Mohandas Gandhi? Jonathan Safran Foer? B. N. Misra? T. S. A. Chettiar? Hakim Sanai? Yoruba Proverb? Navajo Proverb? Oromo Proverb? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Some people deliberately refuse to acknowledge unwelcome facts or events. They may pretend to misunderstand information, or they may simply ignore it. Here is a pertinent figurative expression:
You can’t wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep.
This saying has been attributed to Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi and U.S. author Jonathan Safran Foer. Also, the statement has been labeled a Navajo proverb and a Yoruba proverb. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Mohandas Gandhi did employ a version of this proverb in his autobiography, but he was not the originator. Tracing this proverb is difficult because it can be expressed in numerous ways. Here is an overview showing selected published items together with dates and attributions:
1871: Difficult to awaken people who will close their eyes and determine to sleep on (Unnamed journalist in “The Family Herald” of London)
1888: It is, therefore, mere waste of energy to awaken one, who is wide-awake, but only feigns sleep (Unnamed journalist in “Amrita Bazar Patrika” of Calcutta, India)
1910: To awaken a sleeper is easy, but the heedless is like one dead (English translation from “The Walled Garden of Truth” by Hakim Sanai)
1928: You can wake a man only if he is really asleep; no effort that you may make will produce any effect upon him if he is merely pretending sleep (Mohandas Gandhi in his autobiography)
1932: You can awake one who is really asleep but you cannot awake one who pretends to sleep (B. N. Misra in the Legislative Assembly of India)
1953: People who are sleeping can be awakened but people who are awake and who pretend to be sleeping cannot be awakened (T. S. A. Chettiar in Lok Sabha Debates, India)
1966: You can wake up a sleeping man, but you cannot wake up those who are already awake (U. M. Trivedi in Lok Sabha Debates, India)
1972: It is easy to awaken a sleeping man but not one who pretends to sleep (R. C. Majumdar in “The Calcutta Review”)
1988: One wakes a sleeper; one does not wake a pretender (Yoruba proverb)
1988: You can’t wake a person who is pretending to sleep (Oromo proverb)
1993: You cannot wake up a man who is pretending to be asleep (Saying in Somalia)
1998: You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep (Described as a Navajo proverb)
2009: It’s always possible to wake someone from sleep, but no amount of noise will wake someone who is pretending to be asleep (Jonathan Safran Foer in “Eating Animals”)
Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.
In 1871 the London religious periodical “The Family Herald” included a section with notes for correspondents. One such note was written to encourage William T. of West Groton. The journal pledged to help William T. in his efforts to reinvigorate the spiritual faith of others. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
And, though it be difficult to awaken people who will close their eyes and determine to sleep on, yet we may possibly be enabled in the course of various articles to arouse some minds to the consideration of the infinite power and goodness of the Creator.
The statement above was not an exact match to the expression under examination because the individuals who were resisting spiritual awakening were not pretending to sleep. Instead, metaphorically, they were deliberately closing their eyes and trying to continue to sleep.
In 1888 “The Voice of India” in Mumbai reprinted an article from the English weekly “Amrita Bazar Patrika” in Calcutta. The article criticized Sir Auckland Colvin who was a British colonial administrator in India. The article asserted that Colvin was taking a public stance which he knew was unjustified. Thus, Colvin was metaphorically pretending to continue to sleep, i.e., he was publicly maintaining his ignorance:2
It is, therefore, mere waste of energy to awaken one, who is wide-awake, but only feigns sleep.
In 1910 a thematic match appeared in an English rendering of a 12th century work by the Persian poet Hakim Sanai titled “The Walled Garden of Truth” which was composed circa 1130. Major J. Stephenson of the Indian Medical Service published a translation containing the following passage:3
Has anyone seen the sorrowing ones perplexed like we have? Now we will leave the dreams of those who wake; to awaken a sleeper is easy, but the heedless is like one dead.
The statement above was not an exact match because it discussed “heedless” individuals; yet it was a partial match.
Mohandas Gandhi composed his autobiography during the 1920’s, and “The Indian Review” of Madras published excerpts of a translation from the original Gujarati to English. An installment in 1928 contained the following passage which employed the proverb:4
But you can wake a man only if he is really asleep; no effort that you may make will produce any effect upon him if he is merely pretending sleep. That was precisely the Government’s position. It was anxious only to go through the farce of legal formality. Its decision had already been made.
In 1929 Gandhi’s autobiography appeared under the title “The Story of My Experiments with Truth”. The proverb occurred in chapter 30 of part 5 within the second volume.5
In 1932 the Indian politician B. N. Misra delivered a speech which was recorded in a volume of the “Legislative Assembly Debates” of India. Misra employed the proverb after he complained that the Railway Board was unresponsive to his requests:6
Therefore I say you can awake one who is really asleep but you cannot awake one who pretends to sleep.
In 1953 Indian politician T. S. A. Chettiar mentioned the proverb as recorded in a volume of the parliamentary debates of the “House of the People”:7
There is a proverb. People who are sleeping can be awakened but people who are awake and who pretend to be sleeping cannot be awakened.
In 1966 Indian politician U. M. Trivedi mentioned the proverb as recorded in a volume of the “Lok Sabha Debates”:8
You know there is a saying in the world that you can wake up a sleeping man, but you cannot wake up those who are already awake. The government know fully well what folly it is committing and it is no use pointing out that their action is foolish or silly.
In 1972 “The Calcutta Review” published a piece by R. C. Majumdar who used the proverb during an academic dispute:9
During my sixty years’ experience as a research student of history I have hardly met with any other historical conclusion on a disputed point which is supported by such unimpeachable evidence. It is easy to awaken a sleeping man but not one who pretends to sleep.
