“আমাদের এই যুগটাই ভিন্ন জাতের; এটা হচ্ছে মোহভঙ্গের যুগ, সন্দেহ সংশয় আর প্রশ্নজিজ্ঞাসার যুগ। প্রাচীন কালের যে-সব মতামত আর রীতিনীতি ছিল তার অনেকগুলোই এখন আর আমরা মেনে নিতে পারছিনা, তাদের উপরে আর আমাদের বিশ্বাস নেই- এশিয়াতে ইউরোপে আমেরিকাতে সর্বত্রই। অতএব এখন আমরা সন্ধানে ফিরছি নূতন পথের, সত্যের নূতনতর রূপের, আমাদের এই পরিবেশের সঙ্গে যে রূপটির সামঞ্জস্য অধিকতর স্পষ্ট হবে। পরস্পরকে ক্রমাগত প্রশ্ন করছি আমরা, করছি তর্ক বিতর্ক আর ঝগড়া, খাড়া করছি অসংখ্যরকমের 'বাদ' আর দর্শন। সক্রেটিসের যুগের মত আমরাও বাস করছি একটি জিজ্ঞাসার যুগে; কিন্তু সে জিজ্ঞাসার ক্ষেত্র শুধু এথেন্সের মত একটি ক্ষুদ্র নগরীর মধ্যেই সীমাবদ্ধ নয়, তার ক্ষেত্র এখন সমগ্র বিশ্বব্যাপী।
এক-এক সময়ে পৃথিবীর অন্যায় অশান্তি নৃশংসতা দেখে আমরা বিষণ্ন হয়ে যাই। সংশয়ের ছায়ায় অন্ধকার হয়ে ওঠে আমাদের মন- সে অন্ধকার থেকে অব্যাহতির পথ খুঁজে পাইনে। ম্যাথু আর্নল্ডের মতো তখন আমাদেরও মনে হয়, এই পৃথিবীতে আশা বলে কিছু অবশিষ্ট নেই। একটি মাত্র কাজ আছে যা আমরা করতে পারি, সে হচ্ছে পরস্পরের প্রতি সত্য পালন করে চলা।”
Source: Glimpses of World History
“The deep blue Arabian Sea stretches out before me as I write; and on the other side, in the far distance, is the coast of India, passing by. I think of this vast and almost immeasurable expanse
and compare it to the little barrack, with its high walls, in Naini Prison, from where I wrote my
previous letters to you. The sharp outline of the horizon stands out before me, where the sea
seems to meet the sky; but in Gaol, a prisoner's horizon is the top of the wall surrounding him.
Many of us who were in prison are out of it to-day and can breathe the freer air outside. But many of our colleagues remain still in their narrow cells deprived of the sight of the sea and the
land and the horizon. And India herself is still in prison and her freedom is yet to come. What is
our freedom worth if India is not free?”
Source: Glimpses of World History
“There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
Source: Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vol 15, Part 2, 26 October, 1950- 28 February 1951
“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; but that is not the politician's way.”
Source: An autobiography
“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 art of a people is a true mirror of their minds.”
Source: 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
“...that great lover of peace, a man of giant stature who moulded, as few other men have done, the destinies of his age.”
“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: Speeches
“To be in good moral condition requires at least as much training as to be in good physical condition.”
Source: The essential writings of Jawaharlal Nehru
“Success often comes to those who dare to act. It seldom goes to the timid who are ever afraid of the consequences.”
Source: Glorious Thoughts of Nehru: Being a Treasury of Twelve Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thoughts of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects
“Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.”
Source: Freedom from Fear: Reflections on the Personality and Teachings of Gandhi
“A theory must be tempered with reality.”
Source: 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
“There is perhaps nothing so bad and so dangerous in life as fear.”
Source: Important speeches: being a collection of most significant speeches delivered from 1922 to 1951
“Those who are prepared to die for any cause are seldom defeated.”
Source: 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
“I think that sacrifices of animals in the name of religion are barbarous and they degrade the name of religion.”
“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: India's foreign policy: selected speeches, September 1946-April 1961
“Ignorance is always afraid of change.”
Source: 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
“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: Sept. 1964-May 1949
“Action itself, so long as I am convinced that it is right action, gives me satisfaction.”
Source: The essential writings of Jawaharlal Nehru
“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.”
“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: India's Spokesman: From Speeches and Addresses
“I have long believed that the only way peace can be achieved is through world government.”
“The man who has gotten everything he wants is all in favor of peace and order.”
“What we need is a generation of peace.”
“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: 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
“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.”
Source: Jawaharlal Nehru: An Autobiography : with Musings on Recent Events in India
“I am the last Englishman to rule in India.”
“Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse. So we are forced to accept democracy. It has good points and also bad. But merely saying that democracy will solve all problems is utterly wrong. Problems are solved by intelligence and hard work.”
“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.”
“Where freedom is menaced or justice threatened or where aggression takes place, we cannot be and shall not be neutral.”
Source: Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: 22 February-30 April 1957
“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.”
“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”
Source: Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Advisory Board: M. Chalapathi N. Y. Sharada Prasad, and B. R. Nanda;general Editor: S. Gopal
“India cannot sit on the fence anymore. It may have to make a choice. Either way it is going face problems.”
“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.”
“A man who is afraid will do anything.”
Source: 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
“Logic and cold reason are poor weapons to fight fear and distrust. Only faith and generosity can overcome them.”
Source: Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Advisory Board: M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, and B. R. Nanda; General Editor: S. Gopal
“Please remember that law and sense are not always the same.”
Source: Mar. 1953-Aug. 1957
“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.”
“Peace is not merely an absence of war. It is also a state of mind.”
“A tyrst with destiny - A the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awaken to life and Freedom”
“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: Sept. 1964-May 1949
“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: Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Advisory Board: M. Chalapathi Rau, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, and B. R. Nanda; General Editor: S. Gopal
“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.”
“Great causes and little men go ill together.”
Source: 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
“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: Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: 1 April-15 July 1952
“By education I am an Englishman, by views an internationalist, by culture a Muslim and a Hindu only by accident of birth.”
“You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.”
“I wish that more and more adventurous young men would give up the gun in favour of the camera.”
“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: 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
“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.”
Source: Jawaharlal Nehru's speeches
