p. 1

sayings of mahatma gandhi neither saint nor sinner i think that the word saint should be ruled out of present life it is too sacred a word to be lightly applied to anybody much less to one like myself who claims only to be a humble searcher after truth knows his limitations makes mistakes never hesitates to admit them when he makes them and frankly confesses that he like a scientist is making experiments about some of the eternal verities of life but cannot even claim to be a scientist because he can show no tangible proof of scientific accuracy in his methods or such tangible results of his experiments as modern science demands yi 12-5-1920 p2 to clothe me with sainthood is too early even if it is possible i myself do not feel a saint in any shape or form but i do feel i am a votary of truth in spite of all my errors of unconscious omission and commission policy of truth i am not a statesman in the garb of a saint but since truth is the highest wisdom sometimes my acts appear to be consistent with the highest statesmanship but i hope i have no policy in me save the policy of truth and ahimsa i will not sacrifice truth and ahimsa even for the deliverance of my country or religion that is as much as to say that neither can be so delivered yi 20-1-1927 p21 i see neither contradiction nor insanity in my life it is true that as a man cannot see his back so can he not see his errors or insanity but the sages have often likened a man of religion to a lunatic i therefore hug the belief that i may not be insane and may be truly religious which of the two i am in truth can only be decided after my death yi 14-8-1924 p267 it seems to me that i understand the ideal of truth better than that of ahimsa and my experience tells me that if i let go my hold of truth i shall never be able to solve the riddle of ahimsa in other words perhaps i have not the courage to follow the straight course both at bottom mean one and the same thing for doubt is invariably the result of want or weakness of faith lord give me faith is therefore my prayer day and night a p336 page 1 of 273

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p. 2

i claim to be a votary of truth from my childhood it was the most natural thing to me my prayerful search gave me the revealing maxim truth is god instead of the usual one god is truth that maxim enables me to see god face to face as it were i feel him pervade every fibre of my being h 9-8-1942 p264 faith in right i remain an optimist not that there is any evidence that i can give that right is going to prosper but because of my unflinching faith that right must prosper in the end our inspiration can come only from our faith that right must ultimately prevail h 10-12-1938 p372 somehow i am able to draw the noblest in mankind and that is what enables me to maintain my faith in god and human nature h 15-4-1939 p86 no ascetic i have never described myself as a sannyasi an ascetic sannyas are made of sterner stuff i regard myself as a house-holder leading a humble life of service and in common with my fellow-workers living upon the charity of friends the life i am living is entirely very easy and very comfortable if ease and comfort are a mental state i have all i need without the slightest care of having to keep any personal treasures yi 1-10-1925 p338 my loin cloth is an organic evolution in my life it came naturally without effort without premeditation yi 9-7-931 p175 i hate privilege and monopoly whatever cannot be shared with the masses is taboo to me h 2-11-1934 p303 it is wrong to call me an ascetic the ideals that regulate my life are presented for acceptance by mankind in general i have arrived at them by gradual evolution every step was thought out well considered and taken with greatest deliberation both my continence and non-violence were derived from personal experience and became necessary in response to the calls of public duty page 2 of 273

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p. 3

the isolated life i had to lead in south africa whether as a householder legal practitioner social reformer or politician required for the due fulfillment of these duties the strictest regulation of sexual life and a rigid practice of non-violence and truth in human relations whether with my own countrymen or with europeans h 3-10-1936 p268 mine is a life full of joy in the midst of incessant work in not wanting to think of what tomorrow will bring for me i feel as free as a bird the thought that i am ceaselessly and honestly struggling against the requirements of the flesh sustains me yi 1-10-1925 p338 work without faith is like an attempt to reach the bottom of a bottomless pit h 3-10-1936 pp268-9 shedding the ego i know that i have still before me a difficult path to traverse i must reduce myself to zero so long as man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow-creatures there is no salvation for him ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility a p371 if we could erase the it s and the mine s from religion politics economics etc we shall soon be free and bring heaven upon earth yi 3-9-1926 p336 a drop in the ocean partakes of the greatness of its parent although it is unconscious of it but it is dried up as soon as it enters upon an existence independent of the ocean we do not exaggerate when we say that life is a mere bubble a seeker after truth cannot afford to be an egotist one who would sacrifice his life for others has hardly time to reserve for himself a place in the sun yi 16-10-1930 p2 there are limits to the capacity of an individual and the moment he flatters himself that he can undertake all tasks god is there to humble his pride for myself i am gifted with enough humility to look even to babes and suckling for help yi 12-3-1931 p32 fates decide my undertakings for me i never go to see them they come to me almost in spite of me that has been my lot all my life long in south africa as well as ever since my return to india yi 7-5-1925 p163 page 3 of 273

