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No doubt, capital is lifeless, but not the capitalists who are
amenable to conversion.
I do not regard capital to be enemy of labor.
Your character must be above suspicion and you must be truthful and
self controlled.
The truest test of civilization, culture and dignity is character,
not clothing.
A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its
speakers.
Men of stainless character will easily inspire confidence and
automatically purify the atmosphere around them.
The real property that a parent can transmit to all equally is his
or her character and educational facilities.
All your scholarship would be in vain if at the same time you do not
build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your
actions.
Civil disobedience is the assertion of a right which law should give
but which it denies.
Civil disobedience presupposes willing obedience of our self-imposed
rules, and without it civil disobedience would be cruel joke.
Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes
lawless corrupt.
Civil disobedience means capacity for unlimited suffering without
the intoxicating excitement of killing.
Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent.
Disobedience to be civil implies discipline, thought, care,
attention.
Disobedience that is wholly civil should never provoke retaliation.
Non-cooperation and civil disobedience are different but branches of
the same tree call Satyagraha (truth-force).
Coercion cannot but result in chaos in the end.
One who uses coercion is guilty of deliberate violence. Coercion is
inhuman.
Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with
good.
Nonviolent action without the cooperation of the heart and the head
cannot produce the intended result.
Democracy necessarily means a conflict of will and ideas, involving
sometimes a war to the knife between different ideas.
The very essence of democracy is that every person represents all
the varied interests which compose the nation.
Democracy is a great institution and, therefore, it is liable to be
greatly abused.
Democracy is an impossible thing until the power is shared by all,
but let not democracy degenerate into mobocracy.
Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep.
Democracy and violence can ill go together.
Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to
hear the other side.
Democracy, disciplined and enlightened, is the finest thing in the
world.
The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to
come from within.
My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest should have the
same opportunity as the strongest.
To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of
independence, self-respect and their oneness.
Intolerance, discourtesy and harshness are taboo in all good society
and are surely contrary to the spirit of democracy.
In true democracy every man and women is taught to think for himself
or herself.
The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of
terrorism, whether governmental or popular.
Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of
democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.
True discipline gives enthusiastic obedience to instructions even
though they don not satisfy the reason.
Conscience is the ripe fruit of strictest discipline.
Unless discipline is rooted in nonviolence, it might prove a source
of infinite mischief.
Non-cooperation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it
demands respect for the opposite views.
Faith gains in strength only when people are willing to lay down
their lives for it.
Faith is not like a delicate flower which would wither away the'
slightest' stormy-'weather.
Robust faith in oneself and brave trust of the opponent, so-called
or real, is the best safeguard.
A living faith cannot be manufactured by the rule of majority.
What is faith if it is not translated into action?
Faith is not imparted like secular subjects. It is given through the
language of the heart.
Every living faith must have within itself the power of rejuvenation
if it is to live. Just as the body cannot exist without blood, so
the soul needs matchless and pure strength of faith.
Nonviolence succeeds only when we have a real living faith in God.
My effort should never be to undermine another's faith but to make
him a better follower of his own faith.
My faith is brightest in the midst of impenetrable darkness.
Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last
article of my creed.
Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves,
there is one religion -human religion- but any number of faiths.
Fasting is an institution as old as Adam. It has been resorted to
for self-purification or for some ends, noble as well as ignoble.
A complete fast is a complete and literal denial of self. It is the
truest prayer.
A genuine fast cleanses the body, mind and soul. It crucifies the
flesh and to that extent sets the soul free.
What the eyes are for the outer world, fasts are for the inner
My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one
cannot remove one must fast and pray.
Fear is not a disease of the body, fear kills the soul.
A fear-stricken person can never know God, and one who knows God
will never fear a mortal man.
Where there is fear, there is not religion.
It is weakness which breeds fear, and fear breeds distrust.
There would be no one to frighten you if you refuse to be afraid.
For a nonviolent person, the whole world is one family. He will thus
fear none, nor will others fear him.
The golden rule is to act fearlessly upon what one believes to be
right.
Fearlessness presupposes calmness and peace of mind.
Love is the subtlest force in the world.
The force of nonviolence is infinitely more wonderful and subtle
than the material force of nature, like electricity.
