The mundane use of the Gayatri, its repetition for healing the sick, illustrates the meaning we have given to prayer.

God took and needed no personal service. He served His creatures without demanding any service for Himself in return.

The line of demarcation between democracy and monocracy is often thin, but rigid and stronger than unbreakable steel.

When nonviolence is accepted as the law of life, it must pervade the whole being and not be applied to isolated acts.

It is poor faith that needs fair weather for standing firm. That alone is true faith that stands the foulest weather.

There are sufficient resources on this planet to answer the needs of all, but not enough to satisfy everyone's greed.

Nonviolence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice - nonviolence springs from love, cowardice from hate.

My personal religion enables me to serve my countrymen without hurting the English or, for that matter, anybody else.

In Hinduism we have got an admirable foot-rule to measure every shastra and every rule of conduct, and that is truth.

In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth, truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.

Creation of effective public opinion depends on the cultivation of true courage, born of truthfulness and nonviolence.

Every murder or other injury, no matter for what cause, committed or inflicted on another is a crime against humanity.

Before civil disobedience can be practised on a vast scale, people must learn the art of civil or voluntary obedience.

The principle of ahimsa is hurt by every evil thought, by undue haste, by lying, by hatred, by wishing ill to anybody.

Our peaceful non-co-operation must be constructive, non-destructive. Poison should not emerge from the throes of love.

My swadeshi chiefly centers round the handspun khaddar and extends to everything that can be and is produced in India.

In Swaraj, based on ahimsa, people need not know their rights, but it is also necessary for them to know their duties.

The spinning wheel is itself an exquisite piece of machinery. My head daily bows in reverence to its unknown inventor.

I do not want to live at the cost of the life even of a snake. I should let him bite me to death rather than kill him.

As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality.

Hinduism has absorbed the best of all the faiths of the world and in that sense Hinduism is not an exclusive religion.

A life without vows is like a ship without an anchor or like an edifice that is built on sand instead of a solid rock.

A worker's capital is inexhaustible, incapable of being stolen, and bound to pay him a generous dividend all the time.

Exploitation and domination of one nation over another can have no place in a world striving to put an end to all war.

The stability of the State depends upon the readiness of every citizen to subordinate his rights to those of the rest.

If we had attained the full vision of Truth, we would no longer be seekers, but become one with God, for Truth is God.

The force of nonviolence is infinitely more wonderful and subtle than the material forces of nature, like electricity.

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

All education in a country has got to be demonstrably in promotion of the progress of the country in which it is given.

... there are chords in every human heart. If we only knew how to strike the right chord, we would bring out the music.

I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings.

Man the law-giver will have to pay a dreadful penalty for the degradation he has imposed upon the so called weaker sex.

An error can never become true however many times you repeat it. The truth can never be wrong, even if no one hears it.

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

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

High thinking is inconsistent with a complicated material life based on high speed and imposed on us by mammon worship.

If you want something really important to be done you must not merely satisfy the reason, you must move the heart also.

Through Khadi we teach the people the art of civil obedience to an institution which they have built up for themselves.

The whole world is in the throes of a new birth. Anything done for a temporary gain would be tantamount to an abortion.

God cannot be so cruel and unjust as to make the distinctions of high and low between man and man, and woman and woman.

In an atmosphere of ahimsa, one has no scope to put his ahimsa to the test. It can be tested only in the face of himsa.

If we want to impart education best suited to the needs of the villagers, we should take the vidyapith to the villages.

My opposition to the socialist and the other consists in attacking violence as a means of effecting any lasting reform.

The satyagrahi strives to reach reason through the heart. The method of reaching the heart is to awaken public opinion.

Newspapers should be read for the study of facts. They should not be allowed to kill the habit of independent thinking.

There is no doubt that our last state will be worse than our first, if we surrender our reason into somebody's keeping.

Nonviolent non-co-operators can only succeed when they have succeeded in attaining control over the hooligans of India.

Khaddar has the greatest organizing power in it because it has itself to be organized and because it affects all India.

It is better to resist oppression by violent means than to submit, but it is best of all to resist by nonviolent means.

"Do not worry in the least about yourself, leave all worry to God" this appears to be the commandment in all religions.

Share This Page