"If we do not want to be pained by anybody we must not pain anybody; and how can man consider himself humane if he wants to live at the cost of others"
About this Quote
Desai’s line reads like a personal vow disguised as a political ultimatum: you don’t get to demand peace of mind while outsourcing suffering. The first clause is almost disarmingly pragmatic. If you don’t want to be hurt, don’t hurt others. It’s moral reciprocity, yes, but also a warning about blowback - social, political, karmic, take your pick. Pain circulates. Inflict it and you’re signing up to receive it, whether through resentment, revolt, or the slow corrosion of legitimacy.
The sharper edge arrives in the second half, where “humane” becomes a standard that indicts comfort. Desai isn’t talking about isolated cruelty; he’s pointing at systems that make cruelty normal. “Live at the cost of others” names the respectable version of violence: privileges sustained by invisible labor, coercion, or deprivation that someone else absorbs. The subtext is anti-extractive politics: a nation, an economy, or a household that balances its books by debiting human dignity is not “civilized,” just well-dressed.
Context matters because Desai’s moral language wasn’t abstract. As an Indian politician shaped by the Gandhian tradition, he trafficked in the idea that means are not mere tools; they are the message. This is why the quote works rhetorically: it refuses the standard political escape hatch where noble ends redeem ugly methods. Desai offers no exemption for power, urgency, or “necessity.” If your wellbeing depends on someone else’s injury, the sentence implies, your wellbeing is already compromised - ethically, and eventually politically.
The sharper edge arrives in the second half, where “humane” becomes a standard that indicts comfort. Desai isn’t talking about isolated cruelty; he’s pointing at systems that make cruelty normal. “Live at the cost of others” names the respectable version of violence: privileges sustained by invisible labor, coercion, or deprivation that someone else absorbs. The subtext is anti-extractive politics: a nation, an economy, or a household that balances its books by debiting human dignity is not “civilized,” just well-dressed.
Context matters because Desai’s moral language wasn’t abstract. As an Indian politician shaped by the Gandhian tradition, he trafficked in the idea that means are not mere tools; they are the message. This is why the quote works rhetorically: it refuses the standard political escape hatch where noble ends redeem ugly methods. Desai offers no exemption for power, urgency, or “necessity.” If your wellbeing depends on someone else’s injury, the sentence implies, your wellbeing is already compromised - ethically, and eventually politically.
Quote Details
| Topic | Kindness |
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