QuoteQuest“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Verification
MisattributedNo evidence the named person said or wrote this.
No record of this wording in Gandhi's collected works. It appears to be a modern paraphrase of a 1913 passage: "If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change."
Source
- Title
- Indian Opinion (collected in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 13)
- Type
- article · Primary source
- Date
- 8 August 1913
- Held by
- Government of India, Publications Division
Context
Widely shared online and on posters as a Gandhi quote.
What it means
Personal change as the starting point for social change.
Cite this source
Gandhi, Mahatma. (8 August 1913). Indian Opinion (collected in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 13). Government of India, Publications Division. https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/collected-works-of-mahatma-gandhi-volume-1-to-98.php
Check citations against your institution's style guide; some details may be missing.
Provenance: Checked against the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi.