Top 100 Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

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

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

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

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.

Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.

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.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

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

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

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

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

Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man’s happiness really lies in contentment.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

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

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.

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

Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.

My life is my message.

Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

I did once seriously think of embracing the Christian faith. The gentle figure of Christ, so full of forgiveness that he taught his followers not to retaliate when abused or struck, but to turn the other cheek – I thought it was a beautiful example of the perfect man.

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.

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

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

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.

Action expresses priorities.

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.

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

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

Religion is more than life. Remember that his own religion is the truest to every man even if it stands low in the scales of philosophical comparison.

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.

All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth.

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

There is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is no blind law; for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings.

My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray.

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

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.

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

Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.

I know, to banish anger altogether from one’s breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God’s grace.

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

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

A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.

Man’s nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.

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

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.

Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.

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.

Man is supposed to be the maker of his destiny. It is only partly true. He can make his destiny, only in so far as he is allowed by the Great Power.

I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children, I began to strive after self-control. There was endless difficulty in the task.

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

I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God’s creation, woman, the object of our lust.

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

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

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

The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.

A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice.

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

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.

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

A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.

He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire.

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

A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

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

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

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.

Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul.

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

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth.

I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world.

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.

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent.

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.

If a man reaches the heart of his own religion, he has reached the heart of the others, too. There is only one God, and there are many paths to him.

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

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.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

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.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.

Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians – you are not like him.

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

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

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

Those who know how to think need no teachers.

Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.

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.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.