“अपने हाथ–पैरों से जो काम हो सके, वही करना चाहिए। हाथ–पैरों का इस्तेमाल करने में ही सच्चा सुख है, उसी में तंदुरुस्ती है। उन्होंने सोचा कि बड़े शहर खड़े करना बेकार का झंझट है। उनमें लोग सुखी नहीं होंगे। उनमें धूर्तों की टोलियाँ और वेश्याओं की गलियाँ पैदा होंगी; गरीब अमीरों से लूटे जाएँगे। इसलिए उन्होंने छोटे देहातों से संतोष माना।”
Share this quote
Probable attribution
This saying is widely associated with Mahatma Gandhi, but the attribution is not supported by a reliable primary source.
Likely origin: Hind Swaraj (1909), Hindi translation; passage on manual labour, small villages vs. big cities.
About this quote
Working with your own hands, the claim goes, is where real health and contentment live, while packing people into vast cities concentrates wealth, vice, and the quiet looting of the poor. Scale itself becomes the trouble; staying small is what keeps daily life honest.
When to use it
- Someone who cooks and cleans for themselves instead of outsourcing every chore sleeps better and feels steadier.
- A town that keeps its workshops and farms local avoids the gulf between a comfortable few and a struggling many.
- A family that grows part of its own food spends afternoons outdoors and eats what their own effort produced.