Mahatma Gandhi Quotes About Civil Disobedience

• 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

• Complete civil disobedience is a state of peaceful rebellion, a refusal to obey every single state-made law.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Law, Peaceful, Rebellion

  Mahatma Gandhi, Dennis Dalton (1996). “Gandhi: Selected Political Writings”, p.74, Hackett Publishing

• Civil disobedience is not only the natural right of a people, especially when they have no effective voice in their own Government, but that it is also a substitute for violence or armed rebellion.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Government, Voice, People

  Mahatma Gandhi (1971). “Collected Works”

• An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Motivational, Law

  Mahatma Gandhi (2007). “Gandhi on Non-Violence”, p.88, New Directions Publishing

• Mass civil disobedience was for the attainment of independence.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Independence, Mass, Attainment

  Mahatma Gandhi (1980). “Collected Works”

• Individual civil disobedience was everybody's inherent right, like the right of self-defence in normal life.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Self, Normal, Individual

• Aggressive civil disobedience should be confined to a vindication of the right of free speech and free association.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Speech, Association, Should

  Mahatma Gandhi, Rudrangshu Mukherjee (1993). “The Penguin Gandhi Reader”, p.149, Penguin Books India

• Mass civil disobedience is like an earthquake, a sort of general upheaval on the political plane.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Earthquakes, Political, Upheaval

• Civil disobedience means capacity for unlimited suffering, without the intoxicating excitement of killing.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Mean, Suffering, Excitement

  Mahatma Gandhi (1965). “Glorious Thoughts of Gandhi: Being a Treasury of about Ten Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thougths of Mahatma Gandhi, Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects”

• Disobedience that is wholly civil should never provoke retaliation.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Should, Retaliation, Provoking

  Mahatma Gandhi (1974). “Collected Works”

• Before civil disobedience can be practised on a vast scale, people must learn the art of civil or voluntary obedience.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Art, People, Obedience

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

• Civil disobedience can never be in general terms, such as for independence.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Independence, Term, Disobedience

  Mahatma Gandhi (1984). “The Quintessence of Gandhi in His Own Words”

• Non-co-operation and civil disobedience are but different branches of the same tree called satyagraha.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Tree, Branches, Different

  Mahatma Gandhi (1951). “Satyagraha: Non-violent Resistance”

• The Charkha, which is the embodiment of willing obedience and calm persistence, must therefore succeed before there is civil disobedience.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Persistence, Embodiment, Succeed

  Mahatma Gandhi (1927). “Young India, 1924-1926”

• Civil disobedience presupposes willing obedience of our self-imposed rules, and without it civil disobedience would be a cruel joke.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Self, Would Be, Obedience

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

• Civil disobedience is a preparation for mute suffering.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Suffering, Preparation, Mute

  Mahatma Gandhi, Judith M. Brown (2008). “The Essential Writings”, p.363, Oxford University Press

• If they are truly nonviolent, they must also realize that civil disobedience is an impossibility till the preliminary work of construction is done.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Done, Realizing, Construction

  Mahatma Gandhi (1967). “Collected Works”

• Civil disobedience is the only nonviolent escape from the soul-destroying heat of violence.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Soul, Violence, Heat

• Civil disobedience is the inherent right of a citizen.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Citizens, Inherent, Disobedience

  Mahatma Gandhi, Rudrangshu Mukherjee (1993). “The Penguin Gandhi Reader”, p.148, Penguin Books India

• Active nonviolence is necessary for those who will offer civil disobedience but the will and proper training are enough for the people to co-operate with those who are chosen for civil disobedience.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  People, Training, Enough

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

• Unless nonviolence of the strong is really developed among us, there should be no thought of civil disobedience for Swaraj, whether within the states or in British India.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Strong, India, States

  Mahatma Gandhi (1941). “The Indian States' Problem”

• Ours is a civil fight, and imprisonment as a civil prisoner has got to be earned by the strict observance of the programme.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Fighting, Prisoner, Strict

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

• Satyagraha and civil disobedience and fasts have nothing in common with the use of force, veiled or open.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Use, Common, Satyagraha

  Mahatma Gandhi (1967). “The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi”, p.354, Rajpal & Sons

• Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Nonviolence, Civil Disobedience, Disobedience

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

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