Quotes from Mahatma Gandhi

Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state.

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

Celibacy is a great help, inasmuch as it enables one to lead a life of full surrender to God.

Let us give today first the vital things of life and all the grace and ornaments of life will follow.

Political power means the capacity to regulate national life through national representatives.

Those who know how to think need no teachers.

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.

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

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.

I took the vow of celibacy in 1906. I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of making the vow. She had no objection.

Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the European, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.

The strength to kill is not essential for self-defence; one ought to have the strength to die.

As a rule, the mind, residing in a body that has become weakened by pampering, is also weak, and where there is no strength of mind there can be no strength of soul.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

I am conscious of my own limitations. That consciousness is my only strength.

The weak can never forgive.

Where there is no strength of mind there can be no strength of soul.

The greater our innocence, the greater our strength and the swifter our victory

Just as the body cannot exist without blood, so the soul needs the matchless and pure strength of faith.

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be.

If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them.

God tries his votaries through and through but never beyond endurance. He gives them strength enough to go through the ordeal he prescribes for them.

If God holds me to be a pure instrument for the spread of nonviolence in place of the awful violence now ruling the earth, He will give me the strength and show me the way.

A definite forgiveness would mean a definite recognition of our strength.