Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

In the application of Satyagraha, I discovered, in the earliest stages, that pursuit of Truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one's opponent, but that he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. For, what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of Truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but one's own self.

A satyagrahi has infinite patience, abundant faith in others, and ample hope.

Real suffering bravely borne, melts even a heart of stone. Such is the potency of suffering. And there lies the key to Satyagraha.

All satyagraha and fasting is a species of tyaga. It depends for its effects upon an expression of wholesome public opinion shorn of all bitterness.

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.

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.

No confirmed satyagrahi is dismayed by dangers, seen or unseen, from his opponent's side.

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

Satyagraha and civil disobedience and fasts have nothing in common with the use of force, veiled or open.

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.

Jail-going is only the beginning, not the end of satyagraha. The acme of satyagraha for us would be to lay down our lives for the defence of India's just cause.

Satyagraha thrives on repression till at last the repressor is tired of it and the object of satyagraha is gained.

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.

Satyagraha means insistence on what one knows to be the truth. The insistence implies the exercise of free will as the need of social obligation. If one is content to know the truth himself, he does not become a votary of Satyagraha. A Satyagrahi should not only know the truth but should insist upon it in social relations. So Satyagraha is activation of truthfulness.

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

For satyagraha and its offshoots, non-co-operation and civil resistance, are nothing but new names for the law of suffering.

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

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

Satyagraha does not begin and end with civil disobedience.

To die without killing is the badge of a satyagrahi.

I have repeatedly stated that satyagraha never fails and that one perfect satyagrahi is enough to vindicate Truth.