“Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.”

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world”

“My difficulties lay deeper. It was more than I could believe that Jesus was the only incarnate son of God, and that only he who believed in him would have everlasting life. If God could have sons, all of us were His sons. If Jesus was like God, or God Himself, then all men were like God and could be God Himself. My reason was not ready to believe literally that Jesus by his death and by his blood redeemed the sins of the world. Metaphorically there might be some truth in it. Again, according to Christianity only human beings had souls, and not other living beings, for whom death meant complete extinction; while I held a contrary belief. I could accept Jesus as a martyr, an embodiment of sacrifice, and a divine teacher, but not as the most perfect man ever born. His death on the Cross was a great example to the world, but that there was anything like a mysterious or miraculous virtue in it my heart could not accept. The pious lives of Christians did not give me anything that the lives of men of other faiths had failed to give. I had seen in other lives just the same reformation that I had heard of among Christians. Philosophically there was nothing extraordinary in Christian principles. From the point of view of sacrifice, it seemed to me that the Hindus greatly surpassed the Christians. It was impossible for me to regard Christianity as a perfect religion or the greatest of all religions.”

“If a single man achieves the highest kind of love, it will be sufficient to neutralize the hate of millions.”

“Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals.

“Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.” 

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

“Renunciation of objects, without the renunciation of desires, is short-lived, however hard you may try.”

“There are as many different religions as there are individuals.”

“To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect and their oneness, and should insist upon choosing as their representatives only such persons as are good and true.”

“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”

“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.

“The Mahabharata was not composed with the aim of describing a battle. The description of the battle serves only as a pretext.”

“If I were a dictator, religion and state would be separate. I swear by my religion. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The state has nothing to do with it. The state would look after your secular welfare, health, communications, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not your or my religion. That is everybody's personal concern!”