Gandhi best quotes, aphorisms, maxims, ideas, thoughts and words of wisdom by the mythical hero of non-violent protest, true religiosity and Indian independence.
Mahatma Gandhi is revered the world over as one of history’s most transformative and inspirational figures. Throughout his life in South Africa and India, Gandhi was a fearless campaigner for the rights and dignity of all people, whose constant and unwavering promotion of non-violence as a tool to win over hearts and minds has forever left its mark on the world.
However, the man known today for his calm, courage and compassion in the face of oppression was not always comfortable before the crowds. Born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in Porbandar, India in 1869 — he was later nicknamed “Mahatma,” for “great soul” — the spiritual leader and father of Indian independence in fact suffered for much of his life from an acute fear of public speaking. Gandhi’s glossophobia, as it’s known, was so severe that when he faced a judge for his first court case as a young lawyer, he froze and fled from the courtroom in a panic.
Over time, Gandhi managed not only to overcome his fears, but to turn them to his advantage. His unease at speaking made him an excellent listener, whose humility and empathy allowed him to channel the dreams and aspirations of the masses. His hesitancy with words taught him the power of saying more with less – and today, these words, inflected with the heart and wisdom that have made him an international icon, continue to inspire countless millions across the globe.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Mahatma Gandhi
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Mahatma Gandhi
Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.
Mahatma Gandhi
Faith is the function of the heart.
Mahatma Gandhi
Faith must be enforced by reason. When faith becomes blind it dies.
Mahatma Gandhi
Non-violence is the article of faith.
Mahatma Gandhi
A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.
Mahatma Gandhi
Love has more force than a besieging army.
Mahatma Gandhi
My life is an indivisible whole, and all my attitudes run into one another; and they all have their rise in my insatiable love for mankind.
Mahatma Gandhi
Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.
Mahatma Gandhi
Where there is love there is life.
Mahatma Gandhi
Prayer is a confession of one’s own unworthiness and weakness.
Mahatma Gandhi
Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul.
Mahatma Gandhi
Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
Prayer is a confession of one’s own unworthiness and weakness.
Mahatma Gandhi
Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.
Mahatma Gandhi
Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will make, not only our own happiness, but that of the world at large.
Mahatma Gandhi
In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Mahatma Gandhi
A vow is fixed and unalterable determination to do a thing, when such a determination is related to something noble which can only uplift the man who makes the resolve.
Mahatma Gandhi
Personally, I hold that a man, who deliberately and intelligently takes a pledge and then breaks it, forfeits his manhood.
Mahatma Gandhi
Your capacity to keep your vow will depend on the purity of your life.
Mahatma Gandhi
It is open to a war resister to judge between the combatants and wish success to the one who has justice on his side. By so judging he is more likely to bring peace between the two than by remaining a mere spectator.
Mahatma Gandhi
Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.
Mahatma Gandhi
Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Mahatma Gandhi
A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, nothing else.
Mahatma Gandhi
Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.
Mahatma Gandhi
Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.
Mahatma Gandhi
Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock.
Mahatma Gandhi
Cowards can never be moral.
Mahatma Gandhi
Fear has its use but cowardice has none.
Mahatma Gandhi
It is open to a war resister to judge between the combatants and wish success to the one who has justice on his side. By so judging he is more likely to bring peace between the two than by remaining a mere spectator.
Mahatma Gandhi
Morality is contraband in war.
Mahatma Gandhi
The mantram becomes one’s staff of life and carries one through every ordeal. Each repetition has a new meaning, carrying you nearer and nearer to God.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.
Mahatma Gandhi
Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph: a beginning, a struggle, and a victory.
Mahatma Gandhi
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi
Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation.
Mahatma Gandhi
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Mahatma Gandhi
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
Mahatma Gandhi
If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Mahatma Gandhi
It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.
Mahatma Gandhi
God comes to the hungry in the form of food.
Mahatma Gandhi
Purity of mind and idleness are incompatible.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.
Mahatma Gandhi
Hatred can be overcome only by love.
Mahatma Gandhi
To believe what has not occurred in history will not occur at all, is to argue disbelief in the dignity of man.
Mahatma Gandhi
Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil.
Mahatma Gandhi
Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.
Charles Dickens
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.
Mahatma Gandhi
Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God. I plead not for the suppression of reason, but for a due recognition of that in us which sanctifies reason.
Mahatma Gandhi
Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.
Mahatma Gandhi
The music of life is in danger of being lost in the music of the voice.
Mahatma Gandhi
There are limits to self-indulgence, none to restraint.
Mahatma Gandhi
Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
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
Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.
Mahatma Gandhi
The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity.
Mahatma Gandhi
What is a man if he is not a thief who openly charges as much as he can for the goods he sells?
Mahatma Gandhi
There are limits to self-indulgence, none to restraint.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.
Mahatma Gandhi
Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Mahatma Gandhi
A “No” uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a “Yes” merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
Mahatma Gandhi
Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking.
Mahatma Gandhi
If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.
Mahatma Gandhi
They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
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 very being.
Mahatma Gandhi
Those who know how to think need no teachers.
Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom and slavery are mental states.
Mahatma Gandhi
A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.
Mahatma Gandhi
All business depends upon men fulfilling their responsibilities.
Mahatma Gandhi
One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.
Mahatma Gandhi
There are limits to self-indulgence, none to restraint.
Mahatma Gandhi
Pen to a war resister to judge between the combatants and wish success to the one who has justice on his side. By so judging he is more likely to bring peace between the two than by remaining a mere spectator.
Mahatma Gandhi
It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph: a beginning, a struggle, and a victory.
Mahatma Gandhi
I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.
Mahatma Gandhi
Monotony is the law of nature. Look at the monotonous manner in which the sun rises. The monotony of necessary occupation is exhilarating and life giving.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
Poverty is the worst form of violence.
Mahatma Gandhi
I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.
Mahatma Gandhi
I am not against wealth; I am against wealth that enslaves.
Mahatma Gandhi
Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipotence. Attribution of omnipotence to reason is as bad a piece of idolatry as is worship of stock and stone believing it to be God. I plead not for the suppression of reason, but for a due recognition of that in us which sanctifies reason.
Mahatma Gandhi
I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.
Mahatma Gandhi
If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. We need not wait to see what others do.
Mahatma Gandhi
A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.
Mahatma Gandhi
I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.
Mahatma Gandhi
Nobody can hurt me without my permission.
Mahatma Gandhi
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.
Mahatma Gandhi
An ounce of practice is worth a thousand words.
Mahatma Gandhi
A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.
Mahatma Gandhi
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
Mahatma Gandhi
Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served.
Mahatma Gandhi
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.
Mahatma Gandhi
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Mahatma Gandhi
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
Hate the sin, love the sinner.
Mahatma Gandhi
Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.
Mahatma Gandhi
Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.
Mahatma Gandhi
Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence.
Mahatma Gandhi
The future depends on what you do today.
Mahatma Gandhi
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.
Mahatma Gandhi
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.
Mahatma Gandhi
It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.
Mahatma Gandhi
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Mahatma Gandhi
You don’t know who is important to you until you actually lose them.
Mahatma Gandhi
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
Mahatma Gandhi
You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.
Mahatma Gandhi
I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.
Mahatma Gandhi
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Mahatma Gandhi
You can also read great quotes and aphorisms by Mahatma Gandhi in Italian
