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Quotations from

Mahatma Gandhi

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Picture of Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and whose legacy would later inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (Sanskrit: "great-souled", "venerable"), first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world.

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Mahatma Gandhi is sometimes cited as:

Quotes from Mahatma Gandhi

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.

—Mahatma Gandhi

power self-worth belief

I hold myself to be incapable of hating any being on earth. By a long course of prayerful discipline, I have ceased for over forty years to hate anybody. I know this is a big claim. Nevertheless, I make it in all humility.

—Mahatma Gandhi

hate

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

—Mahatma Gandhi

power impotence violence

I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.

—Mahatma Gandhi

humanity animals mercy protection

The lower animals are our brethren. I include among them the lion and the tiger. We do not know how to live with these carnivorous beasts and poisonous reptiles because of our ignorance. When man learns better, he will learn to befriend even these. Today he does not even know how to befriend a man of a different religion or from a different country.

—Mahatma Gandhi

friendship ignorance religion learning animals

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.

—Mahatma Gandhi

politics struggle snakes entrapment

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

—Mahatma Gandhi

love strength cowardice bravery

When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always.

—Mahatma Gandhi

truth love history time inevitability tyranny murder

Life is governed by a multitude of forces. It would be smooth sailing if one could determine the course of one's actions only by one general principle whose application at a given moment was too obvious to need even a moment's reflection. But I cannot recall a single act which could be so easily determined.

—Mahatma Gandhi

life actions reflection

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

—Mahatma Gandhi

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.

—Mahatma Gandhi

friends religion enemies business friendliness

Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral.

—Mahatma Gandhi

spirituality fear cowardice morality fearlessness

He who would be friends with God must remain alone or make the whole world his friend.

—Mahatma Gandhi

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

—Mahatma Gandhi

I am, indeed, a practical dreamer. My dreams are not airy nothings. I want to convert my dreams into realities as far as possible.

—Mahatma Gandhi

action reality dreams practicality