“If individual liberty goes, then surely all is lost, for, if the individual ceases to count, what is left of society? Individual freedom alone can make a man voluntarily surrender himself completely to the service of society. If it is wrested from him, he becomes automaton and society is ruined.”
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Source: Harijan, 1 February 1942, p. 27 — Gandhi on individual liberty and society.
About this quote
A community is only worth as much as the free people who make it up; strip away their freedom and you're left with a shell. Real service has to be chosen — someone compelled into it becomes a cog that supplies motion but no heart, which slowly drains the life out of the whole.
When to use it
- Volunteers who give freely and outlast the people conscripted into the very same work.
- An employee who chooses to go the extra mile versus one micromanaged into resentful compliance.
- A neighborhood project that thrives on willing hands rather than grudging obligation.