Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Attribution ·23 of 348
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. — Mahatma Gandhi"
They never said that.
What people say
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. — Mahatma Gandhi"
What was actually said
"No verified Gandhi source." Anonymous — Attributed — earliest clear appearance in a 1947 Hanuman Prasad Poddar letter; popularised by Louis Fischer's 1950 biography
Why it stuck
Gandhi's collected works (100 volumes) do not contain the phrase. The concept is consistent with Gandhian ethics, and that's why it has stuck.
Martin Luther King Jr. used the line in 1958, citing no source. The attribution to Gandhi emerged from there.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.