Daily Inspiration Quote by Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi rigs this line like a moral trapdoor: violence can win, sometimes spectacularly, but its wins are the kind that rot on contact. The phrasing matters. “Appears to do good” doesn’t deny that violence can change the scoreboard; it questions the reliability of the story we tell about the victory. Gandhi’s target isn’t only the bullet or baton, but the seductive afterglow that lets a society call brutality “necessary” and move on.

The subtext is political, not pious. Violence leaves behind trained reflexes: fear as governance, humiliation as a civic memory, retaliation as an inherited duty. Even if a violent campaign topples an oppressor, it teaches the next regime the same toolkit and teaches the public the same logic. That’s the “permanent” evil: institutions built for coercion, communities reorganized around suspicion, and a moral permission slip that can be reused indefinitely. Temporary good is a change in leadership; permanent evil is a change in what people think is permissible.

Context sharpens the claim. Gandhi is speaking from the pressure-cooker of anti-colonial struggle, where the argument for armed resistance is always waiting in the wings. His brilliance is to argue that means are not just instruments but architects. Nonviolence isn’t framed as saintly restraint; it’s a strategy to prevent the liberation movement from becoming a rehearsal for the next tyranny. He’s insisting that the end of injustice can’t be built with the same materials that made it durable.