Almanacs
When Satyagraha worked, both sides won.
Satyagraha was instead an instrument of unity.
All my actions have their source in my inalienable love of humankind.
Satyagraha—Gandhi’s nonviolent action—was not a way for one group to seize what it wanted from another. It was not a weapon of class struggle, or of any other kind of division. Satyagraha was instead...
Other negative side-effects of violence come into view once the struggle comes to an end. For instance, violence generally leaves the two sides as long-standing enemies. Maybe the most amazing thing a...
Gandhi was not talking about defeating or overthrowing anyone. Satyagraha—Gandhi’s nonviolent action—was not a way for one group to seize what it wanted from another. It was not a weapon of class stru...
Gandhi called his overall method of nonviolent action Satyagraha. This translates roughly as Truth-force.
You look closely at so-called popular liberation movements, you’ll find that they’re seldom started by the peasants or workers they’re supposed to benefit. These armed struggles may gradually build wi...
Salvation will not come from the legislators. Salvation will not come from the military. If there is any salvation, it will come from the people. Jayaprakash Narayan
People try nonviolence for a week, and when it ‘doesn’t work,’ they go back to violence, which hasn’t worked for centuries.
Gandhi saw that the power of any tyrant depends entirely on people being willing to obey.
Gandhi said that only people with a high regard for the law were qualified for civil disobedience.
Gandhi believed that the means of struggle a people used would shape the society that grew out of the struggle.
Plants removing carbon from the air is, in fact, how the earth’s vast coal deposits were formed.
Nonviolent action, on the other hand, requires more patience because the action is less thrilling.
Maybe the most amazing thing about Gandhi’s nonviolent revolution is, not that the British left, but that they left as friends, and that Britain and India became partners in the British Commonwealth.
Gandhi noted also that violent revolutions almost always end in repressive dictatorships. Once the rebel troops gain control, they naturally keep acting as they’re used to—in other words, they start r...
Each of us too sees the world through our own filter—a filter made up of our assumptions, our motivations, and the categories we use to sort out and organize our experience. This filter determines how...
Already legal and political moves are being made to drain the Great Lakes as a water supply for a thirsty western region.