Readings for Civil Disobedience

No Treason Lysander Spooner
Voluntary Servitude by ?tienne de la Bo?tie
Civil Disobedience Thoreau
Voluntaryist.com
The Power of Non-Violent Resistance
Letter from a Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nonviolent Struggle - 50 Crucial Points: A Strategic Approach to Everyday Tactics free PDF


Gandhi
An epic film showing how Gandhi's principles defeated the British Empire.

Iron Jawed Angels
Shows how women obtained the right to vote in the US. (Feb 15, 2004)


"Civil disobedience is the assertion of a right which law should give but which it denies."

"Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has becomes lawless or, which is the same thing, corrupt."

"The golden rule is to act fearlessly upon what one believes to be right."

"Freedom is like birth. Till we are fully free, we are slaves."

"True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and in fearlessly following it."

"Nonviolent non-cooperation with evil means cooperation with all that is good."

"Noncooperation is intended to pave the way to real, honorable and voluntary cooperation based on mutual respect and trust."

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"Gandhi had demonstrated that a powerful human following can be assembled not only through the cunning game of the usual political maneuvers and trickeries but through the cogent example of a morally superior conduct of life."
-Albert Einstein

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Gandhi's three conditions necessary for the success of a satyagraha:

"The satyagrahi should not have any hatred in his heart against the opponent."

"The issue must be true and substantial."

"The satyagrahi must be prepared to suffer till the end for his cause."

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"Nonviolence is the law of the human race and is infinitely greater than and superior to brute force."
-Gandhi

"In the last resort it does not avail to those who do not possess a living faith in the God of Love."
-Gandhi

"Nonviolence is a power which can be wielded equally by all-children, young men and women or grown-up people, provided they have a living faith in the God of Love and have therefore equal love for all mankind. When nonviolence is accepted as the law of life it must pervade the whole being and not be applied to isolated acts."
-Gandhi

"The quest of truth involves self-suffering, sometimes even unto death."
-Gandhi

"There should be truth in thought, truth in speech, and truth in action."
-Gandhi

"Violent means will give violent freedom."
-Gandhi

"You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil."
-Gandhi

"Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature."
-Gandhi

"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."
-Gandhi

"Your character must be above suspicion, and you must be truthful and self-controlled."
-Gandhi

"Men of stainless character will easily inspire confidence and automatically purify the atmosphere around them."
-Gandhi

"Coercion cannot but result in chaos in the end."
-Gandhi

"Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent."
-Gandhi

"Disobedience to be civil implies discipline, thought, care, attention."
-Gandhi

"Civil disobedience is the assertion of a right which law should give but which it denies."
-Gandhi

"Fear is not a disease of the body; fear kills the soul."
-Gandhi

"A fear-stricken person can never know God, and one who knows God will never fear a mortal man."
-Gandhi

"Fearlessness presupposes calmness and peace of mind."
-Gandhi

"For a nonviolent person, the whole world is one family. He will thus fear none, nor will others fear him."
-Gandhi

"Freedom is like birth. Till we are fully free, we are slaves."
-Gandhi

"True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for ourselves and in fearlessly following it."
-Gandhi

"Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort."
-Gandhi

"Noncooperation is intended to pave the way to real, honorable and voluntary cooperation based on mutual respect and trust."
-Gandhi

"Fasting is an institution as old as Adam. It has been resorted to for self-purification or for some ends, noble as well as ignoble."
-Gandhi

"A complete fast is a complete and literal denial of self. It is the truest prayer."
-Gandhi

"A genuine fast cleanses the body, mind, and soul. It crucifies the flesh and to that extent sets the soul free."
-Gandhi

"What the eyes are for the outer world, fasts are for the inner."
-Gandhi

"My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray."
-Gandhi

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Golden Rule:

"My Non-cooperation is with methods and systems, never with men."
-Gandhi

"Real Non-cooperation is Non-cooperation with evil and not with the evil doer."
-Gandhi

"True nonviolence should mean a complete freedom from ill-will and anger and hate and an overflowing love for all."
-Gandhi

"Non-cooperation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it demands respect for the opposite views."
-Gandhi

"Nonviolent action without the cooperation of the heart and the head cannot produce the intended result."
-Gandhi

"In the dictionary of Satyagraha, there is no enemy."
-Gandhi

"A genuine Satyagraha should never excite contempt in the opponent even when it fails to command regard or respect."
-Gandhi

"Disobedience that is wholly civil should never provoke retaliation."
-Gandhi

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"Passive resistance, unlike nonviolence, has no power to change men's hearts."
-Gandhi. (Nonviolence is meant to melt the hearts of those you love, or to be practiced on yourself.)

"Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms."
-Gandhi

"Passive resistance is a misnomer for nonviolent resistance."
-Gandhi

"Satyagraha, of which civil-resistance is but a part, is to me the universal law of life."
-Gandhi

"Satyagraha does not depend on the outside for help; it derives all its strength from within."
-Gandhi

"Satyagraha thrives on repression till at last the repressor is tired and the object of Satyagraha is gained." research paper
-Gandhi

"Satyagraha is a law of universal application. Beginning with the family, its use can be extended to every other circle."
-Gandhi

"Satyagraha is a process of educating public opinion, such that it covers all the elements of the society and makes itself irresistible."
-Gandhi

"The fight of Satyagraha is for the strong in spirit, not the doubter or the timid. Satyagraha teaches us the art of living as well as dying."
-Gandhi

"Satyagraha can rid society of all evils, political, economic, and moral."
-Gandhi

"The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before the rising sun of suffering, without anger and without malice."
-Gandhi

"True suffering does not know itself and never calculates."
-Gandhi

"Sorrow and suffering make for character if they are voluntarily borne, but not if they are imposed."
-Gandhi

"I am daily praying to God to guide me. It was after prayer that I began the fast. I have taken it up not to die but to live a better and purer man for service; but if God wills otherwise who can help? I quite agree with you that unity cannot be achieved by human effort in one day, but faith and prayer can work miracles."
-Gandhi

"Man is a fallible being. He can never be sure of his steps. What he may regard as answer to prayer may be an echo of his pride. For infallible guidance man has to have a perfectly innocent heart incapable of evil."

"I can lay no such claim. Mine is a struggling, striving, erring, imperfect soul. But I can rise only by experimenting upon others and myself. I believe in absolute oneness of God and therefore also of humanity. What though we have many bodies? We have but one soul. The rays of the sun are many through refraction. But they have the same source. I cannot therefore detach myself from the wickedest soul (nor may I be denied identity with the most virtuous). Whether therefore I will or no, I must involve in my experiment the whole of my kind. Nor can I do without experiment. Life is but an endless series of experiments."

"I knew that non-co-operation was a dangerous experiment. Non-co-operation in itself is unnatural, vicious and sinful. But nonviolent non-co-operation, I am convinced, is a sacred duty at times. I have proved it in many cases. But there was every possibility of mistake in its application to large masses. But desperate diseases call for desperate remedies. Nonviolent non-co-operation was the only alternative to anarchy and worse. Since it was to be nonviolent, I had to put my life in the scales."

"I little knew then that the remedy was to be this prolonged fast. And yet I know that the fast is not prolonged enough for quenching the agony of my soul. Have I erred, have been impatient, have I compromised with evil?"

"I may have done all these things or none of them. All I know is what I see before me."

"I was writhing in deep pain and yet I had no remedy. The news of Kohat set the smoldering mass aflame. Something had got to be done. I passed two nights in restlessness and pain."

"I should be deeply hurt if my fast made either community surrender on a matter of principle. My fast is a matter between God and myself."

"When a man wants to make up with his Maker, he does not consult third party. He ought not to. If he has any doubt about it, he certainly must. But I had no doubt in my mind about the necessity of my step."

"Friends would deem it their duty to prevent me from undertaking the fast. Such things are not matters for consultation or argument."

"But I must labor to discover the Muslim mind. The closer I come to the best of Muslims, the more just I am likely to be in my estimate of the Muslims and their doings. I am striving to become the best cement between the two communities. My longing is to be able to cement the two with my blood, if necessary."

"But, before I do so, I must prove to the Muslims that I love them as well as I love the Hindus. My religion teaches me to love all equally. May God help me to do so. My fast is among other things meant to qualify me for achieving that equal and selfless love."
-Gandhi

"God has been abundantly kind to me. He has warned me the third time that there is not as yet in India that truthful and nonviolent atmosphere which alone can justify mass disobedience. An atmosphere that can be described as civil, when it is gentle, truthful, humble, knowing, willful yet loving, never criminal and hateful."
-Gandhi

"They were as much entitled to take part in the welcome, as we were to refrain. Nor can I shirk my own personal responsibility. I am more instrumental than any other in bringing into being the spirit of revolt. I find myself not fully capable of controlling and disciplining that spirit. I must do penance for it. For me the struggle is essentially religious. I believe in fasting and prayer, and I propose henceforth to observe every Monday a twenty-four hour?s fast till swaraj is attained."

"I have personally come deliberately to the conclusion that mass civil disobedience cannot be started for the present."

"I confess my inability to conduct a campaign of civil disobedience to a successful issue unless a completely nonviolent spirit is generated among the people. I am sorry for the conclusion. It is a humiliating confession of my incapacity, but I know that I shall appear more pleasing to my Maker by being what I am instead of appearing to be what I am not. If I can have nothing to do with the organized violence of the Government, I can have less to do with the unorganized violence of the people. I would prefer to be crushed between the two."
-Gandhi

"There is no other way... I launched non-co-operation. Today I find that people are non-co-operating against one another, without any regard for nonviolence. What is the reason? Only this, that I myself am not completely nonviolent. If I were practicing nonviolence to perfection, I should not have the violence I see around me today. My fast is therefore a penance. I blame no one. I blame only myself. I have lost the power where-with to appeal to people. Defeated and helpless I must submit petition in His Court. Only He will listen, no one else."

"It was a torrent that I could hardly catch, much less reproduce."

"I have decided on this fast with deeper deliberation than I gave to any of my previous fasts I had such a fast in my mind, even when I conceived and launched non-co-operation. At that time, I said to myself, ?I am placing this terrible weapon in the hands of the people. If it is abused I must pay the price by laying down my life.? That moment seems to have arrived today. The object of the previous fasts was limited. The object of this is unlimited, and there is boundless love at the back of it. I am today bathing in that ocean of love."
-Gandhi, referring to his 21-day fast

"My life is my message."
-Gandhi

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