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About this quote

What does it mean?
Gandhi warns that retaliating violence for violence will ultimately lead to collective blindness and destruction.
In plain terms
If everyone tries to get revenge by hurting others, everyone will end up hurt.
What can you take from it?
Retaliation creates universal harm rather than justice.

Where it applies

  • conflict resolution
  • retaliation
  • violence

Putting it to work

  • rejecting revenge
  • breaking cycles
  • seeking peace

Questions to consider

  • Is revenge ever justified?
  • How do you break a cycle of violence?

Another view

Some argue that defense requires force to prevent total blindness.

More from Mahatma Gandhi

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  3. It is not my purpose to attempt a real autobiography. I simply want to tell the story of my experiments with truth...as my life consists of nothing but those e…

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