Quotation
Last reviewed:
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.”
Mohandas K. Gandhi · Moral and political thought · Modern · c. 1913
What does it mean?
If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a person changes their own nature, the world's attitude changes towards them. He calls the link a mystery. It is a claim about self-reform and social attitude, not the seven-word slogan people later printed. A rival reading says the passage lets structural harm off the hook: change yourself and stop asking the landlord, the empire, the firm. The passage can be misused that way.
Did Mohandas K. Gandhi really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. This longer passage is the text quotation researchers point to when people ask about 'be the change'. The seven-word slogan is not what he wrote, and it is listed separately as misattributed. Wording varies slightly across editions of the Collected Works.
Where it comes from
Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, volume 13; a 1913 formulation widely identified by quotation researchers
Approximate date: c. 1913.
How to use it
Pick a tendency you dislike in a residents' meeting in Leicester, and name the matching tendency in yourself that you can actually work on. That is the exercise the passage supports. It does not promise the meeting will obey, and it does not replace the minutes, the vote, or the complaint to the council.
A mindset reading
Personal change is not a substitute for structural effort. The mystery he names is not a proof that inward reform is sufficient. Quotation researchers point to this longer passage when people ask about 'be the change'. The slogan is a different, unsourced line.
Understand the philosophy
Gandhi's ethics of self-rule always joins the reform of the self to the reform of the community. The passage belongs there. Wording varies across editions of the Collected Works. The claim is his. The poster is not.
- change
- self
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a person changes their own nature, the world's attitude changes towards them. He calls the link a mystery. It is a claim about self-reform and social attitude, not the seven-word slogan people later printed. A rival reading says the passage lets structural harm off the hook: change yourself and stop asking the landlord, the empire, the firm. The passage can be misused that way.
Did Mohandas K. Gandhi really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. This longer passage is the text quotation researchers point to when people ask about 'be the change'. The seven-word slogan is not what he wrote, and it is listed separately as misattributed. Wording varies slightly across editions of the Collected Works.
Which work is it in?
Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, volume 13; a 1913 formulation widely identified by quotation researchers Approximate date: c. 1913.