“Service of the poor has been my heart’s desire, and it has always thrown me amongst the poor and enabled me to identify myself with them.”
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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: Gandhi, An Autobiography (Experiments with Truth); passage on service of the poor.
About this quote
Truly wanting to help those with little pulls you out of comfortable distance and into their actual conditions, and that closeness is what lets you understand them instead of pitying them from afar. Help offered at arm's length rarely reaches this — the desire itself has to move you into the same room.
When to use it
- A volunteer stops mailing checks and starts serving meals, and finally grasps what the guests face.
- A doctor who moves into the neighborhood he treats learns what his patients actually live with.
- A teacher who visits her students' homes stops guessing at their struggles and starts seeing them.