Ikigai Daily
DriveQuoteContext and sources

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Widely attributed to Gandhi, who did not write it

PhilosophyHistory

Why it matters

The idea in context

Nobody has found this sentence in Gandhi's writings, and researchers have looked hard through millions of published words. The earliest close match appears in 1974, in a chapter by an American educator named Arleen Lorrance. What Gandhi did write, in a 1913 column about snakebite remedies, is quieter and stranger: 'If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.' The slogan promises the world will follow. Gandhi only promised that your relation to it would.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

Dünyada görmek istediğin değişimin kendisi ol.
Gandhi'ye atfedilir, ama Gandhi yazmadı

Bu cümle Gandhi'nin yazdıklarında bulunamadı; araştırmacılar milyonlarca kelimelik külliyatı bunun için taradı. En erken benzer kullanım 1974'te, Arleen Lorrance adlı Amerikalı bir eğitimcinin bir kitap bölümünde geçiyor. Gandhi'nin gerçekten yazdığı cümle ise 1913'te yılan sokmasına dair bir yazıda geçer ve hem daha sakin hem daha tuhaftır: 'Kendimizi değiştirebilirsek, dünyadaki eğilimler de değişir.' Slogan, dünyanın peşimizden geleceğini söylüyor. Gandhi ise yalnızca dünyayla ilişkimizin değişeceğini söylemişti.

Source trail

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Background reading: MisquotationAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
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