Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

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

Nonviolence is the rock on which the whole structure of non-co-operation is built.

Our nonviolence in respect of the Government is a result of our incapacity for effective violence.

I myself would go for nonviolence if it was consistent, if everybody was going to be nonviolent all the time. I'd say, okay, let's get with it, we'll all be nonviolent. But I don't go along with any kind of nonviolence unless everybody's going to be nonviolent. If they make the Ku Klux Klan nonviolent, I'll be nonviolent. If they make the White Citizens Council nonviolent, I'll be nonviolent. But as long as you've got somebody else not being nonviolent, I don't want anybody coming to me talking any nonviolent talk.

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

The real test of nonviolence lies in its being brought in contact with those who have contempt for it.

Total nonviolent non-cooperation has no place in popular Raj, whatever its level may be.

True nonviolence is mightier than the mightiest violence.

There is nothing but nonviolence to fall back upon for retaining our freedom, even as we had to do for gaining it.

Non-co-operation and civil disobedience are but different branches of the same tree called satyagraha.

Nonviolence is an unchangeable creed. It has to be pursued even in face of violence raging around you.

Passive resistance is the resistance which does not resist.

Dissociate yourselves from the satanic administration, and you will bring it to its knees. You will not have to lift a finger, let alone a stick or stone.

Violence can only be effectively met by nonviolence. This is an old established truth.

With God as witness, I want to proclaim this truth, that the way of violence cannot bring Swaraj, it can only lead to disaster.

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

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

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.

Non-cooperation is beyond the reach of the bayonet. It has found an abiding place in the Indian heart. Workers like me will go when the hour has struck, but non-cooperation will remain.

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

The votaries of nonviolence cannot harbour violence even in thought, let alone the question of doing it.

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.

A nonviolent person's life is always at the disposal of him who would take it.

Nonviolent non-co-operation, I am convinced, is a sacred duty at times.

Nonviolence or soul force does not need physical aids for its propagation of effect.