Mahatma Gandhi Quotes on God
Mahatma Gandhi's idea of God was practical, ethical, and inseparable from conscience, and the quotes gathered here reflect it. Gandhi identified God closely with the inner moral voice, stating simply that he wished to please his own conscience, which is God. He held that genuine religion expresses itself in love and action rather than dogma, believing that if India made the doctrine of love an active part of her religion, self-rule would follow as if from heaven. Gandhi was also alert to the abuse of God's name, warning that Satan's successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips, and he affirmed the underlying peacefulness of the great faiths. Drawn largely from Young India, these passages present God as conscience, love, and a reality known in conduct.
Quotes
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“I'm a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply want to please my own conscience, which is God.”
1920s | Young India (21 January 1927) -
“Disobedience is a right that belongs to every human being, and it becomes a sacred duty when it springs from civility.”
1920s | Young India (4 January 1926) -
“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?”
1940s | Non-Violence in Peace and War , 1942, Vol. 1, Ch. 142 -
“If India adopted the doctrine of love as an active part of her religion and introduced it in her politics. Swaraj would descend upon India from heaven. But I am painfully aware that that event is far off as yet.”
1920s | "A Word of Explanation" in Young India (January 1921) -
“Satan 's successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips.”
1920s | "The Inwardness of Non-Co-operation". Quoted in Freedom's Battle: Being a Comprehensive Collection of Writings and Speeches (1922), p. 144 . -
“I do regard Islam to be a religion of peace in the same sense as Christianity , Buddhism and Hinduism are.”
1920s | Young India , January 20, 1927, in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi , vol. 32, p. 588.