSpiritualLawViolenceSpeciesNonviolenceUnjustDisobedienceNon ViolenceCivil DisobedienceImprisonmentBreachViolence And PeaceBreaking The LawPeaceful ProtestUnjust Laws
Book:Gandhi on Non-violence
Create image

“Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution. That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with a view to hurt.”

IfsWayWantShouldBelieveCausesCommunityHurtSimpleViewsFailingDutyMercyConstitutionPrivilegeHumbleBritishFirmEmpiresRighteousnessAlmightyAbidingAlmighty GodBritish ConstitutionAbiding Faith
Book:1903-1905
Create image

“Detachment is not indifference. it is the prerequisite for effective involvement. Often what we think is best for others is distorted by our attachments to our opinions. We want others to be happy in the way we think they should be happy. It is only when we want nothing for ourselves that we are able to see clearly into others needs and understand how to serve them.”

ThinkingWayWantNeedsShouldAbleOpinionYogaIndifferenceAttachmentInvolvementDetachmentPrerequisites
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
Create image

“In the secret of my heart I am in perpetual quarrel with God that He should allow such things [as the war] to go on. My non-violence seems almost impotent. But the answer comes at the 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 may break in the attempt.”

MenShouldTryingHeartMayWarEndsSeemsAnswersSecretBreakViolenceGoes OnMy HeartLosingPerpetualQuarrelsNon ViolenceImpotenceLosing Faith
Book:Gandhi on Non-violence
Create image

“The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly is. We assess the value of education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or of shares in the stock-exchange market. We want to provide only such education as would enable the student to earn more. We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated. The girls, we say, do not have to earn; so why should they be educated? As long as such ideas persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true value of education.”

PeopleWantGivingShouldLongIdeasRealCharacterValuesGirlKnowingShareLandStudentsDifficultyEducationalImprovementEducatedNo IdeaPersistNo HopeTrue ValueStock ExchangeValue Of Education
Book:True Education
Create image