Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Empowering the individual means empowering the nation. And empowerment is best served through rapid economic growth with rapid social change.
I don't care if I remain prime minister. I'm only interested in doing a good job as long as I'm capable and for as long as I don't get tired.
For the Bharatiya Janata Party, Gandhian socialism is what we want to achieve and make society free of exploitation and full of opportunities.
You don't help a country by supporting a military regime that denies any sign of democracy, and what defeated Pakistan was its military regime.
Yes, he [Mahatma Gandhi] was a great man. However...between me and Gandhi there was never the understanding there was between me and my father.
The economic issues are most vital for us and it is of the highest importance that we should fight our biggest enemies - Poverty, unemployment.
If you do not like anything in a particular book, then sit and discuss it. Banning a book is not a solution. We have to tackle it ideologically.
No state should be allowed to profess partnership with the global coalition against terror, while continuing to aid, abet and sponsor terrorism.
This is why we feel that democracy's important: because democracy allows you to have small explosions and therefore avoid the bigger explosions.
The question before the advanced nations is not whether they can afford to help the developing nations, but whether they can afford not to do so.
Happiness is a state of mind, you know. I don't think you are permanently happy. One is happy about certain things and not so happy about others.
To the nameless and unsung heroes of our freedom struggle, we offer our humble tribute. Their life-blood nourishes the body of independent India.
If by religion we mean a belief in humanity rather than the gods, an effort to make man better and a little happier, then yes, I'm very religious.
There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.
With boys I climbed trees, ran races, and wrestled. I had no complexes of envy or inferiority toward boys. At the same time, however, I liked dolls.
Mahatma Gandhi was always talking of religion...He was convinced that was right...The fact is, we young people didn't agree with him on many things.
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.
If you only knew, for instance, how much I enjoy being a grandmother! Do you know I'm twice a grandmother? Rajiv and Sonia have had a boy and a girl.
The environmental problems of developing countries are not the side effects of excessive industrialisation but reflect the inadequacy of development.
You said, 'How is it possible for democracy to work with an illiterate people who are dying of hunger?' But with that people we made a democracy work.
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.
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.
If we do not want to be pained by anybody we must not pain anybody; and how can man consider himself humane if he wants to live at the cost of others.
There has no doubt to be fundamental research in science, but applied research is equally important for new improvements and changes in our techniques.
In the early ages, I believe not much thought was given to what man is and what his real functions should be, and what is the real purpose of his life.
Our frequent initiatives to normalise relations with Pakistan are not a sign of our weakness; rather, they are an indication of our commitment to peace.
Ours is a multi-religious country, a multi-lingual country; we have many different modes of worship. We believe in peaceful and harmonious co-existence.
Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit. It is never a narrowing of the mind or a restriction of the human spirit or the country's spirit.
We need to convert the extraordinary goodwill between India and Russia into a thriving, visible, vigorous, and mutually beneficial economic relationship.
We are unnecessarily wasting our precious resources in wars... if we must wage war, we have to do it on unemployment, disease, poverty, and backwardness.
I assure you we'll go on making our decisions without worrying whether it pleases or displeases the Soviet Union, China, America, France, or anyone else.
Still, in international matters, the treaty changes nothing. That is, it doesn't prevent us from being friends with other countries, which indeed we are.
Civilizations are built by the ceaseless toil of a succession of generations. With softness and sloth, civilizations succumb. Let us beware of decadence.
That loyalty to the country comes ahead of all other loyalties. And this is an absolute loyalty, since one cannot weight it in terms of what one receives.
The freedom movement transformed the status of women. Women fought along with men as comrades. In the process, the shackles that had bound them fell away.
Who can forget that in critical times of war in 1962, 1965 and 1971, Naga underground organisations did not fire on the Indian Army? They showed restraint.
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.
We cannot and will not rest until we have won true swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions - until we have wiped out poverty from our land.
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.
The UN's unique legitimacy flows from a universal perception that it pursues a larger purpose than the interests of one country or a small group of countries.
[Visiting Richard Nixon] useful only to me. The experience taught me that when people do something against you, that something always turns out in your favor.
They're the problems of poverty, of the rights of the individual, of the changes brought about by technology. They're the ones that count, more than religion!
If I die a violent death, as some fear and a few are plotting, I know that the violence will be in the thought and the action of the assassins, not in my dying.
You said, 'Planning is something for communist countries; democracy and planning don't go together!' But, with all the errors we committed, our plans succeeded.
I don't at all care who's on the right or left or in the center. Even though we use them, even though I use them myself, these expressions have lost all meaning.
Among the major tasks before us none is of greater importance for our strength and stability than the task of building up the unity and solidarity of our people.
How is it possible for people in the modern world to go on killing each other for religion? The problems we should be concerned with nowadays are quite different!
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.
I tremble when I am reminded of the fact that I have to be in charge of this country and Parliament, which had been led by no less a person than Jawaharlal Nehru.
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.