Mohandas Gandhi is one of history’s greatest men. As the political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement he not only gained freedom for his own nation but also inspired non-violent civil rights movements around the world.

As a practitioner of Ahimsa, the non-violent lifestyle that believes harming any living thing has karmic consequences, Gandhi swore to speak the truth and advocated that others do the same. He lived simply and modestly. He wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven from yarn that he had spun by hand himself. He ate simple vegetarian food and undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest. But this simple man of peace was still a political powerhouse.

After assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, increase economic self-reliance, expand women’s rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end India’s social caste system of untouchability.

Among Gandhi’s honors was the name Mahatma or “Great Soul”, a perfectly fitting description.

Today is the national holiday in India celebrating his birth October 2, 1869 and also worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Here are some of my favorite Gandhi words of wisdom:

• Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
• A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.
• A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.
• A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.
• A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.
• Action expresses priorities.
• Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are all in harmony.
• An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
• An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.
• Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.
• Faith… must be enforced by reason… when faith becomes blind it dies.
• First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
• As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.
• I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.
• I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.
• I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
• I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
• Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress. Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.
• In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
• And my favorite:
  Be the change that you want to see in the world.