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About this quote

What does it mean?
Orwell notes Gandhi was complex but fundamentally enriched the world just by being alive.
In plain terms
Gandhi was flawed but still added value to the world.
What can you take from it?
A person can matter without being perfect.

Where it applies

  • biography
  • moral discussion
  • historical analysis

Putting it to work

  • evaluating leaders
  • appreciating nuance
  • studying influence

Questions to consider

  • Does character define legacy?
  • Is perfection needed for impact?

Another view

Impact is often more than character alone.

More from George Orwell

  1. Almost from childhood onwards he had a deep earnestness, an attitude ethical rather than religious, but, until he was about thirty, no very definite sense of d…

    Permalink to quote #121
  2. Of late years it has been the fashion to talk about Gandhi as though he were not only sympathetic to the Western Left-wing movement, but were integrally part o…

    Permalink to quote #123
  3. Colour feeling when he first met it in its worst form in South Africa, seems rather to have astonished him. Even when he was fighting what was in effect a colo…

    Permalink to quote #120

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