#Nonviolence Quotes

“The peace of the man who has forsworn the use of the bullet seems to me not quite peace, but a canting impotence.”

“Truth and nonviolence are both the means and the end, and given the right type of men, the legislatures can be the means of achieving the concrete pursuit of truth and nonviolence.”

“Let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home, including Palestine, not by aggression but by loving service”

“My interest in India's freedom will cease if she adopts violent means, for their fruit will not be freedom but slavery in disguise.”

“One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.”

“I can no more preach nonviolence to a cowardly man than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes.”

“Unless discipline is rooted in nonviolence, it might prove to be a source of infinite mischief.”

“My method is conversion, not coercion, it is self-suffering, not the suffering of the tyrant. I know that method to be infallible.”

“I regard myself as a soldier, though a soldier of peace.”

“The Congress fights not with violent but with nonviolent means, however imperfect, however crude the nonviolence may be.”

“It is against the spirit of ahimsa to overawe even one person into submission.”

“To answer brutality with brutality is to admit one's moral and intellectual bankruptcy.”

“Nonviolent action means mobilization of world opinion in our favour.”

“Carrying arms for the removal of the Arms Act can never fall under any scheme of nonviolence.”

“If we were to drive out the English with the weapons with which they enslaved us, our slavery would still be with us even when they have gone.”

“Nonviolent attainment of self-government presupposes a non-violent control over the violent elements in the country.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“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'.”

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

“My non-violence bids me dedicate myself to the service of the minorities.”

“It is an ever-growing belief with me that truth cannot be found by violent means.”

“The strength to kill is not essential for self-defence; one ought to have the strength to die.”

“The weapon of nonviolence does not need supermen or superwomen to wield it; even beings of common clay can use it and have used it before this with success.”

“If the Commander-in-Chief will look beyond the defence forces, he will discover that the real India is not military but peace-loving.”

“It is better to resist oppression by violent means than to submit, but it is best of all to resist by nonviolent means.”

“Nonviolence is an intensely active force when properly understood and used.”

“Ahimsa must be placed before everything else while it is professed. Then alone it becomes irresistible.”

“We dare not enter the kingdom of liberty with mere life-homage to truth and nonviolence.”

“Nonviolence of the strong cannot be a mere policy. It must be a creed, or a passion, if 'creed' is objected to.”

“I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.”

“In a society based on nonviolence, the smallest nation will feel as tall as the tallest.”

“Civil disobedience is not only the natural right of a people, especially when they have no effective voice in their own Government, but that it is also a substitute for violence or armed rebellion.”

“My nonviolence does recognize different species of violence, defensive and offensive.”

“I will not have the power of nonviolence to be underestimated in order to cover my limitations or weaknesses.”

“The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction.”

“Not violence, nor untruth but non-violence and Truth are the laws of our being.”

“There is no hope for the aching world except through the narrow and straight path of nonviolence.”

“A votary of ahimsa cannot subscribe to the utilitarian formula (of the greatest good of the greatest number). He will strive for the greatest good of all and die in the attempt to realize that ideal.”

“The very word Islam means peace, which is nonviolence.”

“I shall die, but I will not kill.”

“My creed of nonviolence does not favour the punishment of thieves and dacoits and even murderers.”

“A satyagrahi would neither retaliate nor would he submit to the criminal, but seek to cure him by curing himself.”

“There is no path to peace; peace is the path.”

“Ahimsa and Truth are so intertwined that it is practically impossible to disentangle and separate them.”

“It is the acid test of nonviolence that in a nonviolent conflict there is no rancor left behind, and in the end the enemies are converted into friends.”