"There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good"
About this Quote
Gandhi doesn’t leave much room for “necessary evils” here, and that’s the point. “No principle worth the name” is a rhetorical trapdoor: it implies that plenty of things masquerade as principles - patriotism, religious duty, political realism - but fail the basic test of moral coherence. If a rule needs cruelty, deception, or dehumanization to function, Gandhi is saying it isn’t a principle at all. It’s a tactic dressed up as ethics.
The force of “wholly good” is its severity. Gandhi isn’t proposing a workable compromise; he’s setting an uncompromising standard meant to expose the way power routinely launders harm through lofty language. In colonial India, the British Empire justified domination as order, progress, even civilization. Indian elites could justify counter-violence as liberation’s price. Gandhi rejects both moves. The phrase quietly polices the means as much as the ends: if your “principle” permits brutality today for justice tomorrow, you’ve already surrendered the moral ground you claim to stand on.
Subtextually, it’s also a warning to movements that win and then rot. Revolutions often inherit the logic of their oppressors; Gandhi’s maxim tries to build a guardrail against that drift. The line’s religious undertone matters too: “wholly” evokes purity, not in a priggish sense, but as integrity - a refusal to compartmentalize. In an era when political success was increasingly measured by force, Gandhi insists the only principle that deserves allegiance is one that cannot be used to excuse harm.
The force of “wholly good” is its severity. Gandhi isn’t proposing a workable compromise; he’s setting an uncompromising standard meant to expose the way power routinely launders harm through lofty language. In colonial India, the British Empire justified domination as order, progress, even civilization. Indian elites could justify counter-violence as liberation’s price. Gandhi rejects both moves. The phrase quietly polices the means as much as the ends: if your “principle” permits brutality today for justice tomorrow, you’ve already surrendered the moral ground you claim to stand on.
Subtextually, it’s also a warning to movements that win and then rot. Revolutions often inherit the logic of their oppressors; Gandhi’s maxim tries to build a guardrail against that drift. The line’s religious undertone matters too: “wholly” evokes purity, not in a priggish sense, but as integrity - a refusal to compartmentalize. In an era when political success was increasingly measured by force, Gandhi insists the only principle that deserves allegiance is one that cannot be used to excuse harm.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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