“If we argue that since all bodies are perishable, one may kill, does it follow that I may kill all the women and children in the Ashram? Would I have in doing so acted according to the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, merely because their bodies are perishable?”
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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 'The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi'; commentary rebutting the argument that the perishability of bodies could justify killing (text is truncated at 'What,').
About this quote
That everything eventually perishes is no license to hasten anyone's end. Stretched to its logical limit, the excuse would justify slaughtering the innocent, which exposes it as rationalization rather than principle. Impermanence is a fact about time, never a permission to do harm.
When to use it
- A debater notices an argument that would 'prove' any cruelty and drops it as broken.
- A manager rejects the logic that 'the company will be gone someday' as a reason to treat people carelessly.
- A driver refuses the fatalistic shrug that 'we all die anyway' as an excuse to speed recklessly.