Mahatma Gandhi Quotes on Justice
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. This page collects quotes attributed to Mahatma Gandhi on the topic of justice, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
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“The Indians do not regret that capable natives can exercise the franchise. They would regret if it were otherwise. They, however, assert that they too, if capable, should have the right. You, in your wisdom , would not allow the Indian or the native the precious privilege under any circumstances, because they have a dark skin .”
Wikiquote -
“You say that the magistrate's decision is unsatisfactory because it would enable a person , however unclean, to travel by a tram, and that even the Kaffirs would be able to do so. But the magistrate's decision is quite different. The Court declared that the Kaffirs have no legal right to travel by tram. And according to tram regulations, those in an unclean dress or in a drunken state are prohibited from boarding a tram. Thanks to the Court's decision, only clean Indians or coloured people other than Kaffirs, can now travel in the trams.”
Comments on a court case in The Indian Opinion (2 June 1906) -
“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) -
“For one man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.”
1920s | Young India (27 January 1927) -
“"An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so."”
1930s | From a letter to the Viceroy, 1930, published in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi , Vol. 49, p. 180. -
“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience . It supersedes all other courts.”
1920s | Young India (15 December 1921) -
“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French . It is wrong and in-human to impose the Jews on the Arabs.”
1930s | Gandhi's Collected Works , Vol 74 (1938)