“Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.”
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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: Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Part V); Gandhi's phrasing there ends '...do not know what religion means.'
About this quote
Draw a hard line between private conscience and public life and something incoherent results: the convictions that guide how you treat a neighbor can't be checked at the door of a council room. Genuine belief tends to spill into how power gets used, because it governs conduct everywhere or nowhere.
When to use it
- A city councilwoman lets her belief in honesty sink a lucrative but rigged contract vote.
- A shop owner refuses to stock a product he thinks harms customers, even at a real loss.
- A voter backs a policy that costs her personally because it matches the values she lives by.