Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Hindu Political leader)

Mohandas Karamchand Gāndhī (1869–1948,) called the “Mahātma” (Sanskrit: “great-souled,”) was the apostle of peace and non-violence who said, “My life is my message.” He is the political and spiritual father of modern India. His strategy of passive resistance was based on a philosophical-religious synthesis of traditional Hinduism, Tolstoyan Christianity, and other world religions. His movement mounted pressure on the British to grant India independence.

Born into a family of modest means in Porbandar, Gujarat, Gāndhī was educated in British schools and earned a law degree in London. He found his calling in South Africa, where he experimented with nonviolent resistance to fight anti-Indian regulations in South Africa.

Returning to India, Gāndhī led a series of nonviolent campaigns as the leader of the Indian crusade for home rule. When Great Britain granted independence in 1947, the partition of India along religious lines led Gāndhī to declare his life a failure because India could not govern itself as one nation but instead gave in to the division. Gāndhī’s fair-minded treatment of the Muslim cause and his desperate attempts to end intercommunal violence provoked his assassination by a Hindu nationalist just six months after independence.

Gāndhī is one of the most-biographed people in the history of the world. Physicist Albert Einstein once said, “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”

Gāndhī inspired Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, the 14th Dalai Lama, and other political leaders who resist oppressive regimes. He was also a prolific writer; his most famous work is his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1940.)

Gāndhī is idolized as a modern saint not only for his extraordinary public life as the leader of India’s peaceful struggle for independence but also for his enduring philosophical contributions to humanity.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Mohandas K. Gandhi

Recommended Reading

Inspirational Quotes by Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Hindu Political leader)

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to coyer impotence.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Fame, Gentleness, Violence

Nonviolence 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.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Violence

Truth never damages a cause that is just.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Truth, Reason

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: People, Poverty, Food, World, God

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Freedom, Love, Fortune

The root cause of most of our misunderstandings lies in distrust and at the root of this distrust mostly lies fear.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi

In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Faith, Prayer

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.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Evil

The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Vision, Action

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.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Despair, Punishment

Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one’s own religion.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Where there is love there is life.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Love, Feelings, Compassion

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

Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Tolerance

My faith runs so very much faster than my reason that I can challenge the whole world and say, “God is, was and ever shall be.”
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Challenges, Faith

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Gentleness

Nothing can be more hurtful to an honourable man than that he should be accused of bad faith.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Faith

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Living, Humankind, Will, Conviction, Action

You may, if you like, cut us to pieces. You may shatter us at the canon’s mouth. If you act contrary to our will we shall not help you and without our help, we know that you cannot move one step forward. It is likely that you will laugh at all this in the intoxication of your power.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi

My nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice. I can no more preach nonviolence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute. The spirit lies dormant in the brute and he knows no law but that of physical might. The dignity of man requires obedience to another law—to the strength of the spirit.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Society

Freedom isn’t worth having if it doesn’t include the freedom to make mistakes.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Never has man reached his destination by persistence in deviation from the straight path.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Activism

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Confrontation, Forgiveness, Kindness

Earth and heaven are in us.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Personally, I hold that a man, who deliberately and intelligently takes a pledge and then breaks it, forfeits his manhood.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Promises

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in a year.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi

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.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Topics: Words, Meditation, Heart, Prayer

Wondering Whom to Read Next?

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *