Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Civil disobedience is the only nonviolent escape from the soul-destroying heat of violence.

I think we brought to the world, the United States anyway, the whole idea of boycotting as a nonviolent tactic. I think we showed the world that nonviolence can work to make social change.

If they are truly nonviolent, they must also realize that civil disobedience is an impossibility till the preliminary work of construction is done.

Civil disobedience does not admit of any violence or countenancing of violence directly or indirectly.

If a thousand [citizens] were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

There is a need for a movement of non-violent direct action.

I beg you not to resort to demonstrations, for they have become nothing but burned paper.

There is a more excellent way, of love and nonviolent protest.

Nonviolent non-co-operation is the only alternative to anarchy and worse.

It is better to protest than to accept injustice.

I am a seasoned soldier of nonviolence, and I have evidence enough to sustain my faith.

I've always tried to be what I call militantly nonviolent. I don't believe that anyone could seriously accuse me of not being totally committed to the breakdown of segregation.

Nonviolence with Dr. [Martin Luther ]King is only a method. That's not his objective.

I was like so many others passion-ately involved in trying to bring those truths to the world's attention. We did our very best to peacefully do that. The city, state, and federal governments did their very best to quell our efforts. They were used to using heavy-handed tactics to silence us.

Civil disobedience and excitement and intoxication go ill together.

Nonviolent action means mobilization of world opinion in our favour.

Nonviolence cannot be learnt by staying at home.

A boycott is the most peaceful and passive kind of protest there is and can be. We do not say we hate you or even say that you are wrong. We just say that we don’t want to ride your bus.

Civil disobedience has almost always been about expression. Generally, it's nonviolent, as defined by Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, and King.

We are rooted in Kingian nonviolence.

I knew A.J. Muste very well. I tried for a while to be like he was, and that is a total pacifist. But then Margot [my wife] hit me hard in the stomach one day to prove to me that I wasn't as perfect a pacifist as I thought I was.

No man could be actively nonviolent and not rise against social injustice, no matter where it occurred.

I don't favor violence. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by peaceful means, well and good. Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. But I'm also a realist. The only people in this country who are asked to be nonviolent are black people.

Opposition doesn't mean to take arms and kill people and destroy everything.

The Indian government has managed to turn the concept of nonviolence on its head. Nonviolent resistance and nonviolent governance. Unlike, say, China or Turkey or Indonesia, India doesn't mow down its people. It doesn't kill people who are refusing to move. It just waits it out. It continues to do what it has to do and ignores the consequences.