Mahatma Gandhi Heart Quotations

Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.

There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.

What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.

We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?

Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one's own religion.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

Do not worry about what others are doing! Each of us should turn the searchlight inward and purify his or her own heart as much as possible.

It's more important to put the own heart in the prayer than to put other's words with nothing of the own heart.

Nothing has saddened me so much in life as the hardness of heart of educated people.

Prayer from the heart can achieve what nothing else can in the world.

We cannot have real independence unless the people banish the touch-me-not spirit from their hearts.

Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?

I have mentally become a woman in order to steal into her heart.

History is replete with instances of men, who, by dying with courage and compassion on their lips converted the hearts of their violent opponents.

The greatest help you can give me is to banish fear from your hearts.

It needs more than a heart of oak to shed all fear except the fear of God.

No government on earth can make men, who have realized freedom in their hearts, salute against their will.

Rama was not only on the lips of Hanuman. He was enthroned in his heart. He gave Hanuman exhaustless strength.

He who atones for sins never calculates; he pours out the whole essence of his contrite heart.

I have in my life never been guilty of saying things I did not mean - my nature is to go straight to the heart and if often I fail in doing so for the time being, I know that Truth ultimately makes itself heard and felt, as it has often done in my experience.

The Sermon on the Mount...went straight to my heart. I compared it with the Gita. My young mind tried to unify the teaching of the Gita, the `Light of Asia' and the Sermon on the Mount. That renunciation was the highest form of religion appealed to me greatly.

Nirvana is the utter extinction of all that is base in us, all that is vicious in us. Nirvana is not like the black, dead peace of the grave, but the living peace, the living happiness of a soul which is conscious of itself and conscious of having found its own abode in the heart of the Eternal.

When the fear of jail disappears, repression puts heart into the people.

Hinduism would not have been much of a religion if Rama had not steeled his heart against every temptation.

The sacred thread and the tuft of hair without a pure heart and a spirit of toleration do not make a Hindu.

If untouchability lives, Hinduism perishes and even India perishes, but if untouchability is eradicated from the Hindu heart, root and branch, then Hinduism has a definite message for the world.

Man is neither mere intellect not the gross animal body, nor the heart or soul alone.

A man or a woman who serves the country with all his or her heart stands on par with the tallest Congress-man.

It is degrading both for man and woman that woman should be called upon or induced to forsake the hearth and shoulder the rifle for the protection of that hearth.

My non-co-operation is a token of my earnest longing for real heart co-operation in the place of co-operation falsely so called.

Nonviolent action without the co-operation of the heart and the head cannot produce the intended result.

Worship or prayer is not to be performed with the lips, but with the heart.

My austerities, fasting and prayers are, I know, of no value if I rely upon them for reforming me. My penance is the prayer of a bleeding heart for forgiveness for sins unwittingly committed.

To a pure heart all hearts are pure.

Like the watch, the heart needs the winding of purity, or the Dweller ceases to speak.

Ramanama is for the pure at heart and for those who want to attain purity and remain pure.

Dharma is that which is enjoined by the holy books, followed by the sages, interpreted by the learned and which appeals to the heart.

The satyagrahi strives to reach reason through the heart. The method of reaching the heart is to awaken public opinion.

The satyagrahi should not have any hatred in his heart against the opponent.

Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.

Anger, lust and such other evil passions raging in the heart are the real untouchables.

Conquer the heart of the enemy with truth and love, not by violence.

The only devils in the world are those running around in our own hearts - that is where the battle should be fought.

We often confuse spiritual knowledge with spiritual attainment. Spirituality is not a matter of knowing scriptures and engaging in philosophical discussions. It is a matter of heart culture, of unmeasurable strength.

Power invariably elects to go into the hands of the strong. That strength may be physical or of the heart or, if we do not fight shy of the word, of the spirit. Strength of the heart connotes soul-force. Let it be remembered that physical force is transitory, even as the body is transitory. But the power of spirit is permanent even as the spirit is everlasting.

To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man's injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?

If you want something really important to be done you must not merely satisfy the reason, you must move the heart also.

True beauty lies in purity of the heart.

Faith is the function of the heart.

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent.

I would rather drown myself in the waters of the Sabarmati than harbour hate or animosity in my heart.

The greatness of a person lies in his heart, not in his head; that is intellect.

If I was to be their real teacher and guardian, I must touch their hearts, I must share their joys and sorrows, I must help them to solve the problems that faced them, and I must take along the right channel the surging aspirations of their youth.

