Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.

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.

Be the change that you want to see in the world.

 A certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary, but above a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help. Therefore the ideal of creating an unlimited number of wants and satisfying them seems to be a delusion and a snare.

A clean confession, combined with a promise never to commit the sin again, when offered before one who has the right to receive it, is the purest type of repentance.

A  coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

A dissolute character is more dissolute in thought than in deed. And the same is true of violence. Our violence in word and deed is but a feeble echo of the surging violence of thought in us.

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.

A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.

A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

A 'Nouttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.

A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practice perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice.

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness.

Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it.

Action expresses priorities.

Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation.

Ahimsa is the attribute of the soul, and therefore, to be practiced by everybody in all affairs of life. If it cannot be practiced in all departments, it has no practical value.

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.

All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

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

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

An opponent is entitled to the same regard for his principles as we would expect others to have for ours. Non-violence demands that we should seek every opportunity to win over opponents.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.

Are creeds such simple things like the clothes which a man can change at will and put on at will? Creeds are such for which people live for ages and ages.

As a rule, the mind, residing in a body that has become weakened by pampering, is also weak, and where there is no strength of mind there can be no strength of soul.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.

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.

Be the change that you want to see in the world.

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.
Better far than cowardice is killing and being killed in battle.

Between husband and wife there should be no secrets from one another. I have a very high opinion of the marriage tie. I hold that husband and wife merge in each other. They are one in two or two in one.

Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state. There is as little reason to deplore the one as there is to be pleased over the other.

Breach of promise is a base surrender of truth.But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac.

Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.
Commonsense is the realized sense of proportion.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

Consciously or unconsciously, everyone of us does render some service or another. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and it will make not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at large.

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.

Courage has never been known to be a matter of muscle; it is a matter of the heart. The toughest muscle has been known to tremble before an imaginary fear. It was the heart that set the muscle atrembling.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

Democracy must in essence, therefore, mean the art and science of mobilizing the entire physical, economic and spiritual resources of all the various sections of the people in the service of the common good of all.

Destruction is not the law of humans. Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him. Every murder or other injury, no matter for what cause, committed or inflicted on another is a crime against humanity.

Don't listen to friends when the Friend inside you says 'Do this.'

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances 
Each one prays to God according to his own light.

Even as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes.

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.

Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.

Everyone has faith in God though everyone does not know it. For everyone has faith in himself and that multiplied to the nth degree is God. The sum total of all that lives is God. We may not be God, but we are of God, even as a little drop of water is of the ocean.

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.

Evil is good or truth misplaced.

Experience convinces me that permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence. Even if my belief is a fond delusion, it will be admitted that it is a fascinating delusion.

Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.

Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.

Far more indispensable then food for the physical body is spiritual nourishment for the soul. One can do without food for a considerable time, but a man of the spirit cannot exist for a single second without spiritual nourishment.

Fear has its use but cowardice has none.

Fear of death makes us devoid both of valor and religion. For want of valor is want of religious faith.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living ?
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err 

Friendship that insists upon agreement on all matters is not worth the name. Friendship to be real must ever sustain the weight of honest differences, however sharp they be.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.
Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it.

God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us.

God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the west... keeping the world in chains. If our nation took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts.
God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.
God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless 

God tries his votaries through and through but never beyond endurance. He gives them strength enough to go through the ordeal he prescribes for them.

Golden fetters are no less galling to a self-respecting man than iron ones; the sting lies in the fetters, not in the metal.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Hatred ever kills, love never dies such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred.

Have I not gazed at the marvelous mystery of the starry vault, hardly ever tiring of the great panorama?
He who trifles with truth cuts at the root of Ahimsa. He who is angry is guilty of Himsa (violence).
Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

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.

Human kind has to get out of violence only through nonviolence. Hatred can be overcome only by love. Counter-hatred only increases the surface as well as the depth of hatred.

Human society is a ceaseless growth, an unfoldment in terms of spirituality 

Humility cannot be an observance by itself. For, it does not lend itself to being deliberately practiced. It is, however, an indispensable test of 'Ahimsa.' For one who has 'Ahimsa' in him it becomes part of his very nature.
I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence.