In 1988 scholar Oyekan Owomoyela published “A Kì í: Yorùbá Proscriptive and Prescriptive Proverbs”. The collection included the following Yoruba proverb together with an English translation. The Yoruba primarily live in southwestern Nigeria:10
Ẹní bá sùn ni à ńjí; a kì í jí apirọrọ.
One wakes a sleeper; one does not wake a pretender.
Also, in 1988 “The San Diego Union-Tribune” printed a piece by anthropologist Jason W. Clay about famine in Ethiopia. Clay stated that the Oromo people used the proverb:11
The Oromo, the largest group in Ethiopia, have a saying: “You can’t wake a person who is pretending to sleep.”
In 1993 the book “The Ecology of Commerce” by Paul Hawken stated that the expression was circulating in Somalia:12
But you cannot grow out of a problem if it is embedded in the thing that is growing, or as the Somalians say, you cannot wake up a man who is pretending to be asleep. It makes far more sense to examine the system itself, to slow down and arrest industrialism so that it is redesigned and assembled into a system whose growth enhances human existence.
In 1998 the collection “1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training” by David Williams contained the following item:13
You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.
Navajo proverb
In 2009 Jonathan Safran Foer published the book “Eating Animals” which contained the following passage:14
Killing an animal oneself is more often than not a way to forget the problem while pretending to remember. This is perhaps more harmful than ignorance. It’s always possible to wake someone from sleep, but no amount of noise will wake someone who is pretending to be asleep.
In conclusion, a partial match occurred in 1871 within the London periodical “The Family Herald”. The creator was unnamed. In 1888 a strong match occurred in the periodical “Amrita Bazar Patrika” of Calcutta, India. The creator was unnamed. Mohandas Gandhi used the adage in 1928.
In 1988 the saying was described as both a Yoruba proverb and an Oromo proverb. The saying was probably circulating within these communities many years earlier, but 1988 was the date of the earliest published linkage known to QI at this time.
Image Notes: Depiction of a mannequin with a blindfold from David Underland at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Eric Witte and Niels Gabel whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Both pointed out the attribution to Jonathan Safran Foer and the claim that the saying was a Navajo proverb.
- 1871 November 18, The Family Herald, Section: To Correspondents, Wm. T. (West Groton), Quote Page 460, Column 2, Published by William Stevens, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1888 December, The Voice of India, Reprinted article from: Amrita Bazar Patrika (English Weekly) in Calcutta, November 15, Quote Page 670, Bombay, India (Mumbai, India), (Typo: “awake” was misspelled as “awke” in the original text) (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1910, The First Book of the Hadiqatu’ L-Haqiqat or the Enclosed Garden of the Truth of the Hakim Abu’ L-Majd Majdud Sana’i of Ghazna, Edited and Translated by Major J. Stephenson (Indian Medical Service), Quote Page 90, Printed at the Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, India. (Verified with scans) link ↩︎
- 1928 December, The Indian Review, Volume 29, Number 12, Mahatma Gandhi’s Autobiography, Part 5, Chapter 30: The Wonderful Scene!, Start Page 857, Quote Page 359, Column 1, Published by G. A. Natesan & Company, Madras, India. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1929, The Story of My Experiments with Truth by M. K. Gandhi (Mohandas K. Gandhi), Translated from the original in Gujarati by Mahadev Haribhai Desai and Pyarelal Nair, Volume 2, Part 5, Chapter 30: That Wonderful Spectacle, Quote Page 482, Navajivan Press, Ahmedabab. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1932, Legislative Assembly Debates – India, Topic: The Railway Budget List of Demands, Date: March 3, 1932, Speaker: Mr. B. N. Misra, Quote Page 1452, Printed by the Manager, Government of India Press, New Delhi, India. (Parliament of India Lok Sabha Digital Library at eparlib.sansad.in; Accessed October 26, 2025) link ↩︎
- 1953, Parliamentary Debates of India, House of the People (Lok Sabha Debates), Topic: Andhra State Bill, Date: August 26, 1953, Speaker: Shri T. S. A. Chettiar, Column 1585, Parliament Secretariat, New Delhi, India. (Parliament of India Lok Sabha Digital Library at eparlib.sansad.in; Accessed October 26, 2025) link ↩︎
- 1966, Parliament of India, Lok Sabha Debates, Topic: Tashkent Declaration (Motion), Date: February 16, 1966, Speaker: Shri U. M. Trivedi, Column 689 and 690, (Typo: “know” was misspelled as “konw” in the original text) Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi, India. (Parliament of India Lok Sabha Digital Library at eparlib.sansad.in; Accessed October 26, 2025) link ↩︎
- 1972 January to March, The Calcutta Review, Volume 3, Number 3, Raja Rammohun Roy — A Historical Review by R. C. Majumdar, Start Page 209, Quote Page 216, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1988 Copyright, A Kì í: Yorùbá Proscriptive and Prescriptive Proverbs by Oyekan Owomoyela, Proverb Number 487, Quote Page 195, University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1988 May 8, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Famine’s Return: Ethiopia regime turns hunger into a weapon against its foes by Jason W. Clay, Quote Page C1, San Diego, California. (NewsBank Access World News) ↩︎
- 1993, The Ecology of Commerce: How Business Can Save the Planet by Paul Hawken, Chapter 12: The Inestimable Gift of a Future, Quote Page 208, Weidenfeld & Nicolson: The Orion Publishing Group, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1998, 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training by David Williams, Topic: Resistance, Quote Page 156, GNP Ltd, Hexham, Northumberland, England. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2009, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, Chapter: Hiding / Seeking, Quote Page 102, Little, Brown and Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