I know what you mean about everyone using that phrase. I was trying to find a citation for you and there were a dozen pages with that phrase as an article heading, a website slogan, etc. with no credit.

The exact phrase is, "Live simply so that others may simply live", referring to the practice of sustainable living. According to my first two sources, the speaker is Mahatma Ghandi, but Dale Jamieson's citation in his book 'Ethics and Environment' uses the phrase "often attributed to Ghandi", suggesting that there is no hard evidence.

As far as the date, it seems that the phrase is the core principle of Ghandi's teachings (source 4), so it probably originates in his earlier years of resistance, possibly around the time of his job at a South African law firm where he was "appalled by the treatment of Indian immigrants" (source 5). Still, there is no concrete evidence that the phrase was coined by Ghandi.
Source(s):
1. http://www.betterworldheroes.com/pages-g/gandhi-quotes.htm
2. http://www.baylor.edu/truett/journal/index.php?id=18842
3. http://tinyurl.com/ba65ku (Google Books - Ethics and Environment by Dale Jamieson)
4. http://tinyurl.com/ckvnn5 (Google Books - Spiritual Compass by Satish Kumar)
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/gandhi_mohandas.shtml

Asker's Rating:

Permalink | Report