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p. 4

little book knowledge i admit my limitations i have no university education worth the name my high school career was never above the average i was thankful if i could pass my examinations distinction in the school was beyond my aspiration h 9-7-1938 p176 during the days of my education i had read practically nothing outside textbooks and after i launched into active life i had very little time left me for reading i cannot therefore claim much book knowledge however i believe i have not lost much because of this enforced restraint on the contrary the limited reading may be said to have enabled me thoroughly to digest what i did read of these books the one that brought about an instantaneous and practical transformation in my life was unto this last i translated it later into gujarati entitling it sarvodaya the welfare of all i believe that i discovered some of my deepest convictions reflected in this great book of ruskin and that is why it so captivated me and made me transform my life a p220 i was living in south africa then it was the reading of unto this last on a railway journey to durban in 1904 when i was thirty-five that made me decide to change my whole outward life there is no other word for it ruskin s words captivated me i read the book in one go and lay awake all the following night and i there and then decided to change my whole plan of life tolstoy i had read much earlier he affected the inner being ics p245 service of the poor the heart s earnest and pure desire is always fulfilled in my own experience i have often seen this rule being verified service of the poor has been my heart s desire and it has always thrown me amongst the poor and enabled me to identify myself with them a p110 i have always had a love for the poor all my life and in abundance i could cite illustrations after illustrations from my past life that it was something innate in me i have never felt that there was any difference between the poor and me i have always felt towards them as my own kith and kin h 11-5-1935 p99 i have no desire for the perishable kingdom of earth i am striving for the kingdom of heaven which is moksha to attain my end it is not necessary for me to seek the shelter of a cave i carry one about me if i would but know it page 4 of 273

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p. 5

a cave-dweller can build castles in the air whereas a dweller in a palace like janak has no castles to build the cave-dweller who hovers round the world on the wings of thought has no peace a janak though living in the midst of pomp and circumstance may have peace that passeth understanding for me the road to salvation lies through incessant toil in the service of my country and therethrough of humanity i want to identify myself with everything that lives yi 3-4-1924 p114 my life is an indivisible whole and all my activities run into one another and they all have their rise in my insatiable love of mankind h 2-3-1934 p24 i am used to misrepresentation all my life it is the lot of every public worker he has to have a tough hide life would be burdensome if every misrepresentation had to be answered and cleared it is a rule of life with me never to explain misrepresentations except when the cause requires correction this rule has saved much time and worry yi 27-5-1926 p193 i have been known as a crank faddist mad man evidently the reputation is well deserved for wherever i go i draw to myself cranks faddists and mad man yi 13-6-1929 p193 practical dreamer i believe in absolute oneness of god and therefore also of humanity what though we have many bodies we have but one soul the rays of the sun are many through refraction but they have the same source i cannot therefore detach myself from the wickedest soul nor may i be denied identity with the most virtuous whether therefore i will or not i must involve in my experiment the whole of my kind nor can i do without experiment life is but an endless series of experiments yi 25-9-1924 p313 i must be taken with all my faults i am a searcher after truth my experiments i hold to be infinitely more important than the best-equipped himalayan expeditions yi 3-12-1925 p422 it has been my misfortune or good fortune to take the world by surprise new experiments or old experiments in new style must sometimes engender misunderstanding ef p132 page 5 of 273

