Mahatma Gandhi Quotes About Democracy

• What is really needed to make democracy function is not knowledge of facts, but right education.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Educational, Democracy, Facts

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

• 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

• Retaliation is counter-poison and poison breeds more poison. The nectar of Love alone can destroy the poison of hate.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Freedom, Hate, Democracy

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

• My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the strongest... no country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak... Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism... true democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Country, Freedom, Opportunity

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

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Running, Freedom, Heart

• Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Freedom, Sheep, People

  Mahatma Gandhi (1959). “India of My Dreams”, p.27, Rajpal & Sons

• Democracy necessarily means a conflict of will and ideas, involving sometimes a war of the knife between different ideas.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  War, Mean, Knives

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

• I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Strong, Freedom, Democracies Have

• Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Peace, War, Blood

  Mahatma Gandhi (2007). “Gandhi on Non-Violence”, p.70, New Directions Publishing

• Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Hypocrite, Hypocrisy, Democracy

  Mahatma Gandhi (1974). “Collected Works”

• Democracy and dependence on the military and police are incompatible.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Military, Police, Democracy

• If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Struggle, Democracy, Want

  Mahatma Gandhi (1959). “India of My Dreams”, p.27, Rajpal & Sons

• The true democrat is he who with purely nonviolent means defends his liberty and, therefore, his country's and ultimately that of the whole of mankind.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Country, Mean, Democracy

  Mahatma Gandhi (2005). “All Men Are Brothers”, p.141, A&C Black

• 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 or democracy?

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Peace, War

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

• Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Freedom, Democracy, Sides

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Homer A. Jack (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi”, p.126, Courier Corporation

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

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Change, Heart, Democracy

  Mahatma Gandhi (2012). “The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas”, p.192, Vintage

• In the days of democracy there is no such thing as active loyalty to a person. You are, therefore, loyal or disloyal to institutions.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Loyalty, Democracy, Institutions

  Mahatma Gandhi, Dennis Dalton (1996). “Gandhi: Selected Political Writings”, p.79, Hackett Publishing

• To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Respect, Self, Oneness

  Mahatma Gandhi, General Press (2014). “My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi”, p.760, GENERAL PRESS

• The science of war leads one to dictatorship, pure and simple. The science of non-violence alone can lead one to pure democracy. Power based on love is thousand times more effective and permanent than power derived from fear of punishment. It is a blasphemy to say non-violence can be practiced only by individuals and never by nations which are composed of individuals. The nearest approach to purest anarchy would be a democracy based on non-violence. A society organized and run on the basis of complete non-violence would be the purest anarchy.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Running, War, Simple

• In true democracy every man and woman is taught to think for himself or herself.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Freedom, Men, Thinking

  Mahatma Gandhi (1968). “The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Satyagraha in South Africa”

• Force, violence, pressure, or compulsion with a view to conformity, are both uncivilized and undemocratic

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Views, Patriotism, Democracy

• Democracy comes naturally to him who is habituated normally to yield willing obedience to all laws, human or divine.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Yield, Law, Democracy

  Mahatma Gandhi (1959). “India of My Dreams”, p.25, Rajpal & Sons

• 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

• The spirit of democracy cannot be superimposed from the outside. It must come from within.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Freedom, Democracy

• Democracy is an impossible thing until the power is shared by all, but let not democracy degenerate into mobocracy.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Impossible Things, Democracy, Degenerates

  Mahatma Gandhi, Dennis Dalton (1996). “Gandhi: Selected Political Writings”, p.146, Hackett Publishing

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