The truth is that God is the force. He is the essence of life. He is
pure and undefiled consciousness. He is eternal.
The more efficient a force is the more silent and the more subtle it
is.
Freedom is like birth. Till we are fully free, we are slaves.
Freedom received through the efforts of others, however benevolent,
cannot be retained when such effort is withdrawn.
No charter of freedom will be worth looking at which does not ensure
the same measure of freedom for the minorities as for the majority.
No society can possibly be built on a denial of individual freedom
True nonviolence should mean a complete freedom from illwill and
anger and hate and an overflowing love for all.
This freedom from all attachment is the realization of God as Truth.
I do not want my house to be walled in on sides and my windows to be
stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my
house as freely as possible.
Independence means voluntary restraints and discipline, voluntary
acceptance of the rule of law.
Independence of my conception means nothing less than the
realization of the "Kingdom of God" within you and on this earth.
Complete independence does not mean arrogant isolation or a superior
disdain for all help.
If it is man's privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty
to be inter-dependent.
Justice will come when it is deserved by our being and feeling
strong.
Justice does not help those who slumber but helps only those who are
vigilant.
Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived
and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.
The supreme consideration is man. The machine should not tend to
make atrophied the limbs of man.
Today machinery merely helps a few to ride on the backs of millions.
What I object to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such.
Moral results can only be produced by moral restraints.
Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it.
It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.
True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in
finding out the true path for ourselves and in fearlessly following
it.
To observe morality is to attain mastery over our mind and our
passions.
Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible.
Noncooperation means refusal both to help the sinner in his sin and
to accept any help or gift from him till he has repented.
Noncooperation is measure of discipline and sacrifice and it demands
respect for the positive views.
Nonviolent noncooperation with evil means cooperation with all that
is good.
Noncooperation is intended to pave the way to real, honorable and
voluntary cooperation based on mutual respect and trust.
Noncooperation in political field is an extension of the doctrine as
it is practiced in the domestic field.
The avowed policy of noncooperation has been not to make political
use of disputes between labor and capital.
Real noncooperation is noncooperation with evil and not with the
evil doer.
Noncooperation is not a hymn of hate.
My Noncooperation is with methods and systems, never with men.
Nonviolence is the rock on which the whole structure of
noncooperation is built.
Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal
suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms.
Passive resistance is an all-sided sword; it can be used anyhow; it
blesses him who uses it and him against whom it is used.
Passive resistance is a misnomer for nonviolent resistance. It is
active than violent resistance.
Passive resistance, unlike nonviolence, has no power to change men'
s hearts.
The sword of passive resistance does not require a scabbard.
Jesus Christ, Daniel and Socrates represented the purest form of
passive resistance or soul force.
My patriotism is not an exclusive thing. It is all-embracing and I
should reject that patriotism which sought to mount the distress or
exploitation of other nationalities.
By patriotism I mean the welfare of the whole people, if I secure it
at the hands of my opponent, I should bow down my head to him.
Satyagraha is a process of educating public opinion, such that it
covers all the elements of the society and makes itself
irresistible.
Satyagraha is a relentless search for truth and a determination to
search truth.
Satyagraha is an attribute of the spirit within.
Satyagraha has been designed as an effective substitute for
violence.
The fight of Satyagraha is for the strong in spirit, not the doubter
or the timid. Satyagraha teaches us the art of living as well as
dying.
Satyagraha, of which civil-resistance is but a part, is to me the
universal law of life.
Satyagraha is a law of universal application. Beginning with the
family, its use can be extended to every other circle.
Satyagraha can rid society of all evils, political, economic and
moral.
Satyagraha and civil disobedience and fasts have nothing in common
with the use of force, veiled or open.
A genuine satyagraha should never excite contempt in the opponent
even when it fails to command regard or respect.
Satyagraha thrives on repression till at last the repressor is tired
and the object of satyagraha is gained.
Satyagraha does not depend on the outside help, it derives all its
strength from within.
The method of satyagraha requires that the satyagrahi should never
lose hope, so long as there is the slightest ground left for it.
In the dictionary of satyagraha, there is no enemy.
Since satyagraha is a method of conversion and conviction, it seeks
never to use the slightest coercion.
