"Seven Social Sins", in his weekly paper Young India, 22 October 1925
Knowledge Without Character
In October 1925 Mahatma Gandhi was touring the district of Kutch in Gujarat. He spent those weeks travelling by the steamer S.S. Rupavati to Bhuj, speaking about hand-spinning cloth, or khadi, and working to end untouchability. While he was travelling, his weekly paper, Young India, came out in Ahmedabad on 22 October with a short list on page 358. A correspondent whom he called a fair friend had sent seven phrases to the paper. Gandhiji printed them under the heading Seven Social Sins without changing them, and the fourth phrase on that page was "Knowledge without character."
A person can know how to build a database, write a clear contract, or run a chemistry lab, and still use those skills to cheat an employer. People often treat information and skill as if they make someone good, but skill only makes an action effective. An educated thief does not steal less. He steals larger sums and hides them better behind paperwork. When a school gives someone tools without teaching them how to care for their neighbours, it only arms them. Gandhiji pointed out that a sharp mind without conscience simply finds faster ways to do damage.
Therefore
Do not judge someone by how much they know or how quickly they learn. Watch how they treat other people when nobody is looking.
Young India, 22 October 1925
Gandhiji did not write the list himself. In March 1925 an Anglican clergyman named Frederick Lewis Donaldson had preached a sermon at Westminster Abbey with almost the same seven warnings. When the list reached India, Gandhiji added only one sentence at the end of the page. He wrote that his friend wanted people to know these things through the heart and not merely through the intellect, so they would avoid them. In 1947, shortly before his death, Gandhiji copied the seven items onto a small slip of paper for his grandson, Arun Gandhi. Arun kept the paper and taught the seven warnings for the rest of his life.
A small reminder, on the desk or the notebook, that skill makes you capable, but decency determines what you do with it.
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pairs with
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contrasts with
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