“There are some things which are known only to oneself and one's maker. These are clearly incommunicable.”
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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: Attributed to Gandhi's Autobiography (My Experiments with Truth); not verbatim-confirmed against the primary text.
About this quote
Some inner experiences resist words entirely — a private conviction, the texture of a grief, a reason for forgiveness that makes sense only to you. Holding that keeps you from expecting others to fully grasp what only you have lived, and from faking a certainty you can't actually hand over.
When to use it
- A parent carries a wordless dread about a sick child that no explanation to relatives ever quite captures.
- Someone who survived a crash finds that describing the split-second never lands the way it felt.
- A person's real reason for making peace with an old betrayal stays theirs alone, unshared even with a spouse.