Jawaharlal Nehru Quotations

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Citizenship consists in the service of the country.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Great causes and little men go ill together.

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

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism?the way you play it is free will.

There is no end to the adventures we can have if we seek them with our eyes open.

The Russians have been so sweet to me,

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

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.

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

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.

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty and charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. So many people seem to go about their life's business with their eyes shut. Indeed, they object to other people keeping their eyes open. Unable to play themselves, they dislike the play of others.

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".

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

No country or people who are slaves to dogma and the dogmatic mentality can progress, and unhappily our country and people have become extraordinarily dogmatic and little-minded

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.

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

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.

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

Evil unchecked grows, evil tolerated poisons the whole system.

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

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.

Every little thing counts in a crisis.

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

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.

Ignorance is always afraid of change.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

The future belongs to science and those who make friends with science.

A country is known by the way it treats its animals

Most things, except agriculture, can wait

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

To be successful in life what you need is education.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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 .

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

Play the hand you're dealt.

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.

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.

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.

The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere following Gandhi's assassination.

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.

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.

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

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.