Forgive and forget, but never forget to forgive. You may find a happier heart is the key to a happier life.

... when all violence subsides in the human heart, the state which remains is love. It is not something we have to acquire; it is always present, and needs only to be uncovered. This is our real nature, not merely to love one person here, another there, but to be love itself.

It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say.

I look upon an increase in the power of the State with the greatest fear because, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality which lies at the heart of all progress.

If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them.

In the secret of my heart I am in perpetual quarrel with God that He should allow such things [as the war] to go on. My non-violence seems almost impotent. But the answer comes at the end of the daily quarrel that neither God nor non-violence is impotent. Impotence is in men. I must try on without losing faith even though I may break in the attempt.

To give one's heart is to give all.

The hardest metal yields to sufficient heat. Even so must the hardest heart melt before sufficiency of the heat of non- violence. And there is no limit to the capacity of non-violence to generate heat.

Real suffering bravely borne, melts even a heart of stone. Such is the potency of suffering. And there lies the key to Satyagraha.

It may be long before the law of love will be recognised in international affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another.

Non-cooperation is beyond the reach of the bayonet. It has found an abiding place in the Indian heart. Workers like me will go when the hour has struck, but non-cooperation will remain.

The spirit of non-violence necessarily leads to humility. Non-violence means reliance on God, the rock of ages. If we would seek his aid, we must approach Him with a humble and contrite heart.

Faith is a function of the heart....

I do not want a kingdom, or heaven; what I want is to remove the trouble of the oppressed, the poor, and the needy.

The spirit of democracy... requires change of the heart... requires the inculcation of the spirit of brotherhood.

You have the choice to create the life your heart is yearning to live.

The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before the rising sun of suffering without anger and without malice.

True beauty consists of purity of heart.

Faith is a function of the heart. It must be enforced by reason. The two are not antagonistic as some think. The more intense one's faith is, the more it whets one's reason. When faith becomes blind it dies.

... there are chords in every human heart. If we only knew how to strike the right chord, we would bring out the music.

The strength to kill is not essential for self-defense; one ought to have the strength to die. When a man is fully ready to die, he will not even desire to offer violence. Indeed, I may put it down as a self-evident proposition that the desire to kill is in inverse proportion to the desire to die. And history is replete with instances of men who by dying with courage and compassion on their lips converted the hearts of their violent opponents.

Religion is not what is grasped by the brain, but a heart grasp.

A perfect mind comes from a perfect heart, not the heart known by a doctor's stethoscope but the heart which is the seat of God.

A heart-felt prayer is not recitation with the lips. It is a yearning from within which expresses itself in every word, every act, nay every thought of people.

Faith is not imparted like secular subjects. It is given through the language of the heart.

God alone is the judge of true greatness because He knows men's hearts.

Surely conversion is a matter between man and his Maker who alone knows his creatures' hearts. A conversion without a clean heart is, in my opinion, a denial of God and Religion. Conversion without cleanliness of heart can only be a matter of sorrow, not joy, to a godly person.

My heart is drawn backwards and forwards between the spinning wheel and books.

My heart rebels against any foreigner imposing on my country the peace which is here called Pax-Britannica.

There is as much need for a change of heart among the Hindus and Mussalmans as there is among the British, before a proper settlement is arrived at.

God accepts the sacrifice of the pure in heart.

God can never be realized by one who is not pure of heart.

God to be God must rule the heart and transform it.

I claim to know my millions. All the hours of the day I am with them. They are my first care and God that is to be found in the hearts of the dumb millions.

I recognise no God except the God that is to be found in the hearts of the dumb millions.

Conversion without a clean heart is a denial of God and religion.

Our prayer is a heart search. It is a reminder to ourselves that we are helpless without His support.

Surely, conversion is a matter between man and his Maker who alone knows His creatures' hearts.

Truth is God, and Truth overrides all our plans. The whole Truth is only embodied within the heart of Great Power-Truth.

Rama Nama should come from the heart. In that event, Rama Nama could become an effective remedy against all ailments. A man who believes in Rama Nama would not make a fetish of the body but would regard it as a means of serving God. And for making it into a fit instrument for that purpose, Rama Nama is the sovereign means. To install Rama Nama in the heart requires infinite patience. It might even take ages. But the effort is worthwhile. Rama Nama cannot come from the heart unless one has cultivated the virtues of truth, honesty and purity within and without.