“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”
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Probable attribution
This saying is widely associated with Mahatma Gandhi, but the attribution is not supported by a reliable primary source.
Likely origin: Compiled in All Men Are Brothers (UNESCO/Navajivan anthology of Gandhi's writings), p. 163; widely attributed, but no specific dated primary issue confirmed here.
About this quote
Worrying over a future you can't touch drains the one moment you can actually act in. The discipline here is to pour your care into the task at hand and let the next moment arrive on its own, since control over it was never really yours to begin with.
When to use it
- Instead of dreading next month's exam, a student simply studies the chapter in front of her well tonight.
- A caregiver stops rehearsing every worst case and focuses on making this afternoon good for the person she's tending.
- An athlete plays the current point rather than the scoreboard, and the nerves settle.