Jawaharlal Nehru

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

Address to the United Nations (28 August 1954); as quoted in The Macmillan Dictionary of Political Quotations (1993) by Lewis D. Eigen and Jonathan Paul Siegel, p. 698, 1993

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

As quoted in Al Arab Vol. 9 (1970) by the League of Arab States, p. 9, 1970

We have laid down in our constitution that India is a secular state. That does not mean irreligion. it means equal respect for all faiths and equal opportunities for those who profess any faith.

An Appeal, 5 July 1961, in Jawaharlal Nehru: An Anthology, pp. 332-3., 1961

I have become a queer mixture of the East and the West ... Out of place everywhere, at home nowhere. Perhaps my thoughts and approach to life are more akin to what is called Western than Eastern, but India clings to me, as she does to all her children, in innumerable ways ... I am a stranger and alien in the West. I cannot be of it. But in my own country also, sometimes I have an exile's feeling.

As quoted in Ambassador's Report (1954) by Chester Bowles, p. 59, 1954

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

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

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

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.

Interview by James Cameron in Picture Post (28 October 1950), 1950

…RSS is again resuming some of its activities…. The whole mentality of the RSS is a fascist mentality. Therefore, their activities have to be very closely watched.

Letters to Chief Ministers, August 1, 1949, Vol. 1, p. 428. Quoted in . “Sectional President’s Address: COMMUNAL THREAT AND SECULAR RESISTANCE.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 71, (2010-2011). Also in "After Gandhi's Assassination, Nehru Saw the Hindu Right as a Threat to the Indian State", The Wire, Jan. 30, 2023., 1949

These people [the RSS] have the blood of Mahatma Gandhi on their hands and pious disclaimers and dissociation now have no meaning.

Letter to the Punjab Chief Minister, February 11, 1948, Selected Works Of Jawaharlal Nehru, 2nd series, Vol. 5, p. 53, cited in Sucheta Mahajan, Independence and Partition, p. 320. Quoted in . “Sectional President’s Address: COMMUNAL THREAT AND SECULAR RESISTANCE.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 71, (2010-2011). Also in "After Gandhi's Assassination, Nehru Saw the Hindu Right as a Threat to the Indian State", The Wire, Jan. 30, 2023., 1948

Communalism resulted not only in the division of the country, which inflicted a deep wound in the heart of the people which will take a long time to heal if it ever heals but also assassination of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

Coimbatore public speech, June 3, 1948, Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, second series, vol. 6, p. 25. Quoted in . “Sectional President’s Address: COMMUNAL THREAT AND SECULAR RESISTANCE.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 71, (2010-2011). Also in "After Gandhi's Assassination, Nehru Saw the Hindu Right as a Threat to the Indian State", The Wire, Jan. 30, 2023., 1948

"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."

From the book The Discovery of India (1946), Chapter 1., 1946

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.

The Unity of India : Collected Writings, 1937-1940 (1942), p. 94, 1942

Great causes and little men go ill together.

The Indian Annual Register Vol.1 (January-June 1939), 1939

My intention was to trace, as far as I could, my own mental development and not write a survey of recent Indian history.

Preface, 1936., 1936

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.

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, 1934