QI has located relevant variants for this longer expression in 19. There is a more elaborate version of the clever maxim based on these two phrases:Īn eye-for-eye and tooth-for-tooth would lead to a world of the blind and toothless. These words appear in the King James English translation. The epigram is a twist on a famous Biblical injunction in the Book of Exodus : Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. QI thinks some readers may have been confused and may have decided to directly attribute the saying to Gandhi based on a misreading of Fischer’s works. Instead, Fischer used the expression himself as part of his explanation of Gandhi’s philosophy. However, Fischer did not attribute the saying to Gandhi in his description of the leader’s life. The YBQ notes that an important biographer of Gandhi, Louis Fischer, used a version of the expression when he wrote about Gandhi’s approach to conflict. The Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence states that the Gandhi family believes it is an authentic Gandhi quotation, but no example of its use by the Indian leader has ever been discovered. “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind” is frequently attributed to M. Shapiro editor of the Yale Book of Quotations (YBQ), has examined this question. Quote Investigator: One of the world’s top quotation experts, Fred R. Could you find out when and where Gandhi said this? I have read that Gandhi spoke this statement or something similar, but I haven’t yet found a precise citation for this. There is a well-known quotation that helps to express the rationale for this non-retaliatory philosophy:Īn eye for an eye will leave everyone blind. Mohandas Gandhi? George Perry Graham? Louis Fischer? Henry Powell Spring? Martin Luther King?ĭear Quote Investigator: Mohandas Gandhi’s policy of non-violence was famously used during the campaign for independence in India. 74.Ģ010: Research detailed by Garson O'Toole in "An Eye for an Eye Will Make the Whole World Blind" in Quote Investigator. Shapiro states that the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence stated that Gandhi's family believes it authentic, but did not provide any further reference and provided no year, place or body of work.Ģ006: Discussed in The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When, by Ralph Keyes (2006), 1st ed., p. Ģ006: There is a quaternary source in Yale Book of Quotations (2006), in which editor Fred R. Michigan graduate John Briley put those pithy words in his mouth." From "John Briley '51 - Epic Screenwriter", Michigan Today, March 1993, p. In a 1993 biographical article about screenwriter John Briley, Jon Krampner wrote, "…Gandhi never said it. ġ950: "An-eye-for-an-eye-for-an-eye-for-an-eye … ends in making everybody blind" in The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer (1950), though Fischer did not attribute it to Gandhi and seemed to be giving his own description of Gandhi's philosophy.ġ958: "The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind" in Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story by Martin Luther King, Jr., 1958.ġ982: "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind" in the 1982 film, Gandhi. Official Report of the Debates of the House of Commons of the Dominion of Canada, Third Session-Twelfth Parliament, Vol CXIII, p. 1914: "If…we were to go back to…'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' there would be very few Gentlemen in this House who would not…be blind and toothless." - George Perry Graham, during a debate on capital punishment before the Canadian House of Commons.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |