Quotes About Gandhi

Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.

The cause of liberty becomes a mockery if the price to be paid is the wholesale destruction of those who are to enjoy liberty.

Gandhi, convinced of the power of satyagraha, suggested that it be used by the Jews against the Nazis. In response, Martin Buber – who had earlier (1930) written that much could be learned from Gandhi – said that this method could not be used against the Nazis. It is one thing to use nonviolent methods against those who would deprive you of some material benefit, but if their basic aim is to deprive you of life itself, how can you resist nonviolently?

True, the annals of humankind appear rife with violence. But, Gandhi contended, this was an optical illusion fostered by scribes and scholars who, by virtue of their profession, took note of the exceptions to the rule: "History is really a record of every interruption of the even working of the force of love or of the soul."3

But, writing in the late 1940s, he found himself commending the 'traditionalism' of the revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. It was Zapata, he wrote, who had freed 'Mexican reality from the constricting schemes of liberalism, and the abuses of the conservatives and neo-conservatives'. Such 'traditionalists', ranging from Gandhi to Rabindranath Tagore to Liang Qichao, had also emerged in many other non-Western societies in the first half of the twentieth century.

I've been asked a lot for my view on American health care. Well, 'it would be a good idea,' to quote Gandhi.

Gandhi once said, "I like your Christ. I don't like your Christians." Well, I love America. But there are too many hateful Americans.