Origin Story: Be the Change

Be the change you wish to see in the world” is often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, which isn’t the whole story. This might be because Gandhi authored a passage that evokes the sentiment in a 1913 journal article for Indian Opinion:

We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.

In an interesting twist, according to Professor Buzzkill Joseph Coohill, this passage was part of an article tackling the topic of snake bites and interconnectedness of the internal and external world. The spiritual significance of this is all-encompassing, and I can see how it opens to interpretations that emphasize social change. However, the passage was written in the explicit context of animal attacks. Fascinating!

Coohill and quote investigator Garson O’Toole both attribute the popular phrase to Brooklyn high school teacher Arleen Lorrance. Other researchers have left the question of authorship at “we don’t know for sure.” Let’s all hope we someday say something wise enough to be mistakenly attributed to Gandhi.