38 Mahatma Gandhi Quotes on Truth

Mahatma Gandhi quotes on truth

15. An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self sustained.

29. If you want to give a message again to the West, it must be a message of 'Love', it must be a message of 'Truth'. There must be a conquest - [audience claps] - please, please, please. That will interfere with my speech, and that will interfere with your understanding also. I want to capture your hearts and don't want to receive your claps. Let your hearts clap in unison with what I'm saying, and I think, I shall have finished my work. Therefore, I want you to go away with the thought that Asia has to conquer the West. Then, the question that a friend asked yesterday, 'Did I believe in one world?' Of course, I believe in one world. And how can I possibly do otherwise, when I become an inheritor of the message of love that these great un-conquerable teachers left for us? You can redeliver that message now, in this age of democracy, in the age of awakening of the poorest of the poor, you can redeliver this message with the greatest emphasis.

34. One of the objects of a newspaper is to understand popular feeling and to give expression to it; another is to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; and the third is fearlessly to expose popular defects.

36. It is not my purpose to attempt a real autobiography. I simply want to tell the story of my experiments with truth...as my life consists of nothing but those experiments.

40. God is absolute.

41. God is truth.

42. Truth is God. (In the meaning truth is absolute, therefore God.)

49. A man of truth must also be a man of care.

56. All my life through, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise. It has often meant endangering my life and incurring displeasure of friends.

57. Truth is hard as adamant and tender as a blossom.

62. Things heard from a distance appear bigger than they are.

72. Truth is like a vast tree, which yields more and more fruits the more you nurture it.

73. The deeper the search in the mine of truth, the richer the discovery of gems buried here in the shape of openings for an ever greater variety of services.

79. It is wrong to accept certainties.

80. The quest for truth is the summum bouum of life.

88. Every case can be seen in seven different points of view. All of which are correct by themselves, but not correct at the same time, in the same circumstances.

93. A public worker should not make statements of which he has not made sure.

94. A votary of truth must exercise the greatest caution.

103. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

     Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

109. A votary of truth is often obliged to grope in the dark.

123. The only means for the realization of truth is ahimsa.

128. Morality is the basis of things, and that truth is the substance of all morality.

139. Even If I am a minority of one, truth is still the truth.

152. Hinduism is a relentless pursuit of Truth. Truth is God and if today it has become moribund, inactive, irresponsive to growth, it is because we are fatigued; and as soon as the fatigue is over, Hinduism will burst upon the world with a brilliance perhaps unknown before.

154. Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.

155. Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

171. I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him

199. Non-violent resistance implies the very opposite of weakness. Defiance combined with non-retaliatory acceptance of repression from one's opponents is active, not passive. It requires strength, and there is nothing automatic or intuitive about the resoluteness required for using non-violent methods in political struggle and the quest for Truth.

230. This freedom from all attachment is the realisation of God as Truth.

232. To believe in something, and not live it, is dishonest.

234. Truth alone will endure; all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time.

235. Truth never damages a cause that is just.

236. Truth quenches untruth, love quenches anger, self-suffering quenches violence. This eternal rule is a rule not for saints only but for all

237. 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 the truth.

238. Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer and anything that does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of truth and hammered with nonviolence, reject it.

244. When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall - think of it, always.

247. Whether humanity will consciously follow the law of love, I do not know. But that need not disturb me. The law will work just as the law of gravitation works, whether we accept it or not. The person who discovered the law of love was a far greater scientist than any of our modern scientists. Only our explorations have not gone far enough and so it is not possible for everyone to see all its workings.

255. If you want to give a message again to the West, it must be a message of 'Love', it must be a message of 'Truth'. There must be a conquest [claps], please, please, please. That will interfere with my speech, and that will interfere with your understanding also. I want to capture your hearts and don't want to receive your claps. Let your hearts clap in unison with what I'm saying, and I think, I shall have finished my work. Therefore, I want you to go away with the thought that Asia has to conquer the West. Then, the question that a friend asked yesterday, 'Did I believe in one world?' Of course, I believe in one world. And how can I possibly do otherwise, when I become an inheritor of the message of love that these great un-conquerable teachers left for us? (One World - april 2, 1947 - New Delhi)