For a satyagraha brigade only those are eligible who believe in
ahimsa-nonvionlence and satya-truth.
Satyagraha is a force that has come to stay. No force in the world
can kill it.
Satyagraha does not begin and end with civil disobedience.
A clear victory of satyagraha is impossible so long as there is
ill-will.
Whatever may be true of other modes of warfare, in satyagraha it has
been held that the causes for failure are to be sought within.
What I call the law of satyagraha is to be deduced from an
appreciation of duties and rights flowing there from.
A satyagrahi turns the searchlight inward relentlessly to weed out
all the defects that may be lying hidden there still.
A satyagrahi has infinite patience, abundant faith in others and
ample hope.
A satyagrahi has no other stay but God, and he who has any other
stay or depends on any other help cannot offer satyagraha.
A satyagrahi cannot go to law for a personal wrong.
A satyagrahi loves his so called enemy even as he loves his friend.
He owns no enemy.
A satyagrahi exhausts all other means before he resorts to
satyagraha.
In the code of the satyagrahi, there is no such thing as surrender
to brute force.
It is my firm conviction that if the State supressed capitalism by
violence, it will be caught in the coils of violence itself, and
will fail to develop non-violence at any time. The State represents
violence in a concentrated and organized form. The individual has a
soul, but as the State is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned
from violence to which it owes its very existence.
I look upon an increase of the power of the State with the greatest
fear, because although while apparently doing good by minimizing
exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying
individuality, which lies at the root of all progress. We know of so
many cases where men have adopted trusteeship, but none where the
State has really lived for the poor.
"Love thy neighbor as thyself" is no counsel of perfection. The
capitalist is as much a neighbor of the laborer as the latter is a
neighbor of the former, and one has to seek and win the willing co-
operation of the other. Nor does the principle mean that we should
accept exploitation lying down. Our internal strength will render
all exploitation impossible.
It can be easily demonstrated that destruction of the capitalist
must mean destruction in the end of the worker and as no human being
is so bad as to be beyond redemption, no human being is so perfect
as to warrant his destroying him whom he wrongly considers to be
wholly evil.
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an
indomitable will.
A person who has realized the principle of nonviolence has the
God-given strength for his weapon and the world has not yet known
anything that can match it.
A definite forgiveness would mean a definite recognition of our
strength.
The greater our innocence, the greater our strength and the swifter
our victory.
The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law, to the
strength of the spirit.
If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove
blemishes from others without thinking evil of them.
Sorrow and suffering make for character if they are voluntarily
borne, but not if they are imposed.
True suffering does not know itself and never calculates.
The only way love punishes is by suffering.
The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before
the rising sun of suffering without anger and without malice.
Truth is what the voice within tells you.
Truth is the right designation of God.
Truth and nonviolence will never be destroyed.
Truth is like a vast tree which yields more and more fruit the more
you nurture it.
Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the
tide of time.
Truth and untruth often con-exist; good and evil often are found
together.
Truth is self-evident, nonviolence is its maturest fruit, it is
contained in Truth, but is not self-evident.
Every truth is self-acting and possesses inherent strength.
Truth, which is permanent, eludes the historian of events. Truth
transcends history.
Truth and nonviolence demand that no human being may debar himself
from serving any other human being, no matter how sinful he may be.
Truth is the first to be sought for, and Beauty and Goodness will
then be added unto you.
An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation,
nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.
Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature.
The quest of truth involves self-suffering, sometimes even upto
death.
Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer and anything
that does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of
truth and hammered with nonviolence, reject it.
God never made man that he may consider another man as an
untouchable.
I would far rather that Hinduism died than untouchability lived.
My fight against untouchability is a fight against the impure in
humanity.
To say that a single human being, because of his birth, becomes an
untouchable, unapproachable, or invisible, is to deny God.
Anger, lust and such other evil passions ranging in the heart are
the real untouchables.
Woman is more fitted than man to make exploration and take bolder
action in nonviolence.
There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or
inferior to man.
Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacity.
If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably
man's superior.
If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with women.
Woman, I hold, is the personification of self-sacrifice, but
unfortunately today she does not realize what tremendous advantage
she has over man.
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Mahatma Gandhi Quotes
