“The closet was also not cleaned during the journey and there was no water in the water tank.”
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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 pamphlet 'Third Class in Indian Railways' (1917), describing carriage conditions.
About this quote
Small, unglamorous failures — no clean facilities, no drinking water — are exactly where a system shows how little it values the people it serves. Recording them plainly, without exaggeration, turns private discomfort into a public record that pressure for change can be built on.
When to use it
- A commuter photographs a broken station toilet and files it with the transit authority week after week.
- A nurse logs every shift the ward runs out of clean linen so managers can't call it a one-off.
- A tenant keeps a dated list of the building's outages to present at the next council meeting.