From Gandhi the Man, by Eknath Easwaran:
"Select your purpose," he [Gandhi] challenged, "selfless, without any thought of personal pleasure or personal profit, and then use selfless means to attain your goal. Do not resort to violence even if it seems at first to promise success; it can only contradict your purpose. Use the means of love and respect even if the result seems far off or uncertain. Then throw yourself heart and soul into the campaign, counting no price too high for working for the welfare of those around you, and every reverse, every defeat, will send you deeper into your own deepest resources. Violence can never bring an end to violence; all it can do is provoke more violence. But if we can adhere to complete nonviolence in thought, word, and deed, India's freedom is assured."
The historian J. B. Kripalani, who became one of Gandhi's closest co-workers, has said that the first time he heard Gandhi talk this way he was so shocked that he went up to him and told him point-blank: "Mr. Gandhi, you may know all about the Bible or the Bhagavad Gita, but you know nothing at all about history. Never has a nation been able to free itself without violence."
Gandhi smiled. "You know nothing about history," he corrected gently. "The first thing you have to learn about history is that because something has not taken place in the past, that does not mean it cannot take place in the future."
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