His character was an extraordinarily mixed one, but there was almost nothing in it that you can put your finger on and call bad, and I believe that even Gandhi's worst enemies would admit that he was an interesting and unusual man who enriched the world simply by being alive.
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
Putting it to work
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
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 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 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…
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