When Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, over one million people joined a five-mile funeral procession honoring his life. Another million lined the streets to watch, and news of his death traveled around the globe. It was the end of an era, but it was not the end of a legacy. Gandhi lived his life non-violently fighting for freedom, and he did it in ways that the world still remembers. He became a martyr for the name of freedom, and today, Gandhi quotes remind the world about the importance of both peace and for standing up for what you believe.
Born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in 1869, the man that is best known as Mahatma Gandhi was first a mediocre student, then a lawyer, and eventually an anti-colonial nationalist. He earned the honorary title of Mahatma, meaning “great souled,” while living and working in South Africa in 1914. The descriptor turned into a guiding ideal that led Gandhi to pursue his political and ethical beliefs.
While Gandhi advocated for many causes throughout his life, he is most known for his vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism. He was against the heavy British rule and was a voice supporting freedom in both his native country of India and South Africa, where he spent much of his life.
Unlike other political activists, Gandhi chose to fight his battles with peaceful protests, boycotts, and several fasts unto death. He refused to buy British imported goods, and encouraged his countrymen to make their own clothes and purchase only local food. During India’s freedom movement, Gandhi undertook 18 fasts, each with a specific purpose. The longest of these lasted 21 days.
While Gandhi was imprisoned several times and physically suffered for his beliefs, he never gave into violence or oppression. Over 70 years after his death, Gandhi quotes remain relevant.
Here are the most notable Gandhi quotes remembered long after his death.
1. “Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
2. “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
3. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.”
4. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
5. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
6. “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
7. “If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.”
8. “Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.”
9. “Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence.”
10. “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”
11. “It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”
12. “Strength does not come from a physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
13. “I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.”
14. “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
15. “Love is the strongest force the world possesses.”
16. “Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong.”
17. “A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”
18. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
19. “To call woman the weaker sex is libel; it is man’s injustice to woman.”
20. “It’s easy to stand in the crowd, but it takes courage to stand alone.”
21. “Service without humility is selfishness and egotism.”
22. “Hate the sin, love the sinner.”
23. “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
24. “Our greatest ability as humans is not to change the world, but to change ourselves.”
25. “What barrier is there that love cannot break?”
Mahatma Gandhi will always be remembered as a peaceful, yet fierce, warrior. His life is proof that love and freedom are far more powerful than hate and violence. Share these Gandhi quotes to remind the world that violence isn’t the answer.
