Top 125 Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

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.

I am in the world feeling my way to light ‘amid the encircling gloom.’

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.

Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body.

When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.

Let not the 12 million Negroes be ashamed of the fact that they are the grandchildren of slaves. There is dishonor in being slave-owners.

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.

I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice.

It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.

Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared.

Non-violence is the article of faith.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.

God cannot be realized through the intellect. Intellect can lead one to a certain extent and no further. It is a matter of faith and experience derived from that faith.

Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfilment.

Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.

I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Morality is contraband in war.

Where love is, there God is also.

It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French.

The real ornament of woman is her character, her purity.

Partition is bad. But whatever is past is past. We have only to look to the future.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.

A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?

My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realising Him.

I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.

God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us.

He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

Faith… must be enforced by reason… when faith becomes blind it dies.

Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith.

Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.

Each one prays to God according to his own light.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

Those who know how to think need no teachers.

Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.

Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.

One’s own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one’s Maker and no one else’s.

Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.

What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.

Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.

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

Man can never be a woman’s equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.

Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.

Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.