It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife.
— Mahatma Gandhi
I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian.
I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children, I began to strive after self-control. There was endless difficulty in the task.
I am in the world feeling my way to light 'amid the encircling gloom.'
I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.
Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French.
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.
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?
Morality is contraband in war.
Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it.
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.
You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.
Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.
Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.
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.
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.
Only he can take great resolves who has indomitable faith in God and has fear of God.
My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray.
If a man reaches the heart of his own religion, he has reached the heart of the others, too. There is only one God, and there are many paths to him.
Sense perceptions can be and often are false and deceptive, however real they may appear to us. Where there is realization outside the senses, it is infallible. It is proved not by extraneous evidence but in the transformed conduct and character of those who have felt the real presence of God within.
I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth.
God cannot be realized through the intellect. Intellect can lead one to a certain extent and no further. It is a matter of faith and experience derived from that faith.
Let not the 12 million Negroes be ashamed of the fact that they are the grandchildren of slaves. There is dishonor in being slave-owners.
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.
Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.
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.
I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.
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.
A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.
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.
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.
Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.
Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?
The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.
Partition is bad. But whatever is past is past. We have only to look to the future.
I took the vow of celibacy in 1906. I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of making the vow. She had no objection.
Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the European, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.
He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire.
It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful?
Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.
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.
A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.
Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.
What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.
A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.
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.
Peace is its own reward.
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.
Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.
Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.
