About this quote

The ideal here is a society so self-disciplined it barely needs governing — order kept by conscience and cooperation instead of force. The less coercion a state must apply, the more its people are already regulating themselves, which is exactly the condition Gandhi thought nonviolence pointed toward.

When to use it

• A well-run library needs almost no posted rules because regulars quietly keep it calm on their own.
• A team that genuinely trusts each other rarely invokes formal policy; the work self-organizes.
• A block where neighbors look out for one another calls the authorities far less than one that doesn't.