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p. 6

i am indeed a practical dreamer my dreams are not airy nothings i want to convert my dreams into realities as far as possible h 17-11-1933 p6 if any action of mine claimed to be spiritual is proved to be unpractical it must be pronounced to be a failure i do believe that the most spiritual act is the most practical in the true sense of the term h 1-7-1939 p181 my fallibility i claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow-mortal i own however that i have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps i own that i have an immovable faith in god and his goodness and unconsumable passion for truth and love but is that not what every person has latent in him yi 6-5-1926 p164 those who have at all followed my humble career even superficially cannot have failed to observe that not a single act of my life has been done to the injury of any individual or nation i claim no infallibility i am conscious of having made himalayan blunders but i am not conscious of having made them intentionally or having even harboured enmity towards any person or nation or any life human or sub-human ef p133 i have made the frankest admission of my many sins but i do not carry their burden on my shoulders if i am journeying godward as i feel i am it is safe with me for i feel the warmth of the sunshine of his presence my austerities fastings and prayers are i know of no value if i rely upon them for reforming me but they have an inestimable value if they represent as i hope they do the yearnings of a soul striving to lay his weary head in the lap of his maker h 18-4-1936 p77 kinship with all whenever i see an erring man i say to myself i have also erred when i see a lustful man i say to myself so was i once and in this way i feel kinship with every one in the world and feel that i cannot be happy without the humblest of us being happy yi 10-2-1927 p44 i shall have to answer my god and my maker if i give any one less than his due but i am sure that he will bless me if he knows that i gave someone more than his due yi 10-3-1927 p80 page 6 of 273

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p. 7

i am too conscious of the imperfections of the species to which i belong to be irritated against any single member thereof my remedy is to deal with the wrong wherever i see it not to hurt the wrongdoer even as i would not like to be hurt for the wrongs i continually do yi 12-3-1930 pp89-90 i can truthfully say that i am slow to see the blemishes of fellow-beings being myself full of them and therefore being in need of their charity i have learnt not to judge any one harshly and to make allowances for defects that i may detect h 11-3-1939 p47 regard for opponents differences of opinion should never mean hostility if they did my wife and i should be sworn enemies of one another i do not know two persons in the world who had no difference of opinion and as i am a follower of the gita i have always attempted to regard those who differ from me with the same affection as i have for my nearest and dearest yi 17-3-1927 p82 it is to me a matter of perennial satisfaction that i retain generally the affection and trust of those whose principles and policies i oppose the south africans gave me personally their confidence and extended their friendship in spite of my denunciation of british policy and system i enjoy the affection of thousands of englishmen and women and in spite of unqualified condemnation of modern materialistic civilization the circle of european and american friends is ever widening it is again a triumph of non-violence ibid p86 i cannot intentionally hurt anything that lives much less fellow-human beings even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and mine yi 12-3-1930 p93 it would be impossible for any person to point to a single act of mine during the past 50 years which could be proved to have been antagonistic to any person or community i have never believed anyone to be my enemy my faith demands that i should consider no one as such i may not wish ill to anything that lives h 17-11-1933 p4 my mahatmaship page 7 of 273

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p. 8

no mahatma i do not feel like being one [a mahatma but i do know that i am among the humblest of god s creatures yi 27-10-1921 p.342 often the title has deeply pained me and there is not a moment i can recall when it may be said to have tickled me a p xiv my mahatma ship is worthless it is due to my outward activities due to my politics which is the least part of me and is therefore evanescent what is of abiding worth is my insistence on truth nonviolence and brahmacharya which is the real part of me that part of me however small is not to be despised it is my all i prize even the failures and disillusionment s which are but steps towards success yi 25-12-1926 pp78-79 the world knows so little of how much my so-called greatness depends upon the incessant toil and drudgery of silent devoted able and pure workers men as well as women yi 26-4-1928 p130 truth to me is infinitely dearer than the mahatmaship which is purely a burden it is my knowledge of my limitations and my nothingness which has so far saved me from the oppressiveness of the mahatmaship yi 1-11-1928 p361 sick of adoration i have become literally sick of the adoration of the unthinking multitude i would feel certain of my ground if i was spat upon by them then there would be no need for confession of himalayan and other miscalculations no retracing no re-arranging yi 2-3-1922 p135 in the majority of cases addresses presented to me contain adjectives which i am ill able to carry their use can do good neither to the writers nor to me they unnecessary humiliate me for i have to confess that i do not deserve them when they are deserved their use is superfluous it cannot add to the strength of the qualities possessed by me they may if i am not on my guard easily turn my head the good that a man does is more often than not better left unsaid imitation is the sincerest flattery yi 21-5-1925 p176 page 8 of 273

