Gandhi Quotes

“Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked, always deserves respect or pity as the case may be. "Hate the sin and not the sinner" is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.”
― Mohandas Gandhi, An Autobiography - The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“If physical fasting is not accompanied by mental fasting it is bound to end in hypocrisy and disaster.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“It is my firm conviction that man need take no milk at all, beyond the mother’s milk that he takes as a baby. His diet should consist of nothing but sunbaked fruits and nuts.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“It was only in South Africa that I got over this shyness, though I never completely overcame it. It was impossible for me to speak impromptu. I hesitated whenever I had to face strange audiences and avoided making a speech whenever I could. Even today I do not think I could or would even be inclined to keep a meeting of friends engaged in idle talk.

I must say that, beyond occasionally exposing me to laughter, my constitutional shyness has been no disadvantage whatever. In fact I can see that, on the contrary, it has been all to my advantage. My hesitancy in speech, which was once an annoyance, is now a pleasure. Its greatest benefit has been that it has taught me the economy of words. I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. And I can now give myself the certificate that a thoughtless word hardly ever escapes my tongue or pen. I do not recollect ever having had to regret anything in my speech or writing. I have thus been spared many a mishap and waste of time. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man, and silence is necessary in order to surmount it. A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word. We find so many people impatient to talk. There is no chairman of a meeting who is not pestered with notes for permission to speak. And whenever the permission is given the speaker generally exceeds the time-limit, asks for more time, and keeps on talking without permission. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“Ethically they had arrived at the conclusion that man’s supremacy over the lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower,”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“The real seat of taste was not the tongue but the mind”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“I felt that God could be realized only through service. And service for me was the service of India, because it came to me without my seeking, because I had an aptitude for it.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“For a bowl of water give a goodly meal; For a kindly greeting bow thou down with zeal; For a simple penny pay thou back with gold; If thy life be rescued, life do not withhold. Thus the words and actions of the wise regard; Every little service tenfold they reward. But the truly noble know all men as one, And return with gladness good for evil done.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“While in Bombay, I began, on one hand, my study of Indian law and, on the other, my experiments in dietetics in which Virchand Gandhi, a friend, joined me. My brother, for his part was trying his best to get me briefs. The study of India law was a tedious business. The Civil Procedure Code I could in no way get on with. Not so however, with the Evidence Act. Virchand Gandhi was reading for the Solicitor's Examination and would tell me all sorts of stories about Barristers and Vakils.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“The face of Truth is hidden behind the golden veil of maya, says the Upanishad.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi

“Truth is like a vast tree, which yields more and more fruit, the more you nurture it. The deeper the search in the mine of truth the richer the discovery of the gems buried there, in the shape of openings for an ever greater variety of service.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi

“Finally, this is better, that one do His own task as he may, even though he fail, Than take tasks not his own, though they seem good. To die performing duty is no ill; But who seeks other roads shall wander still.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi

“It was not easy to commit suicide as to contemplate it.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“Doubt is invariably the result of want or weakness of faith.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“When the fear of jail disappears, repression puts heart into the people.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“Nothing once begun should be abandoned, unless it is proved to be morally wrong.”
― Mohandas Gandhi, An Autobiography - The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“I am now of the opinion that children should first be taught the art of drawing before learning how to write.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi

“But truth is hard as adamant and tender as a blossom.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi

“To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow-beings.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“Let every youth take a leaf out of my book and make it a point to account for everything that comes into and goes out of his pocket, and like me he is sure to be a gainer in the end.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“Only this much I knew - that under ideal conditions, true education could be imparted only by the parents, and that then there should be the minimum of outside help.”
― Mohandas Gandhi, An Autobiography - The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“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.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“About the same time I came in contact with another Christian family. At their suggestion I attended the Wesleyan church every Sunday. For these days I also had their standing invitation to dinner. The church did not make a favourable impression on me. The sermons seemed to be uninspiring. The congregation did not strike me as being particularly religious. They were not an assembly of devout souls; they appeared rather to be wordly-minded people, going to church for recreation and in conformity to custom. Here, at times, I would involuntarily doze. I was ashamed, but some of my neighbours, who were in no better case, lightened the shame. I could not go on long like this, and soon gave up attending the service.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“ومع أن تجاربي كانت تشد من أزري وتبعث في نفسي سرورا عظيما
فإني أعلم مع ذلك علم اليقين أن الطريق أمامي لا يزال طويلا ووعرا
وأن علي أن أنقص من قدر نفسي وأن أتضائل حتى أكون صفرا
فإنه لاسبيل إلى خلاص المرء إلا إذا اتخذ مكانه طائعا مختارا في نهاية الصف بين زملائه في البشرية.
ذلك أن المحبة والتعفف عن العنف والكراهية هما أعلى مراتب التواضع”
― Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“A Satyagrahi obeys the laws of society intelligently and of his own free will, because he considers it to be his sacred duty to do so. It is only when a person has thus obeyed the laws of society scrupulously that he is in a position to judge as to which particular rules are good and just and which unjust and iniquitous. Only then does the right accrue to him of the civil disobedience of certain laws in well defined circumstances.”
― Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography

“All that appears and happens about and around us is uncertain, transient. But there is a Supreme Being hidden therein as a Certainly, and one would be blessed if one could catch a glimpse of that Certainty and hitch one’s waggon to it. The quest for that Truth is the summum bonum of life.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth

“To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. I”
― Mahatma Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi

“A reformer cannot afford to have close intimacy with him whom he seeks to reform. True friendship is an identity of souls rarely to be found in this world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi