Jawaharlal Nehru Quotes:

Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.

Topics: Life, Motivational, Inspiring, Coincidence In Life, Life And Destiny

Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.

Topics: Talking, Given, Chiefs, Saying And Doing

What we really are matters more than what other people think of us.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1954). “Speeches”

Topics: Love, Life, Friendship

The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organised religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always it seemed to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition, exploitation and the preservation of vested interests.

Topics: India, Superstitions, Belief, Exploitation, Organised

Citizenship consists in the service of the country.

Topics: Country, India, Citizenship, Indian Patriotic, World Citizen

Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.

source: - Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore (1968). “Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India”

Topics: Motivational, Hard Work, Acting

Success often comes to those who dare to act. It seldom goes to the timid who are ever afraid of the consequences.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1964). “Glorious Thoughts of Nehru: Being a Treasury of Twelve Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thoughts of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects”

Topics: Acting, Action, Dare

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength.

Topics: Sight, Dawn, India, India Independence Day, Indian Independence Day

Without peace, all other dreams vanish and are reduced to ashes.

Topics: Dream, Ashes

Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.

Topics: Freedom, Understanding, Democracy, Pandit

The Ganga to me is the symbol of India's memorable past which has been flowing into the present and continues to flow towards the ocean of the future.

Topics: Ocean, Memorable, Past

You don't change the course of history by turning the faces of portraits to the wall.

Topics: Wall, History, Portraits

Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.

Topics: Mind, Culture, Spirit, Cultures And Traditions

Every little thing counts in a crisis.

Topics: Littles, Little Things, Crisis

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.

Topics: Inspirational, Life, Beauty, Indian, Solo Travel

Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1964). “Nehru on Socialism: Selected Speeches and Writings”

Topics: Failure, Principles, Forget

Let us be a little humble; let us think that the truth may not perhaps be entirely with us.

Topics: Truth, Humble, Thinking

It is only too easy to make suggestions and later try to escape the consequences of what we say.

Topics: Advice, Trying, Suggestions, Pandit, Natural Consequences

Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.

Topics: Mean, Eugenics, Democracy, Means To An End

A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his action.

Topics: Leadership, Men, Thinking, Instinct Intuition, Hunches

Where freedom is menaced or justice threatened or where aggression takes place, we cannot be and shall not be neutral.

Topics: Justice, Aggression, Threatened

Most of us seldom take the trouble to think. It is a troublesome and fatiguing process and often leads to uncomfortable conclusions. But crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, Bal Ram Nanda (1972). “Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Advisory Board: M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, and B. R. Nanda; General Editor: S. Gopal”

Topics: Thinking, Trouble, Advantage, Troublesome, Pandit

Slogans are apt to petrify man's thinking ... every slogan, every word almost, that is used by the socialist, the communist, the capitalist. People hardly think nowadays. They throwT words at each other.

Topics: Men, Thinking, People

It is a fundamental rule of human life, that if the approach is good, the response is good.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund (1984). “Selected works of Jawaharlal Nehru, second series”, Oxford Univ Pr

Topics: Fundamentals, Human Life, Approach

You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.

It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, or a rich country inhabited by starving people... Who indeed could afford to ignore science today? At every turn we have to seek its aid... The future belongs to science and those who make friends with science.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, H. N. Sethna (1981). “Proceedings of the International Seminar on Science, Technology, and Society in Developing Countries, Bombay, November 1979”

Topics: Running, Country, Science, Hunger And Poverty, Hunger Poverty

There is only one thing that remains to us, that cannot be taken away: to act with courage and dignity and to stick to the ideals that have given meaning to life.

source: - Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore (1968). “Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India”

Topics: Taken, Sticks, Dignity

I want nothing to do with any religion concerned with keeping the masses satisfied to live in hunger, filth, and ignorance. I want nothing to do with any order, religious or otherwise, which does not teach people that they are capable of becoming happier and more civilized on this earth, capable of becoming master of his fate and captain of his soul.

Topics: Religious, Ignorance, Fate

Evil unchecked grows, evil tolerated poisons the whole system.

Topics: Evil, Poison, Grows

The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.

Topics: Virtue, Virtuous, Persons

Obviously, the highest type of efficiency is that which can utilize existing material to the best advantage.

Topics: Efficiency, Advantage, Type, Fuel Efficiency, Efficient

The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.

Topics: Wisdom, Learning, School, Taking Risks, Be Cautious

The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.

Topics: Peace, Diversity, Alternatives, Coexist, Peaceful Coexistence

Time is not measured by the passing of years but by what one does, what one feels, and what one achieves.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1960). “India's Spokesman: From Speeches and Addresses”

Topics: Graduation, Time, Years, Graduation Day, Convocation

Socialism is... not only a way of life, but a certain scientific approach to social and economic problems.

Topics: Eugenics, Way, Problem, Economic Problems

Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.

Topics: Thinking, Advantage, Force

I do not attach much importance to America's bombs. I attach importance to her great vitality and integrity. The strength of America is deeper and more significant than her financial power.

Topics: Being Strong, Integrity, America

Ignorance is always afraid of change.

source: - Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore (1968). “Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India”

Topics: Ignorance, Afraid Of Change

It is far better to know our own weaknesses and failures than to point out those of others.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1961). “India's foreign policy: selected speeches, September 1946-April 1961”

Topics: Humorous, Weakness, Knows

To be successful in life what you need is education.

Topics: Successful, Degrees, Needs

Children are like buds in a garden and should be carefully and lovingly nurtured, as they are the future of the nation and the citizens of tomorrow.

Topics: Children, Garden, Bud

By education I am an Englishman, by views an internationalist, by culture a Muslim and a Hindu only by accident of birth.

Topics: Views, Culture, Birth

Poverty anywhere is a danger to prosperity everywhere

Topics: Poverty, Prosperity, Danger

Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1964). “Glorious Thoughts of Nehru: Being a Treasury of Twelve Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thoughts of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects”

Topics: Loyal, May, Fruit, Efficient Work

The future has to be lived before it can be written about.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

Topics: Future, Written

As fear is a close companion to falsehood, so truth follows fearlessness.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1948). “Nehru on Gandhi”, New York : J. Day Company

Topics: Past, Companion, Fearlessness

Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.

Topics: Peace, People, Serenity, International Peace Day, Peace And Serenity

Act with courage and dignity; stick to the ideals that give meaning to life.

Topics: Giving, Sticks, Dignity

We can't encourage narrow mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought.

Topics: People, Nations, Narrow Mindedness

To be in good moral condition requires at least as much training as to be in good physical condition.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarvepalli Gopal, Uma Iyengar (2003). “The essential writings of Jawaharlal Nehru”, Oxford Univ Pr

Topics: Inspirational, Hero, Training

Time is not measured by the years that pass by, instead by the things you do, feel or accomplish.

Topics: Years, Accomplish, Feels

A man who is afraid will do anything.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1951). “The story of the world: a brief account of the early days of the earth as told in letters to his daughter by Jawaharlal Nehru”

Topics: Fear, Men

In the name of religion many great and fine deeds have been performed. In the name of religion also, thousands and millions have been killed, and every possible crime has been committed.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi (1963). “India's quest: being letters on Indian history from 'Glimpses of world history.'”, Asia Publishing House

Topics: Religious, Names, Evil

Do not advise too much: do the job yourself. This is the only advice you can give to others. Do it and others will follow.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1996). “Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: 1 April-15 July 1952”, Oxford University Press

Topics: Jobs, Giving, Advice

People avoid action. Often because they are afraid of the consequences, for action means risk and danger. Danger seems terrible from a distance; it is not so bad if you have a close look at it

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi (1963). “India's quest: being letters on Indian history from 'Glimpses of world history.'”, Asia Publishing House

Topics: Distance, Mean, People

Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1967). “Aug. 1949-Feb. 1953”

Topics: Likes, Facts, Disappear, Pandit

No country or people who are slaves to dogma and dogmatic mentality can progress.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, Bal Ram Nanda (1972). “Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Advisory Board: M. Chalapathi N. Y. Sharada Prasad, and B. R. Nanda;general Editor: S. Gopal”

Topics: Country, People, Progress, Dogmatic

There is perhaps nothing so bad and so dangerous in life as fear.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (195?). “Important speeches: being a collection of most significant speeches delivered from 1922 to 1951”

Topics: Life, Dangerous, Dangerous Things

Please remember that law and sense are not always the same.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1958). “Mar. 1953-Aug. 1957”

Topics: Law, Remember, Please

Those who boast are seldom the great.

source: - Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore (1968). “Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India”

Topics: Boast

A country is known by the way it treats its animals

Topics: Country, Animal, Way

I am getting old and the sign of old age is that I begin to philosophize and ponder over problems which should not be my concern at all.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1954). “Speeches”

Topics: Age, Aging, Problem

I think that sacrifices of animals in the name of religion are barbarous and they degrade the name of religion.

Topics: Sacrifice, Animal, Thinking, Degrade

Theoretical approaches have their place and are, I suppose, essential but a theory must be tempered with reality.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1954). “Speeches 1949-1953”

Topics: Reality, Essentials, Theory

The art of a people is a true mirror of their minds.

source: - Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore (1968). “Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India”

Topics: Art, Mirrors, People

America is a country no one should go to for the first time.

source: - "The Traveling Curmudgeon: Irreverent Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes on Dismal Destinations, Excess Baggage, The Full Upright Position, and Other Reasons Not To Go There". Book by Jon Winokur, August 19, 2003.

Topics: Country, America, Firsts

Great causes and little men go ill together.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

Topics: Men, Together, Causes, Little Man

Restraint does not mean weakness. It does not mean giving in.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

Topics: Mean, Giving, Weakness

Logic and cold reason are poor weapons to fight fear and distrust. Only faith and generosity can overcome them.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, Bal Ram Nanda (1972). “Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Advisory Board: M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, and B. R. Nanda; General Editor: S. Gopal”

Topics: Faith, Fear, Fighting

The boundaries of democracy have to be widened so as to include economic equality also. This is the great revolution through which we are all passing.

Topics: Democracies Have, Justice, Diversity, Economic Equality

The man who has gotten everything he wants is all in favor of peace and order.

Topics: Peace, Men, Order

A great disaster is a symbol to us to remember all the big things of life and forget the small things, of which we have thought too much.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarvepalli Gopal (1980). “Jawaharlal Nehru, an anthology”, Oxford University Press, USA

Topics: Life, Too Much, Remember

When you imitate the enemy's tactics, you take on his liabilities.

Topics: Enemy, Tactics, Liability

The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

source: - "Basic Approach," repr. in Vincent Shean Nehru: the Years of Power (1960) p. 295

Topics: Rich, Poor, Force

There is nothing more horrifying than stupidity in action.

Topics: Stupidity, Action

The Bhagavad Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the universe.

source: - "A Tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and Wisdom Spanning Continents and Time about India and Her Culture". Book by Sushama Londhe, 2008.

Topics: Spiritual, Views, Foundation, Spiritual Nature

What is history, indeed, but a record of change?

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

Topics: Records

Because we have sought to cover up past evil, though it still persists, we have been powerless to check the new evil of today.Evil unchecked grows, Evil tolerated poisons the whole system. And because we have tolerated our past and present evils, international affairs are poisoned and law and justice have disappeared from them.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, Bal Ram Nanda (1972). “Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Advisory Board: M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, and B. R. Nanda; General Editor: S. Gopal”

Topics: Past, Law, Evil, Law And Justice, International Affairs

It is dangerous and harmful to be guided in our life's course by hatreds and aversions, for they are wasteful of energy and limit and twist the mind and prevent it from perceiving the truth.

source: - Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore (1968). “Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India”

Topics: Hatred, Mind, Twists

It is now clear that science is incapable of ordering life. A life is ordered by values.

Topics: Life Is, Clear, Incapable

In order to understand people, we have to understand their way of life and approach. If we wish to convince them, we have to use their language in the narrow sense of the mind. Something that goes even much further than that is not the appeal to logic and reason, but some kind of emotional awareness of the other people.

Topics: Emotional, Order, People

Those who are prepared to die for any cause are seldom defeated.

source: - Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore (1968). “Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India”

Topics: Causes, Defeat, Prepared

The basic fact of today is the tremendous pace of change in human life.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1965). “Congressmen's Primer for Socialism”

Topics: Change, Life Changing, Pace, Pace Of Change

Remember always that there not so very much difference between various people as we seem to imagine. Maps and atlases show us countries in different colors. Undoubtedly people do differ from one another, but they resemble each other also a great deal, and it is well to keep this in mind and not misled by colors on the map or by national boundaries.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi (1963). “India's quest: being letters on Indian history from 'Glimpses of world history.'”, Asia Publishing House

Topics: Country, Color, Differences

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.

Topics: Inspirational, Peace, War, International Peace Day, Peace And Serenity

Play the hand you're dealt.

Topics: Gratitude, Hands, Cards You're Dealt

Most things, except agriculture, can wait

Topics: Agriculture, Waiting

At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1967). “Sept. 1964-May 1949”

Topics: Powerful, Sleep, Long, India Independence Day, Indian Independence Day

The person who runs away exposes himself to that very danger more than a person who sits quietly.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1967). “Sept. 1964-May 1949”

Topics: Running, Quiet, Danger

Action itself, so long as I am convinced that it is right action, gives me satisfaction.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (2003). “The Essential Writings of Jawaharlal Nehru”

Topics: Inspirational, Long, Giving, Right Action, Pandit

A tyrst with destiny - A the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awaken to life and Freedom

Topics: Change, Sleep, Destiny

I have become a queer mixture of the East and the West, out of place everywhere, at home nowhere.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1989). “Jawaharlal Nehru: An Autobiography : with Musings on Recent Events in India”, Vintage

Topics: Home, East, Mixtures

The ambition of the greatest men of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1967). “Sept. 1964-May 1949”

Topics: Eye, Ambition, Men, Greatest Man

For the first time i began to think, consciously and deliberately of religion and other worlds. The Hindu religion especially went up in my estimation; not the ritual or ceremonial part, but it's great books, the "Upnishads," and the "Bhagavad Gita."

source: - "An Autobiography". Book by Jawaharlal Nehru, 1936.

Topics: Book, Thinking, Other Worlds, Estimation, Hindu Religion

A language is something infinitely greater than grammar and philology. It is the poetic testament of the genius of a race and a culture, and the living embodiment of the thoughts and fancies that have moulded them

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1980). “An Anthology”

Topics: Race, Culture, Genius, Philology

What we need is a generation of peace.

Topics: Peace, Needs, Generations

Unity must be of the mind and heart, a sense of belonging together and of facing together those who attack it.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

Topics: Family, Heart, Unity

History is almost always written by the victors and conquerors and gives their view. Or, at any rate, the victors' version is given prominence and holds the field.

source: - "The Discovery of India". Book by Jawaharlal Nehru, 1946.

Topics: Views, Giving, Fields, Prominence

Blood and tears are going to be our lot, whether we like them or not. Our blood and tears will flow; maybe the parched soil of India needs them so that the fine flower of freedom may grow again.

Topics: Flower, Sacrifice, Blood

In our society competitive capitalism has put family life and working life on a collision course.In Canada statistics show that over 70 percent of the burden of caring for children, the aged, the disabled and the sick falls on women most of whom receive no pay for these very essential tasks.Normally speaking, it may be said that the forces of capitalism, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer and thus increase the gap between them.

Topics: Children, Fall, Caring

All the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart. Peace has been said to be indivisible, so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1961). “India's foreign policy: selected speeches, September 1946-April 1961”

Topics: Diversity, Brotherhood, Together, Unity In Diversity

When the present is full of gloom, the past becomes haven of refuge that provides relief and inspiration.

Topics: Inspiration, Past, Relief

Every great revolution, whether it is right or not, we really know has any vital, urgent need to basis. It comes not just from itself.

Topics: Needs, Revolution, Bases

I am the last Englishman to rule in India.

source: - Quoted in John Kenneth Galbraith, A Life in Our Times (1981)

Topics: India, Lasts, Englishmen

Often in history we see that religion, which was meant to raise us and make us better and nobler, has made people behave like beasts. Instead of bringing enlightenment of them, it has often tried to keep them in the dark; instead of broadening their minds, it has frequently made them narrow-minded and intolerant of others.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi (1963). “India's quest: being letters on Indian history from 'Glimpses of world history.'”, Asia Publishing House

Topics: Dark, People, Mind

Peace is not merely an absence of war. It is also a state of mind.

Topics: Peace, War, Serenity, International Peace Day, Peace And Serenity

The light has gone out of our lives... Yet I am wrong, for the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light... and a thousand years later that light will still be seen in this country and the world will see it... For that light represented the living truth.

Topics: Country, Light, Years, Assassination

If I was asked what is the greatest treasure which India possesses and what is her finest heritage, I would answer unhesitatingly that it is the Samskrit language and literature and all that it contains. This is a magnificent inheritance and so long as this endures and influences the life of our people, so long will the basic genius of India continue. If our race forgot the Buddha, the Upanishads and the great epics (Ramayana and Mahabharata), India would cease to be India .

Topics: Epic, Race, Greatest Treasure, Mahabharata

India cannot sit on the fence anymore. It may have to make a choice. Either way it is going face problems.

Topics: Choices, India, May

The Ganga, especially, is the river of India, beloved of her people, round which are intertwined her memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of India's age-long culture and civilization, ever changing, ever flowing, and yet ever the same Ganga.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarvepalli Gopal (1980). “Jawaharlal Nehru, an anthology”, Oxford University Press, USA

Topics: Song, Memories, Civilization, Intertwined

History is the record of human progress, a record of the struggle of the advancement of the human mind, of the human spirit, towards some known or unknown objective.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1967). “Sept. 1964-May 1949”

Topics: Struggle, Mind, Progress, Human Progress

Only a prisoner who has been confined for long behind high walk can appreciate the extraordinary psychological value of these outside walks and open views.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1955). “Jawaharlal Nehru, an autobiography: with musings on recent events in India”

Topics: Views, Long, Appreciate, Confined

The purely agitational attitude is not good enough for a detailed consideration of a subject.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

Topics: Attitude, Not Good Enough, Agitation

If the world suffers from mental deterioration or from moral degradation, then something goes wrong at the very root of civilization or culture. Even though that civilization may drag out for a considerable period, it grows less and less vital and ultimately tumbles down.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1964). “Jawaharlal Nehru: Excepts from His Writings and Speeches”

Topics: Civilization, Roots, Suffering

India has known the innocence and insouciance of childhood, the passion and abandon of youth, and the ripe wisdom of maturity that comes from long experience of pain and pleasure; and over and over a gain she has renewed her childhood and youth and age

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1961). “The Quintessence of Nehru”

Topics: Pain, Passion, Maturity, Insouciance

It is the habit of every aggressor nation to claim that it is acting on the defensive.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

Topics: Acting, Habit, Claims, Aggressors

...that great lover of peace, a man of giant stature who moulded, as few other men have done, the destinies of his age.

source: - 1953 Tribute, Indian Parliament, 9 Mar.

Topics: Death, Suicide, Destiny, Great Lovers

I have long believed that the only way peace can be achieved is through world government.

Topics: World Government, Law, Long

There are two things that have to happen before an idea catches on. One is that the idea should be good. The other is that it should fit in with the temper of the age. If it does not, even a good idea may well be passed by.

Topics: Ideas, Two, Age

Science and technology have freed humanity from many burdens and given us this new perspective and great power. This power can be used for the good of all. If wisdom governs our actions; but if the world is mad or foolish, it can destroy itself just when great advances and triumphs are almost without its grasp.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1964). “Glorious Thoughts of Nehru: Being a Treasury of Twelve Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thoughts of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects”

Topics: Science, Technology, Government, New Perspective

I think the years I have spent in prison have been the most formative and important in my life because of the discipline, the sensations, but chiefly the opportunity to think clearly, to try to understand things.

Topics: Opportunity, Thinking, Years

What the mysterious is I do not know. I do not call it God because God has come to mean much that I do not believe in. I find myself incapable of thinking of a deity or of any unknown supreme power in anthropomorphic terms, and the fact that many people think so is continually a source of surprise to me. Any idea of a personal God seems very odd to me.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1980). “An Anthology”

Topics: Believe, Mean, Thinking, Supreme Power

Wars are fought to gain a certain objective. War itself is not the objective; victory is not the objective; you fight to remove the obstruction that comes in the way of your objective. If you let victory become the end in itself then you've gone astray and forgotten what you were originally fighting about.

source: - Interview with James Cameron, Picture Post, October 28, 1950.

Topics: War, Fighting, Victory, Obstruction

I wish that more and more adventurous young men would give up the gun in favour of the camera.

Topics: Giving Up, Gun, Men

We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (195?). “Important speeches: being a collection of most significant speeches delivered from 1922 to 1951”

Topics: Wise, Opportunity, Achievement, India Independence Day, Indian Independence Day

It is better to understand a part of truth and apply it to our lives than to understand nothing at all and flounder helplessly in a vain attempt to pierce the mystery of existence.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

Topics: Truth, Mystery, Vain

I have always thought that the best way to find out what is right and what is not right, what should be done and what should not be done, is not to give a sermon, but to talk and discuss, and out of discussion sometimes a little bit of truth comes out.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

Topics: Giving, Collaboration, Done, Truth Comes Out

It is always more difficult to fight one's own failings than the power of an adversary.

source: - Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore (1968). “Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India”

Topics: Fighting, Failing, Difficult

If in the modern world wars have unfortunately to be fought (and they do, it seems) then they must be stopped at the first possible moment, otherwise they corrupt us, they create new problems and make our future even more uncertain. That is more than morality; it's sense.

source: - Interview with James Cameron, Picture Post, October 28, 1950.

Topics: War, World, Firsts

It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of human ity.

source: - Jawaharlal Nehru (1960). “India's Spokesman: From Speeches and Addresses”

Topics: Dedication, People, Causes, Indian Independence Day

Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge... At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.

Topics: Sleep, Destiny, August, Make In India, Independence And Freedom

Its [Communism's] unfortunate association with violence encourages a certain evil tendency in human beings.

source: - B. N. Mullik, Jawaharlal Nehru (1972). “My Years with Nehru, 1948-1964”, Bombay : Allied Publishers

Topics: Evil, Violence, Association