Mahatma Gandhi Quotes About Duty

• Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has become lawless or corrupt. And a citizen who barters with such a state shares in its corruption and lawlessness.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Citizens, Lawlessness, Sacred

  Mahatma Gandhi (2012). “The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas”, p.144, Vintage

• Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Freedom, Libertarian Party, Democracy

  Mahatma Gandhi (2012). “The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas”, p.144, Vintage

• Ahimsa is the highest duty. Even if we cannot practice it in full, we must try to understand its spirit and refrain as far as is humanly possible from violence.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Practice, Trying, Violence

  Mahatma Gandhi (2000). “The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi”

• It is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others' religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world's religions is a sacred duty.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Sympathy, Men, Diversity

  Mahatma Gandhi (1962). “All Religions are True”

• Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Evil, Diversity, Patriotism

  Courtroom statement, Ahmadabad, India, 23 Mar. 1922

• A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul. Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Wise, Law, Evil

• Infinite striving to be the best is man's duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God's hands.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Success, God, Men

  "Mahatma & the Monkeys". Book by Anuradha Kumar, p.64, March 12, 2012.

• It is man's social nature which distinguishes him from the brute creation. If it is his privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be inter-dependent. Only an arrogant man will claim to be independent of everybody else and be self-contained.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Independent, Insperational

  Mahatma Gandhi (1970). “Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi”

• It is not given to man to know the whole Truth. His duty lies in living up to the truth as he sees it, and in doing so, to resort to the purest means, i.e., to non-violence. God alone knows absolute truth. Therefore, I have often said, Truth is God. It follows that man, a finite being, cannot know absolute truth. Nobody in this world possesses absolute truth. This is God's attribute alone. Relative truth is all we know. Therefore, we can only follow the truth as we see it. Such pursuit of truth cannot lead anyone astray.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Truth, Lying, Mean

• Now the man on duty used to be changed from time to time. Once one of these men, without giving me the slightest warning, without even asking me to leave the footpath, pushed and kicked me into the street. I was dismayed. Before I could question him as to his behaviour, Mr Coates, who happened to be passing the spot on horseback, hailed me and said: 'Gandhi, I have seen everything. I shall gladly be your witness in court if you proceed against the man. I am very sorry you have been so rudely assaulted.'

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Sorry, Men, Giving

  Mahatma Gandhi (1980). “All Men are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections”, p.16, A&C Black

• I do believe that where there is a choice between cowardice and non-violence I would advise violence. Thus when my eldest son asked me what he should have done, had he been present when I was almost fatally assaulted in 1908, whether he should have run away and seen me killed or whether he should have used his physical force which he could and wanted to use, and defended me, I told him that it was his duty to defend me even by using violence.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Running, Believe, Son

  Mahatma Gandhi (2005). “All Men Are Brothers”, p.99, A&C Black

• If we all discharge our duties, rights will not be far to seek. If leaving duties unperformed we run after rights, they will escape us like a will-o'-the-wisp.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Running, Rights, Leaving

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Ronald Duncan (2005). “Gandhi: Selected Writings”, p.243, Courier Corporation

• Violence becomes imperative when an attempt is made to assert rights without any reference to duties.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Rights, Violence, Made

• The Bhagavad-Gita calls on humanity to dedicate body, mind and soul to pure duty and not to become mental voluptuaries at the mercy of random desires and undisciplined impulses.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Humanity, Soul, Mind

• When two nations are fighting, the duty of a votary of ahimsa is to stop the war.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  War, Fighting, Two Nations

  Mahatma Gandhi (1980). “All Men are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections”, p.85, A&C Black

• Harijan service is a duty the caste Hindus owe to themselves.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Hinduism, Duty, Castes

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

• When freedom is in jeopardy, non-co-operation may be a duty and prison may be a palace.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  May, Palaces, Prison

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1986). “The Moral and Political Writings of Mahatma Gandhi: Non-Violent Resistance and Social Transformation”, Clarendon Press

• What kind of victory is it when someone is left defeated? 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. What is a war criminal? Was not war itself a crime against God and humanity, and, therefore, were not all those who sanctioned, engineered and conducted wars, war criminals? The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Strong, War, Differences

  Non-Violence in Peace and War (1942) vol. 1, ch. 142

• Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Rights, Flow, Duty

  Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Merton (1965). “Gandhi on Non-violence”, p.62, New Directions Publishing

• A friendly study of the world's religions is a sacred duty.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Religious, Friendly

  Mahatma Gandhi (2001). “Gandhi's Bible”, Ispck

• Begin with duties of a man and rights will follow as spring follows winter

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Spring, Winter, Men

• I learned from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights to be deserved and preserved came from duty well done. Thus the very right to live accrues to us only when we do the duty of citizenship of the world. From this one fundamental statement, perhaps it is easy enough to define the duties of Man and Woman and correlate every right to some corresponding duty to be first performed. Every other right can be shown to be a usurpation hardly worth fighting for.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Wise, Mother, Fighting

  Mahatma Gandhi (1994). “The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Supplementary volume”

• India is essentially a karmabhumi (land of duty) in contradistinction to bhogabhumi (land of enjoyment).

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Land, India, Duty

  Mahatma Gandhi (1959). “India of My Dreams”, p.13, Rajpal & Sons

• It is the duty of a non-co-operator to preach disaffection towards the existing order of things. Non-co-operators are but giving disciplined expression to a nation's outraged feelings.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Expression, Order, Giving

  Mahatma Gandhi (1924). “Young India: 1919-1922”

• Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Men, Civilization, Path

  Mahatma Gandhi (2010). “Hind Swaraj”, p.49, Rajpal & Sons

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