Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

My interest in India's freedom will cease if she adopts violent means, for their fruit will not be freedom but slavery in disguise.

Unless nonviolence of the strong is really developed among us, there should be no thought of civil disobedience for Swaraj, whether within the states or in British India.

India's freedom will not be won by violence but only by the purest suffering without retaliation.

Satyagraha is a law for universal application. Beginning with the family, its use can be extended to every other circle.

Since satyagraha is a method of conversion and conviction, it seeks never to use the slightest coercion.

There is no time limit for a satyagrahi nor is there a limit to his capacity for suffering.

My satyagrahi spirit tells me that I may not retaliate.

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

It is claimed for satyagraha that it is a complete substitute for violence or war.

Satyagraha has been designed as an effective substitute for violence.

A satyagrahi has always his minimum and it is this minimum that is wanted in connection with this struggle.

Non-violent resistance implies the very opposite of weakness. Defiance combined with non-retaliatory acceptance of repression from one's opponents is active, not passive. It requires strength, and there is nothing automatic or intuitive about the resoluteness required for using non-violent methods in political struggle and the quest for Truth.

The power of nonviolent resistance can only come from honest working of the constructive programme.

It will be hard to find a parallel in history in which unarmed people have represented the urge for freedom, turning their armlessness into the central means for deliverance.

Nonviolent defence presupposes recklessness about one's life and property.

Not those who shout 'satyagraha', 'satyagraha' will do satyagraha, but those who will work for it.

My method is conversion, not coercion, it is self-suffering, not the suffering of the tyrant. I know that method to be infallible.

Without satyagraha carried out in the proper spirit, there is no victory, no Swaraj.

Yes, he [Mahatma Gandhi] was a great man. However...between me and Gandhi there was never the understanding there was between me and my father.

There is no "playing with truth" in the Charkha programme, for satyagraha is not predominantly civil disobedience but a quiet and irresistible pursuit of Truth.

A satyagrahi would neither retaliate nor would he submit to the criminal, but seek to cure him by curing himself.

The method of satyagraha requires that the satyagrahi should never lose hope, so long as there is the slightest ground left for it.

No police officer could compel a satyagrahi to give evidence against a person who has confessed to him. A satyagrahi would never be guilty of a betrayal of trust.

But nonviolence was never for the oppressor; it was for the oppressed.

Violence is a concession to human weakness, satyagraha is an obligation.