“To believe that what has not occurred in history will not occur at all, is to argue disbelief in the dignity of man.”
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Source: Gandhi, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule (1909), Ch. 14 'How Can India Become Free?'
About this quote
Writing off a possibility because it has no precedent quietly assumes people cannot grow beyond their past. Every genuine advance was once unprecedented. Treating 'never been done' as 'cannot be done' badly underrates what human effort and imagination keep proving.
When to use it
- A team told a bug is 'unfixable' because no one has cracked it, then cracking it.
- Dismissing the idea a rough neighborhood could ever get safer because it never has.
- Assuming a family pattern of addiction is destiny rather than something one person can break.