Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948) was an Indian philosopher of the Contemporary era, associated with Indian Philosophy and Postcolonial Philosophy.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, political leader, and philosopher who developed the doctrine and practice of satyagraha, nonviolent civil resistance, into a transformative form of political action. Beginning with his work for the civil rights of Indians in South Africa, he led the Indian National Congress in a decades-long campaign that culminated in Indian independence in 1947. His philosophical writings, especially Hind Swaraj, develop an ethics of truth, nonviolence, simplicity, and the reform of the soul as the precondition for political freedom. He was assassinated in January 1948.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) was an Indian political philosopher and political leader whose work in non-violent resistance shaped the twentieth-century traditions of civil rights, anticolonialism, and political ethics. Born in Porbandar in what is now Gujarat, educated as a barrister at the Inner Temple in London, he practiced law in South Africa from 1893 to 1914 and developed the framework of satyagraha — truth-force — through campaigns against discriminatory laws affecting Indian residents there.
Gandhi returned to India in 1915 and became the central political-philosophical figure of the Indian independence movement. His campaigns of non-cooperation, civil disobedience, and salt-march resistance against the British Raj culminated in Indian independence in 1947. His philosophical writings — Hind Swaraj (1909), the autobiographical The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1927), and many shorter works and editorials — articulate a synthesis of Hindu philosophical-religious commitments with selectively appropriated elements of Christianity, Tolstoy's late religious thought, and Thoreau's civil disobedience.
Gandhi's commitment to ahimsa — non-violence in thought, word, and deed — was the philosophical core of his political project. His writings on caste, on the relation of Hindu and Muslim communities, on industrial modernity, and on village self-rule remain contested. He was assassinated in New Delhi in January 1948 by a Hindu nationalist who held him responsible for concessions to Muslims at Partition.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Indian
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Indian Philosophy, Postcolonial Philosophy
Selected quotes
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“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
We but mirror the world . All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body . If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. -
Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
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Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
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Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
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Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:
“Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind.”
Mahatma Gandhi by topic
Frequently asked about Mahatma Gandhi
- When did Mahatma Gandhi live?
- Mahatma Gandhi was born in 1869 and died in 1948.
- Where was Mahatma Gandhi from?
- Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian philosopher of the Contemporary era.
- What philosophical movements is Mahatma Gandhi associated with?
- Mahatma Gandhi was associated with Indian Philosophy and Postcolonial Philosophy.
- What was Mahatma Gandhi known for?
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, political leader, and philosopher who developed the doctrine and practice of satyagraha, nonviolent civil resistance, into a transformative form of political action.
- How many quotes are attributed to Mahatma Gandhi?
- There are 45 attributed quotations from Mahatma Gandhi in the 1001Philosophers collection, organized by topic.
Quotes that are not actually from Mahatma Gandhi
These lines are widely circulated as Mahatma Gandhi, but they do not appear in Mahatma Gandhi's works. Each entry below identifies the actual source.
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“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Describing the stages of a winning strategy of nonviolent activism. There is no record of Gandhi saying this. A close variant of the quotation first appears in a 1918 US trade union address by Nicholas Klein :
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“An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: 1914: "If…we were to go back to…'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' there would be very few [Honourable] Gentlemen in this House who would not…be blind and toothless." — George Perry Graham , during a debate on capital punishment before the Canadian House of Commons. Official Report of the
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“Hate the sin and love the sinner.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This is variant of a traditional Christian proverb; ie : " Hate the sin, but love the sinner " in Sermons, Lectures, and Occasional Discourses (1828) Edward Irving , and similar expressions date to those of Augustine of Hippo : " Love the sinner and hate the sin. " Gandhi did express approval of suc
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“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world — that is the myth of the "atomic age" — as in being able to remake ourselves.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Prof. Michael N. Nagler in his foreword to Gandhi the Man (1978) by Eknath Easwaran, p. 8
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“Action expresses priorities.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Apparently a rephrasing of "Actions express priorities," from Peak Performers (1987) by Charles A. Garfield. The phrase is adjacent to a Gandhi quote in at least one list of quotations alphabetized by last name.
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“We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: There is "no reliable documentary evidence for the quotation", according to an article in The New York Times . Brian Morton, "Falser Words Were Never Spoken" , New York Times , 2011-08-29. It is not found as a direct Gandhi quotation in the 98-volume authorized Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi . Mi
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“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it—always... When you are in doubt that that is God's way, the way the world is meant to be... think of that.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This appears to have been originally written by John Briley in the screenplay for the movie, Gandhi (1982), spoken by Ben Kingsley , playing Gandhi. The earliest [partial] misattribution to Gandhi appears to be by Ronald Reagan in an address to the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September 198
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“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Despite its near-universal attribution to Gandhi, this line does not appear in his Collected Works or in any verified primary source. The Gandhi Research Foundation and the Quote Investigator have both attempted unsuccessfully to trace it to Gandhi. The earliest verifiable English appearances are mid-twentieth-century, well after Gandhi's death.
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“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
This pacifist aphorism is consistently attributed to Gandhi but does not appear in his Collected Works. Gandhi's grandson Arun Gandhi has stated that he heard the saying as a personal expression of his grandfather's views, but no published source has been located. The phrase first appears in print in the 1940s and gained currency through the American civil rights movement.
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“Poverty is the worst kind of violence.”
Quoted without reference to earlier source, time or location in A Just Peace through Transformation: Cultural, Economic, and Political Foundations for Change (1988) by the International Peace Association (Disputed.)
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“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”
The earliest attribution of this to Gandhi yet located is in a T-shirt advertisement in Mother Jones , Vol. 8, No. 5 (June 1983), p. 46 (Disputed.)
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“If you don't ask, you don't get.”
Widespread late 20th century aphorism that appears to have been first attributed to Gandhi in various self-help books of the early 2000s. Google Books (Disputed.)
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“I have never advocated "passive" anything. We must never submit to unjust laws. Never. And our resistance must be active and provocative.”
This may be derived from lines in the movie Gandhi (1982); such statements have not been located among published sources. (Disputed.)
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“I like your Christ . I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time.”
As quoted by William Rees-Mogg in The Times [London] (4 April 2005) {not found}. Gandhi here makes reference to a statement of Jesus: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Luke 16:13); also partly quoted in Christianity in the Crosshairs: Real Life Solutions Discovered in the Line of Fire (2004, p. 74 books.google ) by Bill Wilson . A variation is found in Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal & Gandhi Research Foundation's website mkgandhi.org . Christian missionary E. Stanley Jones , who spent much time with Gandhi in India, is said to have askedː “Mr Gandhi,… (Disputed.)
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“[asked what he thought of modern civilization] That would be a good idea.”
variant: "I think it would be a good idea" when asked what he thought of Western civilization. On p. 75 of Ralph Keyes' book The Quote Verifier (2006), Keyes writes: 'During his first visit to England, when asked what he though of modern civilization, Gandhi is said to have told news reporters, "That would be a good idea." The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations cites E. F. Schumacher's Good Work as its source for this Gandhiism, as does Nigel Rees in the Cassell Companion to Quotations . In that 1979 book, Schumacher said he saw Gandhi make this remark in a filmed record of his quizzing by reporters as he disembarked in Southampton while visiting England in 1930. Gandhi did not visit England… (Disputed.)
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“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.”
Earliest instance of this quote found on google books is the 1989 book Forest primeval: the natural history of an ancient forest by Chris Maser, but there it appears to be Maser's own thought (see p. 230 followed by a different supposed Gandhi quote ). (Disputed.)
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“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”
Earliest instance of this quote found on Google Books is the heading to a chapter entitled "How to Make Free Money From Your Website" from 2001 , where it is attributed to "M. K. Ghandi" [sic]. (Disputed.)