“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.”
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Misattributed quote
Wikiquote lists this under Misattributed; the line comes from Easwaran's 1978 book about Gandhi (Nagler's foreword), not from Gandhi himself. Raw row 206058 is pending; do not activate as a Gandhi quote.
Likely origin: Written by Eknath Easwaran (and quoted by Prof. Michael N. Nagler's foreword) in Gandhi the Man (1978), p. 8 — about Gandhi, not Gandhi's own words.
Review the attribution sourceAbout this quote
Widely passed around as Gandhi's own, this was actually written about him—by Eknath Easwaran, echoed in Michael Nagler's foreword to Gandhi the Man (1978). The insight still lands: the leverage you truly hold is over your own habits and character, not over reshaping the whole world.
When to use it
- Instead of trying to fix a toxic office, a worker changes how they show up and where they draw lines.
- A parent working on their own short temper rather than trying to control a teenager's moods.
- Someone dropping the endless complaints about the economy to rebuild their own spending and skills.