“Man's excellence lies in his readiness to let others live and lay down his own life. As he progresses, his food also changes for the better. He has the capacity to grow still further. There have been many more discoveries after Darwin's. The book which you have been reading seems to be an old one. Whether it is old or new, the "Principle of the greatest good of the greatest number," or "survival of the fittest" is false.”

In his Letter to Premabehn Kantak, in Collected Works, , Delhi. Ministry of Information (1969-94)., 50:309-10
1930s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Man's excellence lies in his readiness to let others live and lay down his own life. As he progresses, his food also ch…" by Mahatma Gandhi?
Mahatma Gandhi photo
Mahatma Gandhi 238
pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-rul… 1869–1948

Related quotes

John Banville photo
Joseph Martin Kraus photo

“I have one of his symphonies, which I keep in remembrance of one of the greatest geniuses that I have met. I have only this one work, but I know that he also wrote other excellent things.”

Joseph Martin Kraus (1756–1792) German composer

Ich besitze von ihm eine seiner Sinfonien, die ich zur Erinnerung an eines der größten Genies, die ich gekannt habe, aufbewahre. Ich habe von ihm nur dieses einzige Werk, weiß aber, dass er noch anderes Vortreffliches geschrieben hat.

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“Our nation was founded to perpetuate democratic principles. These principles are that each man is to be treated on his worth as a man without regard to the land from which his forefathers came and without regard to the creed which he professes. If the United States proves false to these principles of civil and religious liberty, it will have inflicted the greatest blow on the system of free popular government that has ever been inflicted. Here we have”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, Address to the Knights of Columbus (1915)
Context: Our nation was founded to perpetuate democratic principles. These principles are that each man is to be treated on his worth as a man without regard to the land from which his forefathers came and without regard to the creed which he professes. If the United States proves false to these principles of civil and religious liberty, it will have inflicted the greatest blow on the system of free popular government that has ever been inflicted. Here we have had a virgin continent on which to try the experiment of making out of divers race stocks a new nation and of treating all the citizens of that nation in such a fashion as to preserve them equality of opportunity in industrial, civil, and political life. Our duty is to secure each man against any injustice by his fellows.

Laozi photo

“The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…
John Ruskin photo
Richard Cobden photo

“I believe that the harm which Mill has done to the world by the passage in his book on Political Economy in which he favours the principle of Protection in young communities, has outweighed all the good which may have been caused by his other writings.”

Richard Cobden (1804–1865) English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman

Said to Sir Louis Mallet by Cobden on his death bed within two days before his death, quoted in Richard Gowing, Richard Cobden (London: Cassell, 1890), p. 130.
1860s

John Ruskin photo

“He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.”

Volume I, part I, chapter II, section 9 (1843).
Modern Painters (1843-1860)

Eric Hoffer photo
André Maurois photo

Related topics