--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Before civil disobedience can be…" description: "\"Before civil disobedience can be practised on a vast scale, people must learn the art of civil or voluntary obedience.\" — Mahatma Gandhi" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9fe/mahatma-gandhi-23_art_before-civil-disobedience-can-be-practis_727812.jpg" --- # Before civil disobedience can be practised on a vast… ![“Before civil disobedience can be practised on a vast scale, people must learn the art of civil or voluntary obedience.” quote by Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9fe/mahatma-gandhi-23_art_before-civil-disobedience-can-be-practis_727812.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9fe/mahatma-gandhi-23_art_before-civil-disobedience-can-be-practis_727812.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9fe/mahatma-gandhi-23_art_before-civil-disobedience-can-be-practis_727812.jpg) > “Before civil disobedience can be practised on a vast scale, people must learn the art of civil or voluntary obedience.” [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Large-scale civil disobedience requires first mastering voluntary obedience to authority. **In simple terms:** Learn obedience before organized protest. Key Takeaway Teach personal discipline before collective action. Themes nonviolence obedience civil disobedience leadership ethics Mood thoughtful serious Type philosophical political When to use this quote - Community organizing - peaceful protest - education programs - legal advocacy Key Concepts Moral authority collective action discipline Questions to Reflect On - What does voluntary obedience look like today? - How can we balance obedience and dissent? A Different Perspective Mass movements can be suppressed despite discipline. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) [Civil disobedience](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/civil-disobedience/) [Disobedience](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/disobedience/) [Disobedience Practised](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/disobedience-practised-5707671/) [Obedience](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/obedience/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Scales](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/scales/) [Voluntary Obedience](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/voluntary-obedience-3303094/) ## Related quotes > [When humans should have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-s-lewis/when-humans-should-have-become-as-perfect-in-voluntary-obedience-as/) [C. S. Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-s-lewis/) > [Civil disobedience presupposes willing obedience of our self-imposed rules, and without it civil disobedience would be a cruel joke.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/civil-disobedience-presupposes-willing-obedience-of-our-self-imposed/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Without proper, careful organisation of the spinning wheel and khaddar, there is absolutely no civil disobedience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/without-proper-careful-organisation-of-the-spinning-wheel-and-khaddar/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Satyagraha and civil disobedience and fasts have nothing in common with the use of force, veiled or open.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/satyagraha-and-civil-disobedience-and-fasts-have-nothing-in-common/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Civil disobedience and excitement and intoxication go ill together.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/civil-disobedience-and-excitement-and-intoxication-go-ill-together/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [In placing civil disobedience before constructive work I was wrong and I did not profit by the Himalayan blunder that I had committed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/in-placing-civil-disobedience-before-constructive-work-i-was-wrong/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Indeed, a civil resister offers resistance only when peace becomes impossible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/indeed-a-civil-resister-offers-resistance-only-when-peace-becomes/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [I think that what I was talking about was that as a woman growing up in a Mormon tradition in Salt Lake City, Utah,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terry-tempest-williams/i-think-that-what-i-was-talking-about-was-that-as-a-woman-growing-up/) [Terry Tempest Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terry-tempest-williams/) > [Ours is a civil fight, and imprisonment as a civil prisoner has got to be earned by the strict observance of the programme.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/ours-is-a-civil-fight-and-imprisonment-as-a-civil-prisoner-has-got-to/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [The time has come, or is about to come, when only large-scale civil disobedience, which should be nonviolent, can save the populations from the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bertrand-russell/the-time-has-come-or-is-about-to-come-when-only-large-scale-civil/) [Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bertrand-russell/) > [Civil disobedience is a preparation for mute suffering.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/civil-disobedience-is-a-preparation-for-mute-suffering/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/howard-zinn/civil-disobedience-is-not-our-problem-our-problem-is-civil-obedience/) [Howard Zinn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/howard-zinn/) > [Mass civil disobedience is like an earthquake, a sort of general upheaval on the political plane.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/mass-civil-disobedience-is-like-an-earthquake-a-sort-of-general/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/disobedience-to-be-civil-has-to-be-open-and-nonviolent/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Civil disobedience is a stimulation for the fighters and a challenge to the opponent, in the present instance, authority.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/civil-disobedience-is-a-stimulation-for-the-fighters-and-a-challenge/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) ## More by Mahatma Gandhi > [I do not want to live at the cost of the life even of a snake. I should let him bite me to death…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/i-do-not-want-to-live-at-the-cost-of-the-life-even-of-a-snake-i/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Devotion required by the Gita is no soft-hearted effusiveness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/devotion-required-by-the-gita-is-no-soft-hearted-effusiveness/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [No nation being under another nation can accept gifts, and kick at the responsibility attached to those gifts, imposed by the conquering nation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/no-nation-being-under-another-nation-can-accept-gifts-and-kick-at-the/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [So long as we fear the outside world, we must cease to think of Swaraj.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/so-long-as-we-fear-the-outside-world-we-must-cease-to-think-of-swaraj/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [I do not want a kingdom, or heaven; what I want is to remove the trouble of the oppressed, the poor, and the needy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/i-do-not-want-a-kingdom-or-heaven-what-i-want-is-to-remove-the/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Religions are not for separating men from one another, they are meant to bind them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/religions-are-not-for-separating-men-from-one-another-they-are-meant/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/i-hold-flesh-food-to-be-unsuited-to-our-species-we-err-in-copying-the/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [“It was only in South Africa that I got over this shyness, though I never completely overcame it. It was impossible for me to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/it-was-only-in-south-africa-that-i-got-over-this-shyness-though-i/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [“Where there is life.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/where-there-is-life/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [If it was wrong to seek God in a stone, how was it right to seek Him in a book called the Gita, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/if-it-was-wrong-to-seek-god-in-a-stone-how-was-it-right-to-seek-him/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/the-spirit-of-democracy-cannot-be-established-in-the-midst-of/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Champions are made from something they have deep inside of them-a desire, a dream, a vison.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/champions-are-made-from-something-they-have-deep-inside-of-them-a/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [My motto is "Unite now, today if you can; fight if you must. But in every case avoid British intervention."](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/my-motto-is-unite-now-today-if-you-can-fight-if-you-must-but-in-every/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [I have no disciples, being myself an aspirant after discipleship and in search of a guru.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/i-have-no-disciples-being-myself-an-aspirant-after-discipleship-and/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Man becomes not the lord and master of all creation but he is its servant.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/man-becomes-not-the-lord-and-master-of-all-creation-but-he-is-its/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) [Explore all 3,284 Mahatma Gandhi quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) ## More Art quotes > [True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/true-works-of-art-contain-their-own-theory-and-give-us-the/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [Before Noah, men having only water to drink, could not find the truth. 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