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p. 9

the mahatma i must leave to his fate though a non-co-operator i shall gladly subscribe to a bill to make it criminal for anybody to call me mahatma and to touch my feet where i can impose the law myself i.e at the ashram the practice is criminal yi 17-3-1927 p86 true honour the highest honour that my friends can do me is to enforce in their own lives the programme that i stand for or to resist me to their utmost if they do not believe in it yi 12-6-1924 p197 it will be waste of good money to spend on erecting a clay or metallic statue of the figure of a man who is himself made of clay and is more fragile than a bangle which can keep by preservation for a thousand years whereas the human body disintegrates daily and undergoes final disintegration after the usual span of life i have learnt from my muslim friends among whom i have passed the best part of my life my dislike of statues and photographs of my figure let these lines serve as a warning to those who want to honour me by erecting statues and having portraits of my figure that i heartily dislike these exhibitions i shall deem it ample honour if those who believe in me will be good enough to promote the activities i stand for h 11-12-1939 p1 no avatar i hold it to be a blasphemy to represent me as shri krishna i claim to be a humble worker and no more among many in a great cause which can only be injured rather than advanced by glorification of its leaders a cause has the best chance of success when it is examined and followed on its own merits measures must always in a progressive society be held superior to men who are after all imperfect instruments working for their fulfillment yi 13-7-1921 p224 the only virtue i want to claim is truth and non-violence i lay no claim to superhuman powers i want none i wear the same corruptible flesh that the weakest of my fellow-beings wears and am therefore as liable to err as any my services have many limitations but god has up to now blessed them in spite of the imperfections yi 16-2-1922 p102 i lay claim to nothing exclusively divine in me i do not claim prophetship i am but a humble seeker after truth and bent upon finding it i count no sacrifice too great for the sake of seeing god face to face the whole of my activity whether it may be called social political humanitarian or ethical is directed to that end page 9 of 273

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p. 10

and as i know that god is found more often in the lowliest of his creatures than in the high and mighty i am struggling to reach the status of these i cannot do so without their service hence my passion for the service of the suppressed classes and as i cannot render this service without entering politics i find myself in them thus i am no master i am but a struggling erring humble servant of india and there through of humanity h 11-9-1924 pp298 it is curious how we delude ourselves we fancy that one can make the perishable body impregnable and we think it impossible to evoke the hidden powers of the soul well i am engaged in trying to show if i have any of these powers that i am as frail a mortal as any of us and that i never had anything extraordinary about me nor have any now yi 6-5-1926 p164 i do not consider myself worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with the race of prophets i am a humble seeker after truth i am impatient to realize myself to attain moksha in this very existence my national service is part of my training for freeing my soul from the bondage of flesh thus considered my service may be regarded as purely selfish i have no desire for the perishable kingdom of earth i am striving for the kingdom of heaven which is moksha yi 3-4-1924 p114 i claim to be no more than an average man with less than average ability nor can i claim any special merit for such non-violence or continence as i have been able to reach with laborious research i have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what i have if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith h 3-10-1936 p269 some of my correspondents seem to think that i can work wonders let me say as a devotee of truth that i have no such gift all the power i may have comes from god but he does not work directly he works through his numberless agencies h 8-10-1938 p285 awareness of limitations i consider myself to be a sagacious worker and my sagacity means no more and no less than a fine perception of my limitations i hope i never travel beyond my limits certainly i have never done so consciously yi 23-6-1920 p3 i am conscious of my own limitations that consciousness is my only strength whatever i might have been able to do in my life has proceeded more than anything else out of the realization of my own limitations yi 13-11-1924 p378 page 10 of 273

