Gandhi on corruption
1. Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.
2. I can retain neither respect nor affection for a government which has been moving from wrong to wrong in order to defend its immorality.
3. Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.
4. All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take.
5. There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.
6. You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Gandhi on public affairs/ public life
1. Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.
2. Be the change you want to see in this world.
3. A Government that is evil has no room for good men and women except in its prisons.
4. Everything is done openly and aboveboard, for truth hates secrecy.
5. Good government is no substitute for self-government.
6. I believe that no government can exist for a single moment without the cooperation of the people, willing or forced, and if people suddenly withdraw their cooperation in every detail, the government will come to a standstill.
7. Rights that do not flow directly from duty well performed are not worth having.
8. The best politics is right action.
9. We may attack measures and systems. We may not, we must not, attack people. Imperfect ourselves, we must be tender toward others and slow to impute their motives.
10. A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.
11. For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.
12. I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.
13. Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.
Gandhi on honesty/integrity
1. Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.
2. Freedom won through bloodshed or fraud is no freedom.
3. In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.
4. If one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself.
5. It is a million times better to appear untrue before the world than to be untrue to ourselves.
6. No human being is so bad as to be beyond redemption.
7. Truth never damages a cause that is just.
8. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.
Gandhi on lifestyle
1. Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.
2. As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.
3. It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
4. It is sinful to buy and use articles made by sweated labor.
5. Recall the face of the poorest and the most helpless man whom you may have seen and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he be able to gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?
6. Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong but of the weak.
7. An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.
8. Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.
9. I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation, woman, the object of our lust.
10. The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
Gandhi on violence
1. It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence.
2. What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"[4]
3.Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.
4. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
5. There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.
6. A nonviolent resister cannot wait or delay action till perfect conditions are forthcoming.
7. A nonviolent revolution is not a program for the seizure of power. It is a program for the transformation of relationships ending in a peaceful transfer of power.
8. By our actions we mean to show that physical force is nothing compared (to) moral force.
9. Evil can only be sustained by violence.
10. Exploitation is the essence of violence.
11. Nothing enduring can be built on violence.
12. Peace has its victories more glorious than those of war.
13. Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.
14. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
15. I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.
16. Poverty is the worst form of violence.
Gandhi on fasts
1. Fasting and prayer are common injunctions in my religion.
2. Fasting for light and penance is a hoary institution.
3. A pure fast, like duty, is its own reward.
4. Fasting is an institution as old as Adam. It has been resorted to for self-purification or for some ends, noble as well as ignoble.
5. A complete fast is a complete and literal denial of self. It is the truest prayer.
6. A genuine fast cleanses the body, mind and soul. It crucifies the flesh and to that extent sets the soul free.
7. Fasts could not be undertaken out of anger. Anger was a short madness.
8. All fasting and all penance must as far as possible be secret.
9. What the eyes are for the outer world, fasts are for the inner.
10. A fast to be true must be accompanied by a readiness to receive pure thoughts and determination to resist all Satan's temptations.
11. When a man fasts, it is not the gallons of water he drinks that sustains him, but God.
12. My fast is among other things meant to qualify me for achieving that equal and selfless love.
13. My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray.
14. My austerities, fastings and prayers are, I know of no value, if I rely upon them for reforming me.
Gandhi on India
1. A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.
2. Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.
3. Just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may be.
4. Everything in India attracts me. It has everything that a human being with the highest possible aspirations can want.
5. India occupies a very great position in the world. She can become still greater. But she can only do so through non-violence.
6. We are all members of the vast human family. I decline to draw any distinctions. I cannot claim any superiority for Indians. We have the same virtues and the same vices.
Gandhi on the West
1. I think it would be a good idea. (when asked for his opinion of Western civilization)
2. In the secret of my heart I am in perpetual quarrel with God that He should allow such things to go on. (written in September 1939 at the start of World War II)
3. Western democracy as it functions today, is diluted nazism or fascism. At best it is merely a cloak to hide the nazi and fascist tendencies of imperialism.
4. I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
5. I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force.
Gandhi on religion
1.After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that [1] all religions are true; [2] all religions have some error in them; [3] all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close relatives. My own veneration for other faiths is the same as that for my own faith; therefore no thought of conversion is possible.
2. As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side".
3. The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind".
4. Yes I am (a Hindu). I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew.
5. All faiths constitute a revelation of Truth, but all are imperfect.
6. Religions are different roads converging on the same point.
7. Religion which takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.
Gandhi on the media
1. I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
2. Journalism has become the art of "intelligent" anticipation of events.
3. The sole aim of journalism should be service.
4. Journalism should never be prostituted for selfish ends or for the sake of merely earning livelihood or, worse still, for amassing money.
5. Journalism has a distinct place in familiarizing and expressing public opinion.
6. A journalist's peculiar function is to read the mind of the country and to give definite and fearless expression to that mind.
7. The newspaperman has become a walking plague. He spreads the contagion of lies and calumnies.
8. The newspapers should be read for the study of facts. They should not be allowed to kill the habit of independent thinking.
9. Freedom of the press is a precious privilege that no country can forego.
10. The liberty of the press is a dear privilege, apart from the advisability or otherwise of civil disobedience.
11. The newspapers had become more important to the average man than the scriptures.
Gandhi on Gandhism/Gandhigiri
1. There is no such thing as "Gandhism," and I do not want to leave any sect after me. I do not claim to have originated any new principle or doctrine. I have simply tried in my own way to apply the eternal truths to our daily life and problems...The opinions I have formed and the conclusions I have arrived at are not final. I may change them tomorrow. I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills.
2. If Gandhism means simply mechanically turning the spinning wheel, it deserves to be destroyed.
3. What is Gandhism but winning Swaraj by means of truth and nonviolence?
4. There is no such thing as 'Gandhism', and I do not want to leave any sect after me.
5. If our ahimsa is not of the brave, and if it will bend the knee before himsa, Gandhism deserves to be destroyed.
6. They might kill me but they cannot kill Gandhism. If truth can be killed, Gandhism can be killed.
7. I hold my message to be far superior to myself and far superior to the vehicle though which it is expressed.
8. Unless the charkha adds to your ahimsa and makes you stronger every day, your Gandhism is of little avail.
9. There is already enough superstition in our country. No effort should be spared to resist further addition in the shape of Gandhi worship.
10. Though a non-co-operator, I shall gladly subscribe to a bill to make it criminal for anybody to call me mahatma and to touch my feet.
11. Was it that you wanted do pull my leg by transporting me to the frozen Himalayan heights of 'mahatmaship' and claiming for yourself absolution from having to follow my precepts?
Gandhi on the inner voice
1. In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.
2. I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.
3. Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.
4. There is a power now slumbering within us, which if awakened would do to evil what light does to darkness.
5. When we disobey a law, it is not for want of respect for lawful authority, but in obedience to the higher law of our being, the voice of conscience.
6. A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.
7. A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.
8. Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.
9. The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
Gandhi on love
1. A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.
2. Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.
3. When you want to find Truth as God, the only inevitable means is love that is nonviolence.
4. Of what avail is my love if it be only so long as I trust my friend?
5. Free, open love I have looked upon as dog's love. Secret love is, besides, cowardly.
6. My love of nationalism is that my country may become free, that if need be the whole of the country die, so that the human race may live.
Gandhi on humour
1. If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.
