Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Violence is not the only means of persuasion.

Through Gandhi and my own life experience, I have learned about nonviolence. I believe that human life is a very special gift from God, and that no one has a right to take that away in any cause, however just. I am convinced that nonviolence is more powerful than violence.

Nonviolence is a universal law acting under all circumstances.

A nonviolent action accompanied by nonviolence in thought and word should never produce enduring violent reaction upon the opponent.

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

My experience teaches me that truth can never be propagated by doing violence.

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.

However much I may sympathise with and admire worthy motives, I am an uncompromising opponent of violent methods even to serve the noblest of causes.

I can think about what [Mahatma] Gandhi said or [Martin Luther] King said about violence begetting violence, and still be true to my job by asking myself the question whenever we're confronted with a situation where some may be arguing for military action: Will this actually result in America being safer, or the most lives being saved?

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

History has no record of a nation having adopted nonviolent resistance.

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

Nonviolence becomes meaningless if violence is permitted for self-defence.

Nonviolence is a universal principle and its operation is not limited by a hostile environment.

The power of unarmed nonviolence is any day far superior to that of armed force.

I don't have much time for real violence at all. I think there are infinitely better ways of changing the world than using violence. Sitting round a table talking is a pretty good start.

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

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.

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

If one's cause is supported by sound reasoning, there is no point in using violence. It is those who have no motive other than selfish desire and who cannot achieve their goal through logical reasoning who rely on force.

Satyagraha has been designed as an effective substitute for violence.

Violence should not always beget more violence.

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.

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.

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