Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Gandhi was an Indian nationalist leader who established his country's freedom through a nonviolent
revolution.  Also known as Mahatma Gandhi, he was born in Porbandar on October 2, 1869, and
educated in law at University College, London.  In 1891, after having been admitted to the British bar,
Gandhi returned to India.   Two years later an Indian firm with interests in South Africa retained him
as legal adviser in its office in Durban.  Arriving in Durban, Gandhi found himself treated as a
member of an inferior race.  He was appalled at the widespread denial of civil liberties and political rights
to Indian immigrants to South Africa.  He threw himself into the struggle for elementary rights for Indians.

 thinkers home

Faith is not something to grasp; it is a state to grow into.

Faith is the function of the heart.

Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement.
Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

If I had no sense of humor, I should long ago have committed suicide.

Nonviolence is the first article of my faith.  It is also the last article of my creed.

It is difficult but not impossible to conduct strictly honest business. . . . What
is true is that honesty is incompatible with the amassing of a large fortune.

There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need
but not for man's greed.

God is the hardest taskmaster I have known on this earth, and he
tries you through and through.  And when you find that your faith is
failing or your body is failing you, and you are sinking, he comes
to your assistance somehow or other and proves to you that you must
not lose your faith and that he is always at your beck and call,
but on his terms, not on your terms.  So I have found.  I cannot really
recall a single instance when, at the eleventh hour, he has forsaken me.

Let then our first act every morning be
to make the following resolve for the day:
I shall not fear anyone on earth.
I shall fear only God.
I shall not bear ill will toward anyone.
I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.
I shall conquer untruth by truth.
And in resisting untruth I shall put up with all suffering.

I am not a visionary.  I claim to be a practical idealist.  The religion of non-violence
is not meant merely for the rishis [holy men] and saints.  It is meant for the common
people as well.  Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute.
The spirit lies dormant in the brute and he knows no law but that of physical might.
The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law--the strength of the spirit. . . . 
Non-violence in its dynamic condition means conscious suffering.  It does not mean
meek submission to the will of the evil-doer, but it means the pitting of one's whole
soul against the will of the tyrant.  Working under this law of our being, it is possible
for a single individual to defy the whole might of an unjust empire to save his honor,
his religion, his soul and lay the foundation for that empire's fall or regeneration.

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