GANDHI MAHATMA: (1869-1948) ´ I am an optimist. Not a single good thought goes to waste´

GANDHI MAHATMA: (1869-1948) ´ I am an optimist. Not a single good thought goes to waste´

GANDHI MAHATMA: (1869-1948) Indian political and spiritual leader during the Indian independence movement. A fine A.L.S., M K Gandhi, one page, 8vo, Segaon, 9th September 1938, to Henry Stephens Salt. Gandhi states that it was a ´perfect delight´ for him to have received Salt´s letter, and hopes that he is in sound health, remarking ´Many vegetarians like you have disappointed Doctors´. Gandhi further writes ´I am an optimist. Not a single good thought goes to waste. And the sum total of good thoughts is surely infinitely larger than of bad ones´. Accompanied by the original envelope (addressed in another hand). A letter of good association and interesting content, not least regarding vegetarianism but also demonstrating Gandhi´s positive mental attitude, a trait alongside selflessness, truthfulness and non-violence that were core to Gandhi´s teachings and beliefs. Some very light, extremely minor age wear, VG

Henry Stephens Salt (1851-1939) British writer and campaigner for social reform in the fields of prisons, schools, economic institutions, and the treatment of animals. Salt was a noted ethical vegetarian and pacifist who first introduced Gandhi to the influential works of Henry David Thoreau, and also influenced Gandhi´s study of vegetarianism, resulting in him transitioning from a religiously motivated vegetarianism to an explicity ethical one. Salt and Gandhi appeared together at a London Vegetarian Society meeting in 1931 at which Gandhi delivered a speech entitled The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism.