Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Jesus showed us how to be courageous and sacrificial while we die for our beliefs, not while we kill for them.

Never fight someone who is more willing to die than you are.

The strength to kill is not essential for self-defense; one ought to have the strength to die. When a man is fully ready to die, he will not even desire to offer violence. Indeed, I may put it down as a self-evident proposition that the desire to kill is in inverse proportion to the desire to die. And history is replete with instances of men who by dying with courage and compassion on their lips converted the hearts of their violent opponents.

Just as one must learn the art of killing in the training for violence, so one must learn the art of dying in the training for nonviolence.

Nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger... . Between violence and cowardly flight I can only prefer violence to cowardice.

Ahimsa is an attribute of the brave. Cowardice and ahimsa don't go together any more that water and fire.

A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause can become good if enough people fight for it in a spirit of comradeship and self-sacrifice. In the end it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad.

Ahimsa is the highest ideal. It is meant for the brave, never for the cowardly.

True ahimsa lay in running into the mouth of himsa.

Is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater courage? Without her, man would not be. If nonviolence is to be the law of our being, the future is with women.

i will follow it, though i know so well now the deep wounds i might find. for as long as i believe that i am walking the true road, if i am slain, then i die in the knowledge that for a brief time, at least, i was part of somethin bigger. this road has perils and i will surely die on it,but, i am not afraid to die.

Nonviolence is the only way. Even if you achieve your goal by violent means there are always side effects, and these can be worse than the problem. Violence is against human nature.

In recent years we have seen a great deal of bravery and self-sacrifice, but civil courage hardly anywhere, even among ourselves.

You can't answer violence with counter violence ... The answer is love. The best sabotage is love.

She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick.

Nonviolence and cowardice go ill together.

It must be emphasized that nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards; it does resist. If one uses this method because he is afraid or merely because he lacks the instruments of violence, he is not truly nonviolent. This is why Gandhi often said that if cowardice is the only alternative to violence, it is better to fight.

On my knees, I beg of you to turn away from the paths of violence and to return to the path of peace. Those who resort to violence always claim that only violence brings about change. You must know there is a political, peaceful way to justice.

It is nonviolent non-co-operation which evokes the highest spirit of self-sacrifice that will wean one from the error of one's ways.

I would suffer all the humiliation, all the torture, the absolute ostracism and even death, to prevent violence

I'm not scared, because I know that I need to face the trial. What I mean is, I already expect I will need to pay the price.

The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community. A boycott is never an end within itself. It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption.

Gandhi said the end is inherent in the means, which means you cannot create any more peace than you yourself have attained. An angry generation will not bring peace.

If our ahimsa is not of the brave but of the weak, and if it will bend the knee before himsa, Gandhism deserves to be destroyed.

My Swaraj will be not be a result of murder of others but a voluntary act of continuous self-sacrifice.