“The only tyrant I accept in this world is the 'still small voice' within me. And even though I have to face the prospect of being a minority of one, I humbly believe I have the courage to be in such a hopeless minority.”
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Source: Young India (2 March 1922); quoted in Louis Fischer (ed.), The Essential Gandhi (2002), p. 160.
About this quote
When conscience and consensus disagree, the harder path is trusting your own quiet judgment over the crowd's volume. Being outvoted isn't the same as being wrong, and the courage that counts most is often spent alone, with no one there to applaud it.
When to use it
- A juror holding out for acquittal while eleven others push impatiently to convict.
- An accountant reporting fraud they've spotted even as coworkers choose to stay silent.
- A teenager refusing to join in when the whole group starts mocking one classmate.