"Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?"

"Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning."

"A small group of determined and like-minded people can change the course of history."

"Truth is like a vast tree which yields more and more fruit the more you nurture it. The deeper the search in the mind of truth, the richer the discovery of the gems buried there."

"I call him religious who understands the suffering of others."

"Intolerance is a species of violence and therefore against our creed."

"It is man's social nature which distinguishes him from the brute creation. If it is his privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be inter-dependent. Only an arrogant man will claim to be independent of everybody else and be self-contained."

"It is better to allow our lives to speak for us than our words."

"I am not built for academic writings. Action is my domain."

"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."

"They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them."

"A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes."

"God has no religion."

"A 'No' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble."

"Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature."

"It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one's acts."

"My aim is not to be consistent with my previous statements on a given question, but to be consistent with truth as it may present itself to me at a given moment. The result has been that I have grown from truth to truth."

"God cannot be realized through the intellect. Intellect can lead one to a certain extent and no further. It is a matter of faith and experience derived from that faith."

"Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong."

"If I were a dictator, religion and state would be separate. I swear by my religion. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The state has nothing to do with it. The state would look after your secular welfare, health, communications, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not your or my religion. That is everybody's personal concern!"

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

"Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals."