An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

 

An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.
--
First appeared as "An-eye-for-an-eye-for-an-eye-for-an-eye ... ends in making everybody blind" in The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer (1950), though Fischer did not attribute it to Gandhi and seemed to be giving his own description of Gandhi's philosophy; the quote was later popularised by its use in the 1982 film Gandhi. The Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence says that Gandhi's family believes it authentic, but it has never been sourced to Gandhi. Yale Book of Quotations (2006) ed. Fred R. Shapiro. Also discussed in this entry from Quote Investigator.
--
Letter to Winston Churchill (April, 1943)?

 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma)

» Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma) - all quotes »

Similar quotes

 

You know the story of the famous seer Phineus whom the Argonauts consulted when they stopped in Salmydessos in Thrace on their way to Colchis to get the golden fleece. He was blind, but not entirely blind - he could see just enough to see that he could not see. And the little flickering spots of light that forced themselves on him were wind-harpies trying to steal from him his prophetic power. So he would beg everyone to make him blind, to rid him of the harpies. But people laughed at him because, so far as they could tell, he was as blind as any man needed to be. Only Hercules understood, because his spirit extended into the divine shadows. Only Hercules had the courage to make the blind Phineus blind.

 

Laura Riding

 

Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

 

Jesus Christ

 

What I want from all my lovers is real, unadulterated love, and from my genuine workers I expect real work done.
I want also to draw your attention to the fact that miracles experienced by my devotees and admirers, both in the East and in the West, have been attributed to me. On the basis of my Divine Honesty I tell you that in this Incarnation I have not, up till now, consciously performed a single miracle. Whenever a miracle has been attributed to me, it has always been news to me. What I wish to emphasize is that by attributing such miracles to me, people cheapen and lower my status as the Highest of the High. But today I do say this, that the moment I break my silence and utter the Original Word, the first and last miracle of "BABA" will be performed. And, when I perform that Miracle, I shall not raise the dead, but shall make those who live for the world, dead to the world and live in God. I shall not give sight to the blind, but make people blind to illusion and make them see God as Reality.

 

Meher Baba

 

[H]e knew that fear of an enemy can often blind men to other hazards, not least the shape which they themselves make in the world.

 

Cormac McCarthy

 

By all men bond to Nothing,
Being slaves without a lord,
By one blind idiot world obeyed,
Too blind to be abhorred.

 

Gilbert Keith Chesterton