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p. 11

if i was what i want to be the fast would not have been necessary i would not then need to argue with anyone my word would go straight home indeed i would not even need to utter the word the mere will on my part would suffice to produce the required effect but i am painfully aware of my limitations h 15-4-1939 p86 i shall continue to confess blunders each time the people commit them the only tyrant i accept in this world is the still small voice within and even though i have to face the prospect of a minority of one i humbly believe i have the courage to be in such a hopeless minority yi 2-3-1922 p135 i claim to be a fairly accurate student of human nature and vivisector of my own failings i have discovered that man is superior to the system he propounds mgi p241 i hope there is no pride in me i feel i recognize fully my weakness but my faith in god and his strength and love is unshakable i am like clay in the potter s hand yi 26-1-1922 p49 i have no desire for prestige anywhere it is furniture required in courts of kings i am a servant of mussalmans christians parsis and jews as i am of hindus and a servant is in need of love not prestige that is assured to me so long as i remain a faithful servant yi 26-3-1925 p112 readiness for martyrdom there are certain things which you cannot escape all at once even whilst you are avoiding them this earthly case in which i am locked up is the bane of my life but i am obliged to put up with it and even indulge it yi 27-10-1921 p342 i implicitly believe in the truth of the saying that not a blade of grass moves but by his will he will save it [my life if he needs it for further service in this body none can save it against his will ef p114 do not seek to protect me the most high is always there to protect us all you may be sure that when my time is up no one not even the most renowned in the world can stand between him and me yi 2-4-1931 p64-55 page 11 of 273

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p. 12

i must be true to my maker and the moment i feel that life is insupportable for me i hope not to be found wanting what better reparation can i do than willing surrender of the body that has ceased to evoke response and may be a hindrance to the discovery of the true way ibid p60 i am not aching for martyrdom but if it comes in my way in the prosecution of what i consider to be the supreme duty in defense of the faith i hold i shall have earned it h 29-6-1934 p156 whilst i prize the unbounded affection of the people let them realize that my life is not worth keeping if anxiety to save it deflects the attention of the nation from the main purpose h 11-3-1939 p44 assaults have been made on my life in the past but god has spared me till now and the assailants have repented for their action but if someone were to shoot me in the belief that he was getting rid of a rascal he would kill not the real gandhi but the one that appeared to him a rascal bc 9-8-1942 god alone is my protector how can puny man who is not sure even of his own tomorrow presume to protect another i am content to be under god s care he may protect or destroy i know he sometimes even destroys to protect h 9-6-1946 p170 i do not want to die of a creeping paralysis of my faculties-a defeated man an assassin s bullet may put an end to my life i would welcome it but i would love above all to fade out doing my duty with my last breath mgmlp i p562 i am not afraid to die in my mission if that is to be my fate h 27-4-1947 p127 avoidance of anger i have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world yi 15-9-1920 p6 i spare neither friend nor foe when it is a question of departing from the code of honour yi 2-3-1922 p140 it is not that i do not get angry i do not give vent to anger i cultivate the quality of patience as angerlessness and generally speaking i succeed but i only control my anger when it comes page 12 of 273

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p. 13

how i find it possible to control it would be a useless question for it is a habit that everyone must cultivate and must succeed in forming by constant practice h 11-5-1935 p98 if i had no sense of humor i should long ago have committed suicide yi 18-8-1921 p238 i am an irrepressible optimist because i believe in myself that sounds very arrogant doesn t it but i say it from the depths of my humility i believe in the supreme power of god i believe in truth and therefore i have no doubt in the future of this country or the future of humanity i am an optimist because i expect many things from myself i have not got them i know as i am not yet a perfect being if i was one i should not even need to reason with you when i am a perfect being i have simply to say the word and the nation will listen i want to attain that perfection by service yi 13-8-1925 pp.279-80 my philosophy if i can be said to have any excludes the possibility of harm to one s cause by outside agencies the harm comes deservedly and only when the cause itself is bad or being good its champions are untrue faint-hearted or unclean h 25-7-1936 p185 i know the path i know the path it is straight and narrow it is like the edge of a sword i rejoice to walk on it i weep when i slip god s word is he who strives never perishes i have implicit faith in that promise though therefore from my weakness i fail a thousand times i will not lose faith but hope that i shall see the light when the flesh has been brought under perfect subjection as some day it must yi 17-6-1926 p215 my soul refuses to be satisfied so long as it is a helpless witness of a single wrong or a single misery but it is not possible for me a weak frail miserable being to mend every wrong or to hold myself free of blame for all the wrong i see the spirit in me pulls one way the flesh in me pulls in the opposite direction there is freedom from the action of these two forces but that freedom is attainable only by slow and painful stages page 13 of 273

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p. 14

i cannot attain freedom by a mechanical refusal to act but only by intelligent action in a detached manner this struggle resolves itself into an incessant crucifixion of the flesh so that the spirit may become entirely free yi 17-11-1921 p368 search for truth i am but a seeker after truth i claim to have found a way to it i claim to be making a ceaseless effort to find it but i admit that i have not yet found it to find truth completely is to realize oneself and one s destiny i.e to become perfect i am painfully conscious of my imperfections and therein lies all the strength i posses because it is a rare thing for a man to know his own limitations if i was a perfect man i own i should not feel the miseries of neighbors as i do as a perfect man i should take note of them prescribe a remedy and compel adoption by the force of unchallengeable truth in me but as yet i only see as through a glass darkly and therefore have to carry conviction by slow and laborious processes and then too not always with success that being so i would be less than human if with all my knowledge of avoidable misery pervading the land and of the sight of mere skeletons under the very shadow of the lord of the universe i did not feel with and for all the suffering but dumb millions of india ibid p377 trust in god i am in the world feeling my way to light amid the encircling gloom i often err and miscalculate my trust is solely in god and i trust men only because i trust god if i had no god to rely upon i should be like timon a hater of my species yi 4-12-1924 p398 i will not be a traitor to god to please the whole world h 18-2-1933 p4 whatever striking things i have done in life i have not done prompted by reason but prompted by instinct i would say god h 14-5-1938 p110 i am a man of faith my reliance is solely on god one step is enough for me the next step he will make clear to me when the time for it comes h 20-10-1940 p330 no secrecy i have no secret methods i know no diplomacy save that of truth i have no weapon but non-violence i may be unconsciously led astray for a while but not for all time yi 11-12-1924 p406 page 14 of 273

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p. 15

my life has been an open book i have no secrets and i encourage no secrets yi 19-3-1931 p43 i am but a poor struggling soul yearning to be wholly good-wholly truthful and wholly non-violent in thought word and deed but ever failing to reach the ideal which i know to be true i admit it is a painful climb but the pain of it is a positive pleasure for me each step upward makes me feel stronger and fit for the next yi 9-4-1924 p126 when i think of my littleness and my limitations on the one hand and of the expectations raised about me on the other i become dazed for the moment but i come to myself as soon as i realize that these expectations are a tribute not to me a curious mixture of jekyll and hyde but to the incarnation however imperfect but comparatively great in me of the two priceless qualities of truth and nonviolence i must therefore not shirk the responsibility of giving what aid i can to fellow-seekers after truth from the west yi 3-10-1925 p344 guidance i claim to have no infallible guidance or inspiration so far as my experience goes the claim to infallibility on the part of a human being would be untenable seeing that inspiration too can come only to one who is free from the action of opposites and it will be difficult to judge on a given occasion whether the claim to freedom from pairs of opposites is justified the claim to infallibility would thus always be a most dangerous claim to make this however does not leave us without any guidance whatsoever the sum-total of the experience of the sages of the world is available to us and would be for all time to come moreover there are not many fundamental truths but there is only one fundamental truth which is truth itself otherwise known as non-violence finite human being shall never know in its fullness truth and love which is in itself infinite but we do know enough for our guidance we shall err and sometimes grievously in our application but man is a self-governing being and self-government necessarily includes the power as much to commit errors as to set them right as often as they are made yi 21-4-1927 p128 i deny being a visionary i do not accept the claim of saintliness i am of the earth earthly i am prone to as many weakness as you are but i have seen the world i have lived in the world with my eyes open i have gone through the most fiery ordeals that have fallen to the lot of man i have gone through this discipline sw p531 page 15 of 273

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