“I must confess that here I had to compromise the principle of giving no commission, which in Bombay I had so scrupulously observed. I was told that conditions in the two cases were different; that whilst in Bombay commissions had to be paid to touts, here they had to be paid to vakils who briefed you; and that here as in Bombay all barristers, without exception, paid a percentage of their fees as commission.”
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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: From Gandhi's autobiography 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth'; a narrative passage about compromising on legal commissions.
About this quote
Local custom has a pull: told that 'everyone here does it this way,' a person quietly lets a rule slip and calls it necessity. The honest step isn't pretending it didn't happen but naming the compromise plainly, because owning a lapse is what keeps it from hardening into a habit you no longer notice.
When to use it
- A new hire who swore off padding expense reports starts rounding up once she sees the whole team doing it.
- A contractor admits to a client that he cut a corner rather than bury it in the invoice.
- A student who copied a citation format everyone used owns the shortcut instead of defending it.