Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree.”
Mohandas K. Gandhi · Moral and political thought · Modern · 1909
What does it mean?
The means are like a seed, the end like a tree. You do not get a tree the seed could not grow. He is arguing, against a politics of any method, that the end is contained in the means, not waiting neutrally at the end of them. A rival reading says this is a moral luxury, and that a just end can clean a violent means after the fact. He thinks the cleaning is bad metaphysics, because the means are already the end in the making.
Did Mohandas K. Gandhi really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Gandhi's English Hind Swaraj, his own rendering of the 1909 Gujarati. The seed and the tree are his image for the claim that means and ends are not separable. Confirm the chapter in the edition before numbering it. The image is his. The chapter number is not invented here.
Where it comes from
Hind Swaraj
Approximate date: 1909.
How to use it
A campaign in a British city wants a less brutal politics and proposes a brutal tactic for a week, to be redeemed by the result. The image says the week is the seed. You may reject the image. You should not call the rejection Gandhian. The 'be the change' slogan is a different, unsourced line. This one is the text people could have quoted instead.
A mindset reading
Chapter numbers differ by edition. The card refuses to invent one. The argument is identifiable without it: means and ends are convertible. If a quotation of Gandhi cannot survive without a dubious number, it is the wrong quotation.
Understand the philosophy
Hind Swaraj, 1909, is the book. He wrote the English. That is why the badge here is well attested rather than a translation someone else owns. The Collected Works remain the check. The image is not the seven-word poster.
- ethics
- power
- change
FAQ
What does it mean?
The means are like a seed, the end like a tree. You do not get a tree the seed could not grow. He is arguing, against a politics of any method, that the end is contained in the means, not waiting neutrally at the end of them. A rival reading says this is a moral luxury, and that a just end can clean a violent means after the fact. He thinks the cleaning is bad metaphysics, because the means are already the end in the making.
Did Mohandas K. Gandhi really say this?
Well attested. Gandhi's English Hind Swaraj, his own rendering of the 1909 Gujarati. The seed and the tree are his image for the claim that means and ends are not separable. Confirm the chapter in the edition before numbering it. The image is his. The chapter number is not invented here.
Which work is it in?
Hind Swaraj Approximate date: 1909.