Gandhi's Quotations
Earning
- May not men earn their bread by intellectual labour? No. The needs of the body must be supplied by the body.
TIG-135
Earth
- This little globe of ours is not a toy of yesterday.
MM-286
Earthquake
- A man like me cannot but believe that this earthquake (Earthquake in Bihar, 15th January, 1934) is a divine chastisement sent by God for our sins.
T-3-247
Eating
- Eating for the sake of pleasure is a sin like animal indulgence for the sake of it.
XXVI-453
Economics
- Economics that hurt the moral well-being of an individual or a nation are immoral and therefore sinful.
MM-263
- That economics is untrue which ignores or disregards moral values.
XXV-475
- The study of Indian economics is the study of the spinning wheel.
XXV-561
- We can try to canalize economic trends, we can't run against them in a head-on collision.
T-7-185
Education
- An education which does not teach us to discriminate between good and bad, to assimilate the one and eschew the other, is a misnomer.
T-5-43
- Education should be so revolutionized as to answer the wants of the poorest villager, instead of answering those of an imperial exploiter.
T-4-182
- Education in the understanding of citizenship is a short-term affair if we are honest and earnest.
MM-378
- Basic education links the children, whether of the cities or the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India.
T-6-23
- Is not education the art of drawing out full manhood of the children under training?
XXVI-275
- Literacy is itself is no education.
MM-379
- Literacy is not the end of education nor even the beginning.
EWE-22
- Literary education should follow the education of the hand - the one gift that visibly distinguishes man from beast.
EWE-21
- Real education has to draw out the best from the boys and girls to be educated.
EWE-32
- True education must correspond to the surrounding circumstances or it is not a healthy growth.
XXVI-275
- What is really needed to make democracy function is not knowledge of facts, but right education.
T-7-209
- National education to be truly national must reflect the national condition for the time being.
XXVI-275
- The function of Nayee -Talim is not to teach an occupation, but through it to develop the whole man.
T-7-384
- I believe that religious education must be the sole concern of religious association.
EWE-30
- By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and man-body, mind and spirit.
MM-379
- By spiritual training I mean education of the heart.
EWE-21
- Experience gained in two schools under my control has taught me that punishment does not purify, if anything, it hardens children.
T-2-218
- I consider writing as a fine art. We kill it by imposing the alphabet on little children and making it the beginning of learning.
T-4-164
- I do regard spinning and weaving as the necessary part of any national system of education
XXVI-275
- The aim of university education should be to turn out true servants of the people who will live and die for the country's freedom.
MM-381
- A balanced intellect presupposes a harmonious growth of body, mind and soul.
MM-379
- Love requires that true education should be easily accessible to all and should be of use to every villager in his daily life.
MM-381
- The notion of education though handicrafts rises from the contemplation of truth and love permeating life's activities.
MM-381
- The fees that you pay do not cover even a fraction of the amount that is spent on your education from the public exchequer.
T-2-345
- Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind.
MM-377
- If we want to impart education best suited to the needs of the villagers, we should take the vidyapith ot the villages.
T-4-163
- In a democratic scheme, money invested in the promotion of learning gives a tenfold return to the people even as a seed sown in good soil returns a luxuriant crop.
EWE-28
- All education in a country has got to be demonstrably in promotion of the progress of the country in which it is given.
MM-381
- The schools and colleges are really a factory for turning out clerks for Government.
T-2-13
- The canker has so eaten into the society that in many cases the only meaning of education is a knowledge of English.
EWE-11
- The emphasis laid on the principle of spending every minute of one's life usefully is the best education for citizenship.
EWE-24
Effort
- The pleasure lies in making the effort, not in its fulfillment
T-5-174
Ego
- We are all like water; we have to strive so to rarefy ourselves that all the ego in us perishes and we merge in the infinite to the eternal good of all.
T-2-308
Employment
- Khadi will cease to have any value in my eyes if it does not usefully employ the millions.
T-7-187
Enemy
- I recognise no one as my enemy on the face of the earth.
XXVI-268
- In the dictionary of satyagraha, there is no enemy.
T-5-162
- No man could look upon another as his enemy unless he first became his own enemy.
T-7-204
Englishman- English Language
- Englishmen must learn to be Brahmins, not banias.
MM-325
- Civilization is not and incurable disease, but it should never be forgotten that the English people are at present afflicted by it.
X-21
- Non-co-operation is a movement intended to invite Englishmen to co-operate with us on honourable terms or retire from our land.
T-2-40
- Swaraj means a state such that we can maintain our separate existence without the presence of the English.
T-2-19
- However virile the English language may be, it can never become the language of the masses of India.
T-7-51
- The English language is so elastic that you can find another word to say the same thing.
