49 Best Mahatma Gandhi Quotes About Leadership
Explore 49 powerful Mahatma Gandhi quotes on leadership. Learn from his wisdom to inspire others and lead with purpose, love, and strength.
Being a leader is not as easy as it sounds and looks, but we have to face many challenges and sacrifices.
Leadership has also been greatly misunderstood, and many who claim to be leaders are not great leaders but rather manipulators.
Many people do not understand what true leadership is, and blindly follow “leaders” who wield power, manipulate people, and focus on titles and not integrity.
Dr. Myles Munroe said:
“ If you don’t know what something looks like, you can’t tell it when you see it.”
In other words, if you don’t know what a leader is supposed to be, you cannot discern the difference between a true leader versus a fake leader.
And anyone who calls themselves a leader, you will blindly follow that person.
Leadership is all about empowerment and the service of others, and not about power and control.
True leaders inspire people with their purpose and vision and lead others to greatness.
If we want to be leaders who transform others and make a change in the world, we have to learn from the great leaders who have walked this earth.
And one of the greatest ones who have walked this earth is no other but Mahatma Gandhi!
Who Was Mahatma Gandhi?
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is honored in India as the father of the nation.
He was a lawyer, politician, and social activist, and was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule.
He taught and inspired Indians to understand resistance through non-violent civil disobedience.
He was a man of true integrity and a great teacher for he only taught what he practiced himself.
Leadership Quotes From Mahatma Gandhi
Examples Of Good Leaders
“ There goes my people, I must follow them, for I am their leader.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ A sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ A leader is useless when he acts against the promptings of his own consciousness.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”Mahatma Gandhi
“ The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”Mahatma Gandhi
“ Be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” Mahatma Gandhi
Leadership Mentality
“ A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ The main purpose in life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.” Mahatma Gandhi
A Leader’s Way To Success
“ First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Mahatma Gandhi
“But success and failure are of no account. They are God’s concern, not mine.” Mahatma Gandhi
“It’s easy to stand in the crowd but it takes courage to stand alone.” Mahatma Gandhi
“A burning passion coupled with absolute detachment is the key to all success.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow men.” Mahatma Gandhi
A Leader’s Struggle
“ Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strength. When you go through hardship and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from indomitable will.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” Mahatma Gandhi
A Leader’s Humbleness And Integrity
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
“An eye for an eye ends up making the whole world blind.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ If all Christians acted like Christ, the whole world would be Christians.” Mahatma Gandhi
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ Our greatest ability as humans is not to change the world; but to change ourselves.”Mahatma Gandhi
“ Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.” Mahatma Gandhi
A Leader Brings Peace
“ If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children; and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won't have to struggle; we won't have to pass fruitless idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which consciously or unconsciously the whole world is hungering.” Mahatma Gandhi
“There is no path to peace, peace is the path.”Mahatma Gandhi
“I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. My wisdom flows from the highest source. I salute that source in you. Let us work together. For unity and peace.” Mahatma Gandhi
Real Wealth In Leadership Is Not Money
“ It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”Mahatma Gandhi
“ A man’s true wealth hereafter is the good he has done to his fellowmen.”Mahatma Gandhi
“ Seek not greater wealth, but simpler pleasure; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity.”Mahatma Gandhi
True Leaders Rely On Faith
“ If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.” Mahatma Gandhi
“Faith must be enforced by reason… when faith becomes blind it dies.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” Mahatma Gandhi
“Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.” Mahatma Gandhi
True Leaders Lead With Love And Compassion
“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived on fear of punishment.” Mahatma Gandhi
“Where there is love there is life.”Mahatma Gandhi
“ The law of love could be best understood through little children.” Mahatma Gandhi
“The pure love of one soul can offset the hatred of millions.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.” Mahatma Gandhi
Women Empowerment
“ Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacity.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate an entire family.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ The real ornament of a woman is her character, her purity.” Mahatma Gandhi
Don’t Follow A Person Who Has No Self-Respect
“They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ A courageous man prefers death to the surrender of self-respect.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.” Mahatma Gandhi
“ Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love.” Mahatma Gandhi
Conclusion
As leaders, we are obligated to live a life that will serve others. Live a life of integrity, compassion, and purpose.
As leaders, we have to commit our lives to grow every day in wisdom, skill, love, integrity, and becoming the persons God intended us to be.
Some may ask if this applies to all of us, for some think that leadership is only for certain individuals.
Although we are all leaders at some point. If we are influencing, we are already leading.
As John C Maxwell said:
“ Everyone is a leader because everyone is influencing someone.”
If you are a parent, friend, housewife, husband, wife, employee, or entrepreneur — the responsibilities of a leader apply to you.
Therefore the best way to become an effective leader is to learn from other great leaders.
Imitate the great and become great yourself. Mahatma Gandhi has truly shown us how to be a true leader through his unforgettable life lessons.