I am a man of faith. My reliance is solely on God. One step is enough for me. The next step He will make clear to me when the time for it comes.

I am in the world feeling my way to light 'amid the encircling gloom'. I often err and miscalculate… My trust is solely in God. And I trust men only because I trust God. If I had no God to rely upon, I should be like Timon, a hater of my species.

I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world.

I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.

I believe that cunning is not only morally wrong but also politically inexpedient, and have therefore always discountenanced its use even from the practical standpoint.

I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another.

I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung. We are, therefore, suffering from galloping consumption. The restoration of the wheel arrests the progress of the fell disease.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

I claim to be an average man of less than average ability. I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.

I claim to be no more than an average person with less than average ability. I have not the shadow of doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.

I do not want any patronage, as I do not give any. I am a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply want to please my own conscience, which is God.

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. I refuse to live in other people's houses as an interloper, a beggar or a slave.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.

I have but shadowed forth my intense longing to lose myself in the Eternal and become merely a lump of clay in the Potter's divine hands so that my service may become more certain because uninterrupted by the baser self in me.
I have found by experience that man makes his plans to be often upset by God, but, at the same time, where the ultimate goal is the search of truth, no matter how a man's plans are frustrated the issue is never injurious and often better then anticipated.

I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move the world.
I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith. Work without faith is like an attempt to reach the bottom of a bottomless pit.

I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice.

I know, to banish anger altogether from one's breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God's grace.

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others.

I may live without air and water, but not without Him. You may pluck out my eyes, but that cannot kill me. You may chop off my nose but that will not kill me. But blast my belief in God, and I am dead.

I need no inspiration other then Nature's. She has never failed me yet. She mystifies me, bewilders me, sends me into ecstasies. Besides God's handiwork, does not man's fade into insignificance?

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.

I saw that nations like individuals could only be made through the agony of the Cross and in no other way. Joy comes not out of infliction of pain on others but out of pain voluntarily borne by oneself.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

I want to see India free in my life-time. But God may not consider me fit enough to see the dream of my life fulfilled. Then I shall quarrel, not with Him but with myself.

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.

I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him. I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest. Even if the sacrifice demanded my very life, I hope I may be prepared to give it.

I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force.
If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty.
If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.

If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake.
If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.

If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause.

Ill-digested principles are, if anything, worse than ill-digested food, for the latter harms the body and there is cure for it, whereas the former ruins the soul and there is no cure for it.
Imitation is the sincerest flattery.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.

In nature there is fundamental unity running through all the diversity we see about us. Religions are given to mankind so as to accelerate the process of realization of fundamental unity.

In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.

Indeed one's faith in one's plans and methods is truly tested when the horizon before one is the blackest.
Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

Infinite striving to be the best is man's duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God's hands.

Insistence on truth can come into play when one party practices untruth or injustice. Only then can love be tested. True friendship is put to the test only when one party disregards the obligation of friendship.

Intellect takes us along in the battle of life to a certain limit, but at the crucial moment it fails us. Faith transcends reason. It is when the horizon is the darkest and human reason is beaten down to the ground that faith shines brightest and comes to our rescue.

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.
Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause.

Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.

Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one's belly, in order to be able to save one's head.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.

It is easy enough to say, 'I do not believe in God.' For God permits all things to be said of Him with impunity. He looks at our acts. And any breach of His Law carries with it not its vindictive, but its purifying, compelling punishment.

It is foolish to think that by fleeing one can trick the dread god of death. Let us treat him as a beneficent angel rather than a dread god. We must face and welcome him whenever he comes.

It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may. We are never able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say.

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

It is man's social nature which distinguishes him from the brute creation. If it is his privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be inter-dependent. Only an arrogant man will claim to be independent of everybody else and be self-contained.

It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.

It is the law of love that rules mankind. Had violence, i.e. hate, ruled us we should have become extinct long ago. And yet, the tragedy of it is that the so-called civilized men and nations conduct themselves as if the basis of society was violence.

It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.

It is through truth non-violence that I can have some glimpse of God. Truth non-violence are my God. They are the obverse and reverse of the same coin.

