Ethicist Quotes

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

“The end is inherent in the means.”

“If treachery is the reward of trust, will the man who trusts come to harm?”

“All have not the same capacity. I would allow a man of intellect to earn more, I would not cramp his talent.”

“It was only in South Africa that I got over this shyness, though I never completely overcame it. It was impossible for me to speak impromptu. I hesitated whenever I had to face strange audiences and avoided making a speech whenever I could. Even today I do not think I could or would even be inclined to keep a meeting of friends engaged in idle talk.”

“A government builds its prestige upon the apparently voluntary association of the governed.”

“Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong, but of the weak.”

“Swaraj can only be achieved through an all-round consciousness of the masses.”

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

“Possession of arms implies an element of fear, if not of cowardice.”

“There's enough on this planet for everyone's needs but not for everyone's greed.”

“My modesty has prevented me from declaring from the house top that the message of non-co-operation, nonviolence and swadeshi is a message to the world.”

“Life is but an endless series of experiments.”

“Disorder and violence are, in fact, things that might check the pace of India's progress.”

“Modern civilization has taught us to convert night into day and golden silence into brazen din and noise.”

“Means to be means must always be within our reach, and so ahimsa is our supreme duty.”

“Many could forgo heavy meals, a full wardrobe, a fine house, etcetera. It is the ego they cannot forgo.”

“Means are ends in the making”

“The power of unarmed nonviolence is any day far superior to that of armed force.”

“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.”

“Nonviolence, applied to very large masses of mankind, is a new experiment in the history of the world.”

“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'.”

“Such expression is impossible in a cramped atmosphere. As I have no desire to offer civil disobedience I cannot write freely. As the author of satyagraha I cannot, consistently with my profession, suppress the vital part of myself for the sake of being able to write on permissible subjects. ... It would be like dealing with the trunk without the head.”

“I contend that non-violent acts exert pressure far more effective than violent acts, for the pressure comes from goodwill and gentleness.”

“The only things that separates us from the brute, with which we have so much in common, is the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong.”