MAHATMA GANDHI QUOTES

Quotations from the book : EPIGRAMS FROM GANDHIJI


Epigrams from Gandhiji

GANDHI QUOTES:
Quotations from the book
Epigrams from Gandhiji


Alphabetical Listing

A B C D E F
G H I J K L
M N O P R S
T U V W Y

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GLOSSARY OF INDIAN WORDS

Sources/References

Numerals after each epigram refer to the pages of volumes indicated by the following abbreviations. Where publisher is not mentioned, it is Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad.

  • I to XXVI: The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Publications Division
  • A : An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth: M. K. Gandhi; Navajivan  Publishing House, Ahmedabad
  • AA: Asia and the Americas: Monthly Magazine published from New York
  • ABP: Amrita Bazar Patrika: English Daily
  • AG: Among the Great: Dilip Kumar Roy; Nalanda Publications, Bombay, 1945
  • AOA: Ashram Observations in Action: Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad
  • BC: The Bombay Chronicle: Daily newspaper published from Bombay
  • Bunch: A Bunch of Old Letters, J. Nehru (Asia, 1958)
  • CP: Constructive Programme: Its Meaning and Place: M. K. Gandhi; Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad
  • EF: The Epic Fast: Pyarelal, Ahmedabad, 1932
  • ER: Ethical Religion: Mahatma Gandhi; S. Ganesan, Madras, 1930
  • EWE : Evil Wrought by the English Medium, R. K. Prabhu(1958)
  • FYM: From Yeravda Mandir: Ashram Observations: M. K. Gandhi; NavajivanPublishing House,
  • GCG: Gandhi's Correspondence with the Government,1924-44: Navajivan Publishing House
  • GIV : Gandhiin Indian Villages: Mahadev Desai; S. Ganesan, Madras1927
  • H: Harijan: (1933-1956) English Weekly Journal founded by Gandhi,
  • HS: Hind SWARAJ OR Indian  Home Rule: ; Navjivan Publishing House,Ahmedabad
  • MM: Mind of Mahatma Gandhi (Ed. Prabhu & Rao), 3rd Edn., 1968
  • MOG: The Message of the Gita, R. K. Prabhu (1959)
  • MGCG: Mahatma Gandhi: Correspondence with the Government (1959)
  • T: (Followed by Vol. No.) Mahatma (D.G. Tendulkar) Vols. 1-8; 2nd Edn.(1960), Publications Division
  • TIG: Truth is God, Ed. R. K. Prabhu(1955)
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 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 in 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 associations. 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 a 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 through 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 requisites 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 to 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
  • Schools and colleges are really a factory for turning out clerks for the 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
  • Emphasis laid on the principle of spending every minute of one's life usefully is the best education for citizenship. EWE-24
Effort :
  • Pleasure lies in making an 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 an 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 the 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 an 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 all 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 so 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 own misdeeds. XXV-397
  • Man has 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 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 severe the British connection if I wish to. T-2-382
  • The British are weak in numbers, we are weak in spite of our numbers. 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-a-vis the British Government has been the nonviolence 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 collectors 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 of Englishmen. T-2-200
  • It is derogatory to the dignity of mankind, it is derogatory to the dignity of 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 win the friendship of the English. XXV-520
Equality :
  • Equality of sexes does not mean equality of occupations. MM-296
  • Economic 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 is no antagonism between them or between the branches on which they grow. 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 are 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 point, 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 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-3-2899
  • 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