"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."  - Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World (1954), by Louis Fischer, p. 177 and Mahatma Gandhi to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, August 29, 1947. In Letters to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. 1st edition (April, 1961), p. 246

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” In Ethical Religion, (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1922), p 62

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever.” This quote is disputed as originating with Gandhi. In the introduction to the ancient Indian text the Hitopadesha contains the verse "अजरामरवत् प्राज्ञो विद्यामर्थं च चिन्तयेत्। गृहीत इव केशेषु मृत्युना धर्ममाचरेत्॥" ["Acquire learning and wealth as if you'll never grow old or die. Perform good deeds as if Death has already grabbed you by the hair."]

“God is truth. The way to truth lies through ahimsa (non-violence).”—Sabarmati 13 March 1927

“Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary." Satyagraha Leaflet No. 13 ( 5-3-1919)
(Mahatma Gandhi’s contribution to the whole mankind has been the theory and practice of Satyagraha, non-violent struggle, and constructive programs as the means to attain freedom, justice and a peaceful society in which man lives in complete harmony with other living beings and the nature.)

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” "Interview to the Press" in Karachi about the execution of Bhagat Singh (23 March 1931); published in Young India (2 April 1931), reprinted in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Online Vol. 51.

“Strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from an indomitable will.”

“It is beyond my power to induce in you a belief in God. There are certain things which are self proved and certain which are not proved at all. The existence of God is like a geometrical axiom. It may be beyond our heart grasp. I shall not talk of an intellectual grasp. Intellectual attempts are more or less failures, as a rational explanation cannot give you the faith in a living God. For it is a thing beyond the grasp of reason. It transcends reason. There are numerous phenomena from which you can reason out the existence of God, but I shall not insult your intelligence by offering you a rational explanation of that type. I would have you brush aside all rational explanations and begin with a simple childlike faith in God. If I exist, God exists. With me it is a necessity of my being as it is with millions. They may not be able to talk about it, but from their life you can see that it is a part of their life. I am only asking you to restore the belief that has been undermined. In order to do so, you have to unlearn a lot of literature that dazzles your intelligence and throws you off your feet. Start with the faith which is also a token of humility and an admission that we know nothing, that we are less than atoms in this universe. We are less than atoms, I say, because the atom obeys the law of its being, whereas we in the insolence of our ignorance deny the law of nature. But I have no argument to address to those who have no faith.”

“In reality there are as many religions as there are people.... Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different road, so long as we reach the same goal. Wherein is the cause for quarreling?”Hind Swaraj (1909) Hind Swaraj means India Home Rule.

"I wanted to know the best of the life of one (Muhammad) who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind. I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle.” ~ Young India (9-23-1924) Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol.29, “My Jail Experiences”, p.133

"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?” Young India (10 April 1930)

"My life is my message.” Response to a journalist's question about what his message to the world was. Mahatma: Life of Gandhi 1869-1948 (1968) Reel 13

“The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need but not for every man's greed.” Quoted by Pyarelal Nayyar in Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase (Volume 10), page 552 (1958)

"The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women.”  *"Non-Violence — The Greatest Force" in The World Tomorrow (5 October 1926)

“Poverty is the worst kind of violence.” Quoted without reference to earlier source, time or location in A Just Peace through Transformation: Cultural, Economic, and Political Foundations for Change (1988) by the International Peace Association

“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.” Non-Violence in Peace & War (1962) Vol. 2, edited by Mahadev Haribhai Desai, p. 144

“The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least.” From Discussion with BG Kher and others, 15 August 1940. Gandhi's Wisdom Box (1942), edited by Dewan Ram Parkash, p. 67 also in Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol. 79 (PDF), p. 122
*Fred Culver called himself a "mystical anarchist".

“In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences between the Hindus and Muslims, and think of yourselves as Indians only, engaged in the common struggle for independence.” Quit India Speech 1942

“There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.”

“I am a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply want to please my own conscience, which is God.” Young India (21 January 1927) at Gutenberg. Young India, a journal published by Gandhi https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/journals-by-gandhiji/young-india

“To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.”

“...my life consists of nothing else but numerous experiments with truth... If I can narrate them in a dispassionate and humble spirit... Far be it from me to claim any degree of perfectness.

“I claim for them nothing more than does a scientist who, though he conducts his experiments with utmost accuracy, forethought and minuteness, never claims any finality on conclusions, but keeps an open mind...

“I have gone through deep self-introspection, searched myself through and through, and examined and analysed every situation.

https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/gandhi-and-science.php

"My joy was boundless. I had learnt the true practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men's hearts. I realized the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby - not even money, certainly not my soul." Autobiography - Part II, Chapter 14, Preparation for the Case, vol. I, p. 314

“Thoreau was a great writer, philosopher, poet, and withal a most practical man, that is, he taught nothing he was not prepared to practise in himself. ... He went to gaol (jail) for the sake of his principles and suffering humanity. His essay has, therefore, been sanctified by suffering. Moreover, it is written for all time. Its incisive logic is unanswerable."

“Leo Tolstoy's life has been devoted to replacing the method of violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of non-resistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence by love expressed in self-suffering. He admits of no exception to whittle down this great and divine law of love. He applies it to all the problems that trouble mankind.” Introduction to the publication of Tolstoy's, A Letter to a Hindu, Indian Opinion, 25 December, (1909)

“If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children; and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won’t have to struggle, we won’t have to pass fruitless idle resolutions. But we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which, consciously or unconsciously, the whole world is hungering."  Gandhi Spoke at Montessori London, 1931 (more Montessori resources)

Einstein talking about Gandhi - “Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.”