Gandhi might've said a lot of things, but the point of that quote is that retaliation leads to an overall worse outcome. Unless you're an egomaniac, you will wa

Gandhi might've said a lot of things, but the point of that quote is that retaliation leads to an overall worse outcome. Unless you're an egomaniac, you will want to swallow your pride, break the chain of retaliation and live your life in peace. Retaliation is an inherently unstable state. You are right that people are only as good as the world allows them to be. Which brings us to morality. It is not about any greater good or anything like that. Morality is simply what the world has defined that allows people to be. Over time humanity has understood a set of ideas that allow a stable society to exist. Without these you will have a very dysfunctional society that is in a perpetual state of retaliation. The wise founders of nations have realized this and codified morals into law. There is no society today that exists without law because any such society would not have stood the test of time.