Jawaharlal Nehru: Trending quotes (page 3)

“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.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

As quoted in A Tribute to Hinduism : Thoughts and Wisdom Spanning Continents and Time about India and Her Culture (2008) by Sushama Londhe, p. 191

Life , Nature , Universe

“We talk about a secular state in India. It is perhaps not very easy even to find a good word in Hindi for "secular". Some people think it means something opposed to religion. That obviously is not correct. What it means is that it is state which honours all faiths equally and gives them equal opportunities; that, as a state, it does not allow itself to be attached to one faith or religion, which then becomes the state religion.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

Statement of 1961, as quoted in Locked Minds, Modern Myths (1997) by T. N. Madan

People , Faith , Religion , Thinking

“We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities of growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it. The British government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually. We believe therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete independence.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

Nehru wrote this resolution of Purna Swaraj (Complete Independence), which was adopted in the Congress session at Lahore on 26 January 1930; this was later celebrated as Independence Day until August 1947, and after 26 January 1950 as Republic Day; as quoted in India http://books.google.com/books?id=nHnOERqf-MQC&pg=PA204 (1999) by Stanley A. Wolpert

Life , People , Freedom

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

Jawaharlal Nehru

Speech to the US Congress (13 October 1949)

Justice , Freedom

“Friends and Comrades, the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. I do not know what to tell you and how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the Father of the Nation, is no more.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

The Light Has Gone Out (1948)

Light

“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. In his death he has reminded us of the big things of life, the living truth, and if we remember that, then it will be well with India.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

The Light Has Gone Out (1948)

Life , Death , Truth , Forgetting

“They fought because they were paid for it; they were not interested very much in the conquest of Greece. The Athenians on the other hand, fought for their freedom. They preferred to die rather than lose their freedom, and those who are prepared to die for any cause are seldom defeated.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

On the defeat of the forces of Darius the Great of Persia at the Battle of Marathon, in Glimpses of World History; Being Further Letters to His Daughter, Written In Prison, And Containing A Rambling Account of History For Young People (1942); also in Nehru on World History (1960} edited by Saul K. Padover, p. 14

Freedom

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

Jawaharlal Nehru

As quoted in The Traveling Curmudgeon: Irreverent Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes on Dismal Destinations, Excess Baggage, The Full Upright Position, and Other Reasons Not To Go There (2003) by Jon Winokur, p. 5

Time , Country

“Every little thing counts in a crisis and we want our weight felt and our voice heard in quarters which are for the avoidance of world conflict.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru's Speeches 1949 - 1953 (1954), p. 144

World

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

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru's Speeches 1949 - 1953 (1954), p. 235

Reality

“Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends. Life is not all logic, and those ends will have to be varied from time to time to fit in with it, but some end must always be clearly envisaged.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

Autobiography (1936; 1949; 1958)

Life , Time

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

Jawaharlal Nehru

Statement to Nikita Khrushchev, as quoted in The New York Post (1 April 1959), and in The Cynic's Lexicon : A Dictionary of Amoral Advice (1984) by Jonathon Green, p. 184

History , Change

“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.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

The Quintessence of Nehru (1961) edited by K. T. Narasimhachar, p. 120

Country

“The general Muslim outlook was thus one of Muslim nationalism or Muslim internationalism, and not of true nationalism. … On the other hand, the Hindu idea of nationalism was definitely one of Hindu nationalism. It was not easy in this case (as it was in the case of the Muslims) to draw a sharp line between this Hindu nationalism and true nationalism. The two overlapped, as India is the only home of the Hindus and they form a majority there.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

Nehru, quoted in Religion, Caste, and Politics in India by C. Jaffrelot

Home , Idea , Drawing

“To be successful in life what you need is education.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

Quotations by 60 Greatest Indians, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/quotations.html,

Life , Education , Success

“Freedom and power bring responsibility.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

A Tryst With Destiny (1947)

Freedom

“The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

As quoted in The Observer [London] (29 August 1954)

“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.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

The Unity of India : Collected Writings, 1937-1940 (1942), p. 280
Context: 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.

Evil , Past

“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”

Jawaharlal Nehru book The Discovery of India

Source: The Discovery of India

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

Jawaharlal Nehru