“The Earth has enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.”
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Attribution note
Snopes searched roughly 100 CWMG volumes without finding this exact line; the sole secondary source is Pyarelal (1958). Hugely popular but no dated primary; treat as an attributed distillation.
Likely origin: No verified Gandhi primary; earliest attribution via Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase (1958); Snopes found no match across the Collected Works.
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Scarcity is often manufactured, not natural. When a few take far more than they use, others go without — so the remedy isn't producing endlessly but curbing the appetite to hoard. It reframes shortage as a distribution problem that restraint, more than growth, can solve.
When to use it
- A community fridge stays stocked when shoppers take one item and leave the rest for others.
- An office kitchen runs out of snacks only because a couple of people pocket handfuls for later.
- A drought-hit town has plenty of water once households stop filling private pools.