Mahatma Gandhi

  It is possible to live in peace.

Mahatma Gandhi, was the charismatic leader who brought the cause of India's independence from British colonial rule to world attention. He powerfully demonstrated his philosophy of non-violence, for which he coined the term satyagraha, as one of the most powerful tools uniquely available to the masses for lasting peace.

By means of non-violent civil disobedience, an idea he developed from the teachings of Leo Tolstoy and Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi helped bring about India's independence from British rule. This inspired other colonial peoples to work for their own independence, ultimately dismantling the British Empire and replacing it with the Commonwealth of Nations. Gandhi's principle of satyagraha (from Sanskrit satya: truth, and agraha: request "a justified demand"), often translated as "way of truth" or "pursuit of truth", has inspired other democratic activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr.. He often said that his values were simple; drawn from traditional Hindu beliefs: truth (satya), and non-violence (ahimsa).

Gandhi

Quotes by Gandhi

• We must be the change we wish to see.
• The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
• 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 and democracy?
• The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
• The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
• Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
• The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.
• There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e., the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being.
• Non-cooperation is an attempt to awaken the masses, to a sense of their dignity and power. This can only be done by enabling them to realize that they need not fear brute force, if they would but know the soul within.
• Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
• Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.
• It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.
• They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.
• I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
• Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.
• Whenever I see an erring man, I say to myself I have also erred; when I see a lustful man I say to myself, so was I once; and in this way I feel kinship with everyone in the world and feel that I cannot be happy without the humblest of us being happy.
• An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody will see it.Even as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes.