“I think it would be a good idea.”
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Disputed attribution
Wikiquote places this in its Disputed section; Ralph Keyes' Quote Verifier debunks the sourcing chain (Schumacher's claimed 1930 Southampton film cannot be real) and no standard biography records the quip, so it cannot be treated as genuine.
Likely origin: Disputed retort. Earliest located attribution is a 1966/67 CBS special 'The Italians'; Schumacher's 1979 account (Gandhi quizzed at Southampton in 1930) is unsupported — Gandhi did not visit England in 1930. Listed under Wikiquote 'Disputed'.
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Widely passed around as his, though there's no solid source — the earliest trace is a 1966 CBS documentary, and the popular tale of a 1930 quip in England collapses because he wasn't there that year. The jab itself draws a line between a society calling itself civilized and actually behaving humanely.
When to use it
- A company that prints 'we value our people' on the wall while routinely burning staff out with unpaid overtime.
- A neighborhood that calls itself friendly yet leaves its one housebound elderly resident without a single visitor.
- A person who talks constantly about being eco-conscious but tosses recyclables in the trash when no one is watching.