T-5-150
- If the English educated neglect, as they have done and even now continue, as some do, to be ignorant of their mother tongue, linguistic starvation will abide.
T-7-51
- We the English educated Indians often unconsciously make the terrible mistake of thinking that the microscopic minority of the English-speaking Indians is the whole of India.
T-2-326
- I am not anti-English, I am not anti-British, I am not anti-any Government, but I am anti-untruth, anti-humbug and anti-injustice.
MM-322
- I refuse to put the unnecessary strain of learning English upon my sisters for the sake of false pride or questionable social advantage.
XX-159
- My love of the British is equal to that of my own people.
MM-323
- My mission is to convert every Indian, every Englishman and finally the world to nonviolence for regulating mutual relations, whether political, economic, social or religious.
T-5-221
- My personal religion enables me to serve my countrymen without hurting English, or for that matter anybody else.
MM-322
- My plea is for banishing the English language as a cultural usurper, as we successfully banished the political rule of the English usurper.
T-8-128
- If any Englishman dedicated his life to securing the freedom of India, resisting tyranny and serving the land, I should welcome that Englishman as a Indian.
X-41
- Personally I crave not for 'independence', which I do not understand, but I long for freedom from the English yoke.
T-2-326
- By patriotism I mean the welfare of the whole people, and if I could secure it at the hands of the English, I should bow down my head to them.
X-41
- Through the deliverance of India, I seek to deliver the so-called weaker races of the earth from the crushing heels of Western exploitation in which England is the greatest partner.
T-2-327
- To get rid of the infatuation for English is one of the essentials of Swaraj.
EWE-46
- A smattering of English is worse than useless; it is an unnecessary tax on our women.
XIV-46
- Ram Mohan Roy would have been a greater reformer and Lokmanya Tilak a greater scholar if they had not to start with the handicap of having to think in English and transmit their thoughts chiefly in English.
EWE-9
- This belief in the necessity of English training has enslaved us. It has unfitted us for true national service.
EWE-8
- Of all the superstitions that affect India, none is so great as that a knowledge of the English language is necessary for imbibing ideas of liberty and developing accuracy to thought.
EWE-10
- The canker has so eaten into the society that in many cases the only meaning of education is a knowledge of English.
EWE-11
- We Hindus and Mohamedans would have to blame our folly rather than the English, if we allowed them to put us asunder.
X-30
- It would be a sad day for India if it has to inherit the English scale and the English tastes to utterly unsuitable to the Indian environment.
T-2-18
- My heart rebels against any foreigner imposing on my country the peace which is here called Pax-Britannica.
T-2-201
- Christianity in India is inextricably mixed up for the last hundred and fifty years with the British rule.
T-2-341
- No matter what the cause was and wherever it was, Indian governments must never requisition the services of British soldiers to deal with civil disturbances.
T-7-359
- There is as much need for a change of heart among the Hindus and Mussalmans as there is among the British, before a proper settlement is arrived at.
XXVI-233
- Let us learn from the English rulers the simple fact that the oppressors are blind to the enormity of their won misdeeds.
XXV-397
- Man had the supreme knack of deceiving himself; the Englishman was supremest amongst men.
T-8-44
- The Britisher is the top dog and the Indian the underdog in his own country.
T-3-71
- That I want to destroy the British imperialism is another matter, but I want to do so by converting those who are associated with it.
T-4-93
- India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before.
T-2-100
- The British power is the overlord without whom Indian princes cannot breathe.
T-5-192
- My conception of dominion status implies present ability to sever the British connection of I wish to.
T-2-382
- The British are weak in numbers, we are weak in spite of our number.
T-2-20
- My motto is "Unite now, today if you can; fight if you must. But in every case avoid British intervention."
XXVI-233
- Will Great Britain have an unwilling India dragged into war or a willing ally co-operating with her in the prosecution of a defence of true democracy?
T-5-167
- Boycott brought about anyhow of British cloth cannot yield the same results as such boycott brought about by hand-spinning and khaddar.
XXV-475
- I must fight unto the death the unholy attempt to impose British methods and British institutions on India.
XXV-489
- The Indian struggle is not anti-British, it is anti-exploitation, anti-foreign rule, not anti-foreigners.
T-5-255
- The way out of the riots, on the one hand, and the British bayonets on the other is frank acceptance of nonviolence.
T-5-238
- What senseless violence does is to prolong the lease of life of the British or foreign rule.
T-7-194
- Our nonviolence vis-à-vis the British Government has been the non-violence of the weak.
MM-349
- I believe in the capacity of India to offer nonviolent battle to the English rulers.
XXV-489
- The builders of the British Indian Empire have patiently built its four pillars-the European interests, the army, the Indian princes and the communal divisions.
T-5-237
- The collector of revenue and the policeman are the only symbols by which millions in India's villages know British rule.
