Gandhi's Quotations

On Various Subjects

Obedience

  • Obedience to the law of bread labour will bring about a silent revolution in the structure of society.
  • T-4-36

  • Compulsory obedience to a master is a state of slavery, willing obedience to one's father is the glory of sonship.
  • T-4-36

  • Before civil disobedience can be practised on a vast scale, people must learn of the civil or voluntary obedience.
  • T-4-10

  • Reasoned and willing obedience to the laws of the State is the first lesson in non-co-operation.
  • XXV-560

  • A wretched parent who claims obedience from his children, without first doing his duty by them, excites nothing but contempt.
  • T-8-31

  • Democracy comes naturally to him who is habituated normally to yield willing obedience to all laws, human or divine.
  • T-5-104

  • In a nonviolent army, the general and the officers are elected, or are as if elected, when their authority is moral and rests solely on the willing obedience or the rank and file.
  • T-4-298

  • Through khadi we teach the people the art of civil obedience to an institution which they have built up for themselves.
  • T-4-10

Ocen

  • The ocean is composed of drops of water, each drop is an entity and yet it is part of the whole, the 'one and the many'.
  • TIG-147

  • Absolute calm is not the law of ocean. And it is the same with the ocean of life.
  • T-7-190

Oppression

  • Everyone should realize the secret that oppression thrived only when the oppressed submitted to it.
  • T-7-192

Optimist

  • I am an irrepressible optimist, but I always base my optimism on solid facts.
  • T-2-152

Organisation

  • Organisations, like men, if they are to command respect and grow, must have a sense of honour and must fulfill their promises.
  • T-3-7

  • Personal likes and dislikes, ambitions and petty jealousies should have no place in Congress organisation.
  • T-7-53

Orthodox

  • The only way by which you and I can wean orthodox Hindus from their bigotry is by patient argument and correct conduct.
  • XXV-514