I came across few whites as a boy at Qunu. The local magistrate, of course, was white, as was the nearest shopkeeper. Occasionally, white travelers or policemen passed through our area. These whites appeared as grand as gods to me, and I was aware that they were to be treated with a mixture of fear and respect.

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

You don't know what you can get away with until you try.

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. 

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.

A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self.

I am still not at all in favour of offering any defence. Even if the court had accepted that petition submitted by some of my co-accused regarding defence, etc., I would not have defended myself.

Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.