T-7-215
- It was not through democratic methods that Britain bagged India.
T-5-277
- For my own part, I do not want the freedom of India if it means extinction of English or the disappearance or Englishman.
T-2-200
- It is derogatory to the dignity of mankind, it is derogatory to the dignity or India, to entertain for one single moment hatred towards Englishmen.
T-2-199
- If you must kill English officials, why not kill me instead?
T-3-102
- I am just not thinking of India's deliverance. It will come, but will it be worth if England and France fall, or if they come out victorious over Germany ruined and humbled?
T-5-161
- I claim to have been a lifelong and wholly disinterested friend of the British people.
T-5-295
- My attitude towards the British is one of utter friendliness and respect.
XXVI-52
- I may fight the British ruler, but I do not hate the English or their language. In fact, I appreciate their literary treasures.
T-4-93
- By ahimsa we will be able to save the cow and also to win the friendship of the English.
XXV-520
Equality
- Equality of sexes does not mean equality of occupations.
MM-296
- Economics equality of my conception does not mean that every one will literally have the same amount.
MM-267
- The real meaning of economic equality is " To each' according to his need."
MM-267
- What is equality of rights between a giant and a dwarf?
T-3-71
- Economic equality is the master-key to nonviolent independence.
MM-257
- The prince and the peasant will not be equalized by cutting off the prince's head.
MM-248
- No two leaves were alike, and yet there was no antagonism between them or between the branches on which they grew.
T-7-115
- Under ideal conditions, the barrister and the bhangi (sweeper) should both get the same payment.
T-8-63
- If a single man demanded as much as a man with a wife and four children, then that would be a violation of the concept of economic equality.
T-7-47
- "All men are born equal and free" is not Nature's law in the literal sense
MM-350
- My idea of society is that while we born equal, meaning that we have a right to equal opportunity, all have not the same capacity.
MM-266
- Let no one try to justify the glaring difference between the classes and the masses, the prince and the pauper by saying that the former need more.
T-7-47
- The real implication of equal distribution is that each man shall have the wherewithal to supply all his natural needs and no more.
MM-268
- The elephant needs a thousand times more food than the ant but that is not an indication of inequality.
T-7-47
- No man is a true believer unless he desireth for his brother that which he desireth for himself.
T-7-309
- How can I even secretly harbour the thought that my neighbour's faith is inferior to mine?
T-3-257
Ethics
- Teaching of fundamental ethics is undoubtedly a function of the state.
TIG-151
- By religion I have not in mind fundamental ethics but what goes by the name of denominationalism.
EWE-31
- To me God is Truth and Love; God is ethics and morality; God is fearlessness.
TIG-10
Euclid
- Euclid's line is one without breadth, but no one has so far been able to draw it and never will.
MM-131
- If Euclid's pint, thought incapable of being drawn by human agency, has an imperishable value, my picture has its own for mankind to live.
MM-372
- Absolute trusteeship is an abstraction like Euclid's definition of a point, and its equally unattainable.
MM-372
Europe
- Europe is today only nominally Christian. It is really worshipping Mammon
TIG-143
- European civilization is no doubt suited for the Europeans but it will mean ruin for India, if we endeavour to copy it.
T-3-94
- An India prostrate at the feet of Europe can give no hope to humanity.
T-2-46
- A free India will claim to examine every European interest on its merits and that which conflicts with the national interest will go by the board.
T-5-192
Evil
- Not until we have reduced ourselves to nothingness can we conquer the evil in us.
TIG-56
- He who has a living faith in God will not do evil deeds with the name of God on his lips.
T-4-252
- Non-co-operation is a protest against an unwitting and unwilling participation in evil.
T-2-45
- Nonviolence does not signify that man must not fight against the enemy, and by enemy is meant the evil which men do, not the human beings themselves.
T-8-281
- Real non-co-operation is non-co-operation with evil and not with the evildoer.
T-2-200
- In a strictly scientific sense God is at the bottom of both good and evil.
TIG-25
- Tolerance obviously does not disturb the distinction between right and wrong, or good and evil.
TIG-66
Evolution
- Like man, the meaning of great writings suffers evolution.
T-2-311
-
The religion of our conception, thus imperfect, is always subject to a process of evolution and re-interpretation.
TIG-65
Experiments
- My experiments I hold to be infinitely more important than the best equipped Himalayan expeditions.
MM-8
Exploitation
- The divorce of intellect from body labour has made us perhaps the shortest-lived, most resourceless and most exploited nation on earth.
T-3-289
- Exploitation and domination of one nation over another can have no place in a world striving to put an end to all war.
T-7-2
- Through the deliverance of India, I seek to deliver the so-called weaker races of the earth from the crushing heels of Western exploitation in which England is the greatest partner.
T-2-327