Gandhi (1982)
Ben Kingsley: Mahatma Gandhi
Photos
Quotes
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Gandhi : An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
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Nahari : I'm going to Hell! I killed a child! I smashed his head against a wall.
Gandhi : Why?
Nahari : Because they killed my son! The Muslims killed my son!
[indicates boy's height]
Gandhi : I know a way out of Hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been killed and raise him as your own.
[indicates same height]
Gandhi : Only be sure that he is a Muslim and that you raise him as one.
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Gandhi : They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me, then they will have my dead body. NOT MY OBEDIENCE!
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Gandhi : Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.
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Gandhi : I am a Muslim and a Hindu and a Christian and a Jew and so are all of you.
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Gandhi : Poverty is the worst form of violence.
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Gandhi : I want to change their minds. Not kill them for weaknesses we all possess.
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Soldier : Mr. Gandhi, sir. I have been instructed to inquire the subject of your speech tonight.
Gandhi : The value of goat's milk in daily diet. But you can be sure that I will also speak against war.
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Gandhi : There are no goodbyes for us, Charlie. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.
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Conductor : [stopping Gandhi on the train in South Africa] What are you doing in here, coolie?
Gandhi : I reserved this car. I have a ticket.
Conductor : How did you get hold of it?
Gandhi : I sent for it by post. I am an attorney.
European Passenger : An attorney! There are no colored attorneys in South Africa - move your black ass into third class where it belongs!
Porter : I'll take your luggage, sir...
Gandhi : No, wait.
[he takes out his card and shows it]
Gandhi : You see? 'Mohandas K. Gandhi, Attorney at Law.' I am on my way to Pretoria to conduct a case...
European Passenger : Didn't you hear me? There are no colored attorneys in South Africa!
Gandhi : Sir, I was called to the bar in London, and enrolled in the High Court of Chancery. I am therefore an attorney. And since I am, in your eyes, 'colored,' I think we can deduce that there is at least one colored attorney in South Africa.
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[last lines]
Gandhi's voice : When I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it: always.
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Vince Walker : You're an ambitious man, Mr. Gandhi.
Gandhi : I hope not.
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Hindu : Bapu! Bapu! Bapu, please don't do it!
Gandhi : What do you want me not to do? Not to meet with Mr. Jinnah? I am a Muslim, and a Hindu, and a Christian, and a Jew, and so are all of you. When you wave those flags and shout, you send fear into the hearts of your brothers. That is not the India I want! Stop it! For God's sake stop it!
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Gandhi : We think it is time that you recognized that you are masters in someone else's home. Despite the best intentions of the best of you, you must, in the nature of things, humiliate us to control us. General Dyer is but an extreme example of the principle... it is time you left.
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Gandhi : Where there's injustice, I always believed in fighting. The question is, do you fight to change things or to punish? For myself, I've found we're all such sinners, we should leave punishment to God. And if we really want to change things, there are better things than derailing trains or slashing someone with a sword.
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Kasturba Gandhi : Sora was sent to tell me I must rake and cover the latrine.
Gandhi : Everyone takes his turn.
Kasturba Gandhi : It is the work of untouchables!
Gandhi : In this place, no work is beneath us.
Kasturba Gandhi : I am your wife!
Gandhi : [coldly] All the more reason.
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Kinnoch : With respect, Mr. Gandhi, without British administration, this country would be reduced to chaos.
Gandhi : Mr. Kinnoch, I beg you to accept that there is no people on Earth who would not prefer their own bad government to the good government of an alien power.
Brigadier : My dear sir! India *is* British. We're hardly an alien power!
[silence]
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Gandhi : I want to welcome you all. Every one of you. We have no secrets. Let us begin by being clear... about General Smuts' new law. All Indians must now be fingerprinted... like criminals. Men and women. No marriage other than a Christian marriage is considered valid. Under this act our wives and mothers are whores. And every man here is a bastard.
Kahn : He has become quite good at this.
Gandhi : And a policeman passing an Indian dwelling, I will not call them homes, may enter and demand the card of any Indian woman whose dwelling it is.
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Margaret Bourke-White : Do you really believe you could use non-violence against someone like Hitler?
Gandhi : [thinks] Not without defeats, and great pain. But are there no defeats in war? No pain? What you cannot do is accept injustice. From Hitler, or anyone. You must make the injustice visible, and be prepared to die like a soldier to do so.
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Gandhi : If you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.
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Gandhi : The function of a civil resistance is to provoke response and we will continue to provoke until they respond or change the law. They are not in control; we are.
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Gandhi : I, for one, have never advocated passive anything. We must never sumbit to such laws. And I think our resistance must be *active* and provocative!
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Gandhi : I have friends who keep telling me how much it costs them to keep me in poverty.
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Margaret Bourke-White : So you really are going to Pakistan then? You are a stubborn man.
Gandhi : I'm simply going to prove to Hindus here and Muslims there that the only devils in the world are those running around in our own hearts. And that is where all our battles ought to be fought.
Margaret Bourke-White : So what kind of warrior have you been in that warfare?
Gandhi : Not a very good one. That's why I have so much tolerance for the other scoundrels of the world.
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Gandhi : You intend to walk all the way?
Vince Walker : It's the only way I can get the story. Besides, my name *is* Walker.
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Gandhi : No Indian must be treated as the English treat us. We must remove untouchability from our hearts and from our lives.
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Gandhi : We must defy the British... Not with violence that will inflame their will but with a firmness that will open their eyes. English factories make the cloth that makes our poverty. All those who wish to make the English see bring me the cloth from Manchester and Leeds that you wear today and we will light a fire that will be seen in Delhi, and in London!
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Gandhi : I've traveled so far. And all I've done is come back... home.
Vince Walker : Now, wait a minute. You know what you're going to do, don't you?
Gandhi : It would have been very uncivil of me to let you make such a long trip for nothing!
[walks off]
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Gandhi : [his final words] Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.
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Gandhi : You're a temptress.
Margaret Bourke-White : Just an admirer!
Gandhi : Nothing is more dangerous, especially for an old man.
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Gandhi : [to a group of South African bigots] You'll find there's room for all of us here.
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Charlie Andrews : And when I read what you were doing I wanted to help. Does that surprise you?
Mahatma Gandhi : At first I was amazed, but when you're fighting in a just cause people seem to pop up, like you, right out of the pavement.
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Gandhi : I praise such courage. I need such courage because, in this cause, I too am prepared to die. But, my friend, there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill. Whatever they do to us, we will attack no one, kill no one. But we will not give our fingerprints, not one of us. They will imprison us. And they will fine us. They will seize our possessions. But they cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.
