First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Not found in Gandhi’s writings: a search here of the OCR of Young India 1919–1922 (1924), the Collected Works vol. XLV and Freedom’s Battle (1922) found no ‘ignore you’; Quote Investigator (2017) reports that several researchers searched his works without success, and Wikiquote lists it under Misattributed. Quote Investigator places it in a large family of nineteenth-century sayings about the stages a new truth must pass (ridiculed, opposed, accepted; credited to Schopenhauer and Agassiz). The closest early match it found is a speech by Nicholas Klein, a union representative, to the convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in Baltimore on 15 May 1918: ‘First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.’ In 1968 the actor Julian Beck credited a version to Jean Cocteau. The earliest credit to Gandhi that Quote Investigator found is in an article by Peter D. Jones in WIN magazine, 1 January 1982 (‘Gandhi once observed that every movement goes through four stages…’); a Wisconsin newspaper of 1993 has the form ‘First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they react. Then you win.’, and Robbie Williams sang a version in 2005. The nearest thing Gandhi wrote is the passage shown, from Young India, 27 October 1920, on a movement passing from ridicule to repression or respect. The 1918, 1968, 1982, 1993 and 2005 items rest on Quote Investigator’s citations and were not seen here.

1. June 1917Before it · credited to no oneEarl B. Morgan, a safety engineer, in the journal Safety Engineering, gives three stages for any new idea, as something ‘said’.It has been said that any new idea must pass through three stages. First, it is ridiculed; second, it is subject to argument: third, it is accepted.Earl B. Morgan, ‘The Accident Prevention Problem in the Small Shop’, Safety Engineering, vol. 33, no. 6 (June 1917), p. 366. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 15 May 1918Earliest found · credited to Nicholas KleinNicholas Klein, a union representative, in an address to the Third Biennial Convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in Baltimore: the closest early match found.First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.Address of Nicholas Klein, Proceedings of the Third Biennial Convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (Baltimore, 13–18 May 1918), in Documentary History of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America 1916–1918, p. 53. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
3. 27 October 1920Before it · credited to Mahatma GandhiGandhi in Young India: non-co-operation has passed the stage of ridicule; whether it will be met by repression or respect remains to be seen. Kindred stages, not this wording.It will be admitted that Non-co-operation has passed the stage of ridicule. Whether it will now be met by repression or respect remains to be seen.M. K. Gandhi, ‘From Ridicule to—‘, Young India, 27 October 1920; Young India 1919–1922 (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1924), p. 573. Checked on a page scan. Source
4. 8 October 1968Credited to Jean CocteauJulian Beck of the Living Theatre, interviewed in Women’s Wear Daily, credits a version to Jean Cocteau.First, they ignore you. Then, they abuse you. Then, they heap you with honors.Patricia McColl, ‘Revolting’, Women’s Wear Daily, 8 October 1968, p. 4. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
5. 1 January 1982Credited to Mahatma GandhiThe first credit to Gandhi known to Quote Investigator, in an article by the activist Peter D. Jones on the European peace movement.Gandhi once observed that every movement goes through four stages: First they ignore you; then they abuse you; then they crack down on you and then you win.Peter D. Jones, ‘A Complete Guide to European Disarmament’, WIN: Peace and Freedom Through Nonviolent Action, vol. 18, no. 1 (1 January 1982), p. 9. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
6. 31 January 1993Reworded · credited to Mahatma GandhiA Wausau Daily Herald profile of the activist Nick Berigan reports him citing ‘the paraphrased words’ of Gandhi, with ‘laugh at you’ and ‘you win’.First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they react. Then you win.David Wahlberg, ‘A fighting spirit: Area activist pays the consequences’, Wausau Daily Herald, 31 January 1993, p. 3A. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
7. 2005Spread · credited to no oneRobbie Williams uses the saying in the lyric of a single, as a columnist in The Times notes on 19 November 2005.First they ignore you, then laugh at you and hate you / Then they fight you, then you winJulie Burchill, ‘Spare me all this bleating or boasting in today’s music’, The Times (London), 19 November 2005, p. 36. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source

A saying about the stages a movement passes through on its way to victory, shared under Gandhi’s name on posters and by activists and campaigners. No one has found it in his writings or speeches. What he did write, in Young India in October 1920, in the first months of the non-co-operation campaign, is an article on the government’s response: the Viceroy had ridiculed the movement, the movement had outlived ridicule, and the question was now whether it would be met by repression or by respect.

The popular line promises that opposition is a sign of coming victory: indifference, mockery and attack are stages on the way to winning. Gandhi’s 1920 article names other stages, ridicule, then repression or respect, and makes no promise: it asks which of the two the government will choose.

Quoted as Gandhi’s own summary of how nonviolent struggle wins. The wording comes from a family of sayings about how new truths are received; its closest early form is a trade unionist’s speech of 1918, and the earliest credit to Gandhi known to Quote Investigator is from 1982.

Not Gandhi’s words. If you want his own, cite ‘From Ridicule to—‘, Young India, 27 October 1920, and note that it names ridicule, repression and respect, and promises no victory.

• The form on posters and social mediaFirst they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they attack you. Then you win. The form a reader put to Quote Investigator, credited to Gandhi. Where it was seen
• The form on posters and social mediaFirst they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win. Added to Gandhi’s Wikiquote page in August 2003 (its talk page keeps the edit history); now listed there under Misattributed. Where it was seen

Hope, Power, Society, Politics, Change, Wisdom

• To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. (misattributed) Ralph Waldo Emerson
• When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. (misattributed) Marcus Aurelius
• Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. (misattributed) Mark Twain
• Why fit in when you were born to stand out? (not found) Dr. Seuss
• The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. (not found) Mark Twain

• quoteinvestigator.com/2017/08/13/stages (Quote Investigator, ‘First They Ignore You, Then They Laugh at You, Then They Attack You, Then You Win’, 13 August 2017, updated 19 March 2024)
• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi (Misattributed: Nicholas Klein, 1918; Freedom’s Battle, 1922)
• archive.org/details/youngindia19191900maha (Young India 1919–1922, 1924, pp. 573–574, page images)
• gutenberg.org/ebooks/10366 (Freedom’s Battle, 2nd ed., 1922, Project Gutenberg)

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. No. It is not in Gandhi’s works, and who first wrote it is not known. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/first-they-ignore-you-then-they-laugh-at-you/ (checked 23 October 2026).

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