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

It may be long before the law of love will be recognized in international affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another.

It would conduce to national progress and save a great deal of time and trouble if we cultivated the habit of never supporting the resolutions either by speaking or voting for them if we had not either the intention or the ability to carry them out.

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.

Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.

Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared.

Let no one charge me with ever having abused or encouraged weakness or surrendered on matters of principle. But I have said, as I say again, that every trifle must not be dignified into a principle.

Let no one say that he is a follower of Gandhi. It is enough that I should be my own follower. I know what an inadequate follower I am of myself, for I cannot live up to the convictions I stand for. You are no followers but fellow students, fellow pilgrims, fellow seekers, fellow workers.

Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lust for martyrdom.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents never revenges itself.

Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.

Man can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.

Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man's happiness really lies in contentment.

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.
Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep. 

Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been know to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.

Mankind is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends from time to time. We require drums to be beaten into our ears, before we should wake from our trance and hear the warning and see that to lose oneself in all, is the only way to find oneself.

Manliness consists in making circumstances subserve to ourselves.

Manliness consists not in bluff, bravado or lordliness. It consists in daring to do the right and facing consequences whether it is in matters social, political or other. It consists in deeds, not in words.

Measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men, who are after all imperfect instruments, working for their fulfillment.

Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning.
Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.
Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.

Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.

Must I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.
My life is my message.

My life is one indivisible whole, and all my activities run into one another, and they all have their rise in my insatiable love of mankind.

My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realizing Him.
My trust is solely in god. And I trust men only because I trust God. If I had no God to rely upon, I should be like Timon, a hater of my species.

My work will be finished if I succeed in carrying conviction to the human family, that every man or woman, however weak in body, is the guardian of his or her self-respect and liberty, and that this defense prevails, though the world be against the individual resister.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.

No religion which is narrow and which cannot satisfy the test of reason, will survive the coming reconstruction of society in which the values will have changed and character, not possession of wealth, title or birth will be the test of merit.

No sacrifice is worth the name unless it is a joy. Sacrifice and a long face go ill together. Sacrifice is 'making sacred'. He must be a poor specimen of humanity who is in need of sympathy for his sacrifice.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

Non-cooperation is an attempt to awaken the masses, to a sense of their dignity and power. This can only be done by enabling them to realize that they need not fear brute force, if they would but know the soul within.

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.

Non-cooperation is directed not against men but against measures. It is not directed against the Governors, but against the system they administer. The roots of non-cooperation lie not in hatred but in justice, if not in love.
Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

Non-violence and cowardice go ill together. I can imagine a fully armed man to be at heart a coward. Possession of arms implies an element of fear, if not cowardice. But true non-violence is an impossibility without the possession of unadulterated fearlessness.

Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be inseparable part of our very being.

Non-violence is not a quality to be evolved or expressed to order. It is an inward growth depending for sustenance upon intense individual effort.

Non-violence is the article of faith.

Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's.

Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.

Peace is its own reward.

Perfection is the exclusive attribute of God, and it is indescribable, untranslatable. I do believe that it is possible for human beings to become perfect. It is necessary for all of us to aspire after that perfection but when that blessed state is attained, it becomes indescribable, indefinable.

Poverty is the worst form of violence.

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.

Prayer is a confession of one's own unworthiness and weakness.

Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness... It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.

Proved right should be capable of being vindicated by right means as against the rude i.e. sanguinary means. Man may and should shed his own blood for establishing what he considers to be his right. He may not shed the blood of his opponent who disputes his 'right'.

Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.

Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.

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

Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one's own religion.
Religion is more than life. Remember that his own religion is the truest to every man even if it stands low in the scales of philosophical comparison.

Restraint never ruins one's health. What ruins it, is not restraint but outward suppression. A really self-restrained person grows every day from strength to strength and from peace to more peace. The very first step in self-restraint is the restraint of thoughts.

Rights accrue automatically to him who duly performs his duties. In fact the right to perform one's duties is the only right that is worth living for and dying for. It covers all legitimate rights. All the rest is grab under one guise or another and contains in it seed of Himsa (violence).

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.
Self-respect knows no considerations.

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.

Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul.
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

Suffering cheerfully endured, ceases to be suffering and is transmuted into an ineffable joy.

Suffering has its well-defined limits. Suffering can be both wise and unwise, and when the limit is reached, to prolong it would be not unwise but the height of folly.

Surely conversion is a matter between man and his Maker who alone knows his creatures' hearts. A conversion without a clean heart is, in my opinion, a denial of God and Religion. Conversion without cleanliness of heart can only be a matter of sorrow, not joy, to a godly person.

That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.

The badge of the violent is his weapon, spear, sword or rifle. God is the shield of the non-violent.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problem.
The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.

The first condition of humaneness is a little humility and a little diffidence about the correctness of one's conduct and a little receptiveness.

The good man is the friend of all living things.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

The hardest metal yields to sufficient heat. Even so must the hardest heart melt before sufficiency of the heat of non- violence. And there is no limit to the capacity of non-violence to generate heat.

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.
The law an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.

The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.

The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one's opponent.

The real ornament of woman is her character, her purity.

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

The spirit of non-violence necessarily leads to humility. Non-violence means reliance on God, the rock of ages. If we would seek his aid, we must approach Him with a humble and contrite heart.

The test of friendship is assistance in adversity, and that too, unconditional assistance. Co-operation which needs consideration is a commercial contract and not friendship. Conditional co-operation is like adulterated cement which does not bind.

The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice.
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

The world is touched by sacrifice. It does not then discriminate about the merits of a cause. Not so God - He is all seeing. He insists on the purity of the cause and on adequate sacrifice thereof.

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.
There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.

There is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is no blind law; for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings.
There is more to life than increasing its speed.

There is no one without faults, not even men of God. They are men of God not because they are faultless, but because they know their own faults, they strive against them, they do not hide them, and are ever ready to correct themselves.
There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.

There should be truth in thought, truth in speech, and truth in action. To the man who has realized this truth in perfection, nothing else remains to be known because all knowledge is necessarily included in it.

There will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything great and enduring, and that discipline will not come by mere academic argument and appeal to reason and logic. Discipline is learnt in the school of adversity

This campaign of non-cooperation has no reference to diplomacy, secret or open. The only diplomacy it admits of is the statement and pursuance of truth at any cost.

Those who know how to think need no teachers.

Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.

Those who will not heed themselves perish. To understand this principle is not to be impatient, not to reproach fate, not to blame others. He who understands the doctrine of self-help blames himself for failure.

Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation of the soul the dweller in the body.

To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that the one that must be loved is not a friend. There is no merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

To me art in order to be truly great must, like the beauty of Nature, be universal in its appeal. It must be simple in its presentation and direct in its expression, like the language of Nature.

True religion is not a narrow dogma. It is not external observance. It is faith in God and living in the presence of God. It means faith in a future life, in truth and Ahimsa. There prevails today a sort of apathy towards these things of the Spirit.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.
Truth never damages a cause that is just.

Truth quenches untruth, love quenches anger, self-suffering quenches violence. This eternal rule is a rule not for saints only but for all.

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.
Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.

Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself.

Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point.

We are merely the instruments of the Almighty's will and therefore ignorant of what helps us forward and what acts as an impediment. We must thus rest satisfied with the knowledge only of the means and if these are pure, we can fearlessly leave the end to take care of itself.

We do not need to proselytize either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?

We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.

We must become the change we want to see in the world.

We should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

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 or democracy?

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

What is true of the individual will be to-morrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.

Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.
Whatever striking things I have done in life, I have not done prompted by reason but prompted by instinct, I would say, God.

When anything assumes the strength of a creed, it becomes self-sustained and derives the needed support from within.

When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, always.
When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

Whenever I see an erring man, I say to myself I have also erred; when I see a lustful man I say to myself, so was I once; and in this way I feel kinship with everyone in the world and feel that I cannot be happy without the humblest of us being happy.

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.

Where love is, there God is also.
Where there is love there is life.

Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacities. She has the right to participate in the minutest details in the activities of man, and she has an equal right of freedom and liberty with him.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

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.