Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.

There is no liberty to men who know not how to govern themselves.

Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.

The greatest blessing of our democracy is freedom. But in the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.

The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself.

To be one's own master is to be the slave of self.

Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.

To enjoy freedom ... we have of course to control ourselves. We must not squander our powers, helplessly and ignorantly, squirting half the house in order to water a single rose.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.

Roam in the world as a lion of self-control; see that the frogs of weakness don’t kick you around.

Without discipline, there can be no freedom.

To subdue one's self to one's own ends might be dangerous, but to subdue one's self to other people's ends was dust and ashes. Yet there were those, still more unhappy, who envied even the ashy saltness of those dead sea apples.

Those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.

The truly free person in society is a disciplined person.

Behind real freedom, there lies discipline.

It may be that the human race is not ready for freedom. The air of liberty may be too rarefied for us to breathe... The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.

My father taught me that only through self-discipline can you achieve freedom. Pour water in a cup and you can drink; without the cup, the water would splash all over. The cup is discipline.

The disciplined are free.

My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.

If thou wouldst conquer thy weakness, thou must never gratify it.

Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.

When we, through our educational culture, through the media, through the entertainment culture, give our children the impression that human beings cannot control their passions, we are telling them, in effect, that human beings cannot be trusted with freedom.

Yes, we have the freedom to do what we please, but it only works because we don't do everything we might please - we should exercise some degree of personal, and corporate, responsibility.

Physical nature lies at our feet shackled with a hundred chains. What of the control of human nature? Do not point to the triumphs of psychiatry, social services or the war against crime. Domination of human nature can only mean the domination of every man by himself.

I've learned over the years that freedom is just the other side of discipline.