Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.

Indeed the very word, nonviolence, a negative word, means that it is an effort to abandon the violence that is inevitable in life.

I must declare that it is better for India do discard violence altogether even for defending her borders.

I am against anybody who uses violence to make their points.

Violence is absolutely not our method.

There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence.

Die if you must, but never kill.

Read about some squirrelly guy who claims that he just don't believe in fighting, and I wonder how long the rest of us can count on being free.

Our aim is not to do things by violence to opponents.

My satyagrahi spirit tells me that I may not retaliate.

In the dictionary of satyagraha, there is no enemy.

The force generated by nonviolence is infinitely greater than the force of all the arms created by man's ingenuity.

Jesus was a pacifist.

The trouble is that nonviolence is so often defined as refusal to fight, and that is the American definition of cowardice. In fact, marching unarmed against the guns and dogs of the police requires more courage than does aggression. The perverted idea of manhood coming from the barrel of a gun is what keeps people from understanding nonviolence.

If blood be shed, let it be our own. Let us cultivate the calm courage to die without killing.

Sometimes when we're incensed by the rancid tide of injustice, the impulse is to attack. We must avoid this. We have learned that violence as a means is always unsuccessful.

Anytime you tell a man to turn the other cheek or to be nonviolent in the face of a violent enemy, you're making that man defenseless. You're robbing him of his God-given right to defend himself.

I plan to stand by nonviolence, because I have found it to be a philosophy of life that regulates not only my dealings in the struggle for racial justice, but also my dealings with people, and with my own self.

Nonviolence to be worth anything has to work in the face of hostile forces.

I preach nonviolence because it's the better alternative.

The struggle with evil by means of violence is the same as an attempt to stop a cloud, in order that there may be no rain.

I would be misleading you if I made you feel that we could win a violent campaign. It's impractical even to think about it. The minute we start, we will end up getting many more people killed unnecessarily. Now, I'm ready to die myself. Many other committed people are ready to die. If you believe in something firmly, if you believe in it truly, if you believe it in your heart, you are willing to die for it, but I'm not going to advocate a method that brings about unnecessary death.

Firstly, as a Buddhist monk, I hold that violence is not good. Secondly, I am a firm believer in the Gandian ethic of passive resistance. And thirdly, in reality, violence is not our strength.

The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.

nonviolence first changes the individual.