"Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening"
About this Quote
The “morning” key suggests more than optimism. It’s an insistence that the day should begin with moral orientation before action. For Gandhi, means were not a footnote; they were the argument. Prayer, here, isn’t just about asking for outcomes but aligning the self with discipline, nonviolence, and restraint. The “evening” bolt adds the harder note: closure, protection, the sealing off of rage, despair, and the day’s contaminations. It implies that spiritual practice is also boundary-setting - a way to keep the world’s chaos from lodging permanently inside you.
The subtext is strategic. Gandhi is addressing followers who might romanticize activism as pure adrenaline. He recasts it as endurance work, requiring a rhythm that renews resolve and prevents moral drift. In the context of colonial rule and mass civil disobedience, prayer becomes both ballast and ballast check: not an escape from politics, but a daily audit of whether one’s struggle is still rooted in the values that justify it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Prayer |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Gandhi, Mahatma. (2026, January 15). Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/prayer-is-the-key-of-the-morning-and-the-bolt-of-36740/
Chicago Style
Gandhi, Mahatma. "Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/prayer-is-the-key-of-the-morning-and-the-bolt-of-36740/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/prayer-is-the-key-of-the-morning-and-the-bolt-of-36740/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.









