Indira Quotes & Sayings

The only thing I knew for sure is I hadn't slept in ten years. Not really. I'd been fighting my own monster since nine months after 9/11. I had regrets. I had pain that I still can't find words to describe. But sooner or later you have to make a choice. Maybe fate or luck or God had a plan for me in Jakarta that was greater than an educational leadership conference, a few papers and a book deal. If Vietnam was for Dad, then maybe Jakarta was for me. Indira says I shouldn't discount that it was Allah's plan. The way I see it, Allah's plan is what started my war. — Tucker Elliot

How can anybody who is the head of a nation afford not to be a prag-matist? — Indira Gandhi

Without peace there can be no prosperity for any people, rich or poor. And yet, there can be no peace without erasing the harshness of the growing contrast between the rich and the poor. — Indira Gandhi

One must beware of ministers who can do nothing without money, and those who want to do everything with money. — Indira Gandhi

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. — Indira Gandhi

Voltaire once wrote, "Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers." Sir Francis Bacon added, "A prudent question is one-half of wisdom." Indira Gandhi concluded that "the power to question is the basis of all human progress." Great questions are clearly the quickest path to great answers. — Gary Keller

P. C. Bhattacharya was the first non-ICS man to be appointed to the job and he had a soft ride. But in what would cause a major uproar today in Parliament and in the media, when the rupee was devalued by a huge 36 per cent in 1966, he was merely informed. The decision had been taken by Indira Gandhi in March that year when she visited the United States and met the representatives of the World Bank and IMF. But she kept it to herself till June. Even the finance minister didn't know, let alone the poor RBI governor. — T.C.A. Srinivasa Raghavan

I cannot understand how anyone can be an Indian and not be proud. — Indira Gandhi

I would like to ask a question. Would this sort of war or savage bombing which has taken place in Vietnam have been tolerated for so long, had the people been European? — Indira Gandhi

Where does strength come from? It is not muscle strength any more. It is not also mere intellectual strength. What is strength? Strength is the support of the people. — Indira Gandhi

The purpose of life is to believe, to hope, and to strive. — Indira Gandhi

There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten. — Indira Gandhi

To me the function of politics is to make possible the desirable. — Indira Gandhi

Whenever you take a step forward, you are bound to disturb something. — Indira Gandhi

My father was a saint, I'm not. — Indira Gandhi

Ability is not always gauged by examination. — Indira Gandhi

It is our duty to create a social milieu in which the young and the socially weak feel that the present and future belong to them. — Indira Gandhi

In an underdeveloped society, the first anxiety is of infant mortality. In an advanced one it is to keep alive the aged. — Indira Gandhi

We should not mourn for men of high ideals. Rather we should rejoice that we had the privilege of having had them with us, to inspire us by their radiant personalities. — Indira Gandhi

People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights. — Indira Gandhi

The civil servant is primarily the master of the short-term solution. — Indira Gandhi

Nothing can convince me that people are at one with their work unless they're joyous about it. — Indira Gandhi

My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people; those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition. — Indira Gandhi

In today's world no country can be absolutely independent of another. It is a world of interdependence. — Indira Gandhi

Public speaking is done in the public tongue, the national or tribal language; and the language of our tribe is the men's language. Of course women learn it. We're not dumb. If you can tell Margaret Thatcher from Ronald Reagan, or Indira Gandhi from General Somoza, by anything they say, tell me how. This is a man's world, so it talks a man's language. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Every democratic system evolves its own conventions. It is not only the water but the banks which make the river. — Indira Gandhi

I love theater. I also love radio. I love language. — Indira Varma

I depend on good editors and a good director. — Indira Varma

To be liberated, woman must feel free to be herself, not in rivalry to man but in the context of her own capacity and her personality. — Indira Gandhi

An actor matures with experiences, and the more the emotions he/she has been through, the greater the intensity of performances. — Indira Varma

The immediate is often the enemy of the ultimate. — Indira Gandhi

One of the things I would love to do, by the time I die, is be in every single genre. That would be really fun. I get to shoot guns and jump out of a helicopter. — Indira Varma

The longer one doesn't write, the more difficult it is to communicate. — Indira Gandhi

Martyrdom does not end something, it only a beginning. — Indira Gandhi

My family was something precious, like jewelry, like a necklace you never take off. — Indira Ganesan

It has been my experience that people who are at cross-purposes with nature are cynical about mankind and ill at ease with themselves. — Indira Gandhi

Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave. — Indira Gandhi

Every new experience brings its own maturity and a greater clarity of vision. — Indira Gandhi

I've love the challenge of doing something new. Bollywood is magical. — Indira Varma

Opportunities are not offered. They must be wrested and worked for. And this calls for perseverance ... and courage. — Indira Gandhi

Education is a liberating force, and in our age it is also a democratizing force, cutting across the barriers of caste and class, smoothing out inequalities imposed by birth and other circumstances. — Indira Gandhi

The old need the company of the young so that they renew their contact with life. — Indira Gandhi

Mankind will endure when the world appreciates the logic of diversity. — Indira Gandhi

Popularity is not a gurantee of quality. — Indira Gandhi

You can't shake hands with a clenched fist. — Indira Gandhi

I love variety. I love theater. I also love radio. I love language. But, the older you get, you need to earn money. You need to heighten your profile. — Indira Varma

Freedom ... is about how you can survive after things are taken from you. It is about the prospect of losing what you love and the effort it takes to continue. — Indira Ganesan

Even today to be civilised is held to be synonymous with being westernised. Advanced countries devote large resources to formulating and spreading ideas and doctrines and they tend to impose on the developing nations their own norms and methods. The pattern of the classical acquisitive society with its deliberate multiplication of wants not only is unsuited to conditions in our countries but is positively harmful. — Indira Gandhi

Life is a continuous process of adjustment. — Indira Gandhi

To bear many children is considered not only a religious blessing but also an investment. The greater their number, some Indians reason, the more alms they can beg. — Indira Gandhi

Defeats are always pitiful. Victories are always last resources. — Indira Gandhi

Youth is beautiful. — Indira Varma

The power to question is the basis of all human progress. — Indira Gandhi

Far to our left I could see a commercial airliner on final approach to Soekarno-Hatta. Far to our right I could see the outline of tall city buildings. The imagery was hard to ignore. In the midst was an impoverished world filled with dangerous radicals. Some believed it was God's will to crash airplanes into buildings. Some recruited children to self-detonate on buses and in coffee shops. It must be incredibly difficult to hold fast to hope when you live in such a world. It's also hard to keep faith with humanity when religious ideology is used as an impetus for war. But I also believe that for every war there is a hero ... and for me, Jakarta will always be Indira's city. — Tucker Elliot

You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and vibrantly alive in repose. — Indira Gandhi

A nation's strength ultimately consist in what it can do on its own and not in what it can borrow from other. — Indira Gandhi

My theory is that men are no more liberated than women. — Indira Gandhi

I don't want to be an absent mother. Otherwise, why have children? — Indira Varma

Never forget that when we are silent, we are one. And when we speak we are two. — Indira Gandhi

All my games were political games; I was, like Joan of Arc, perpetually being burned at the stake. — Indira Gandhi

My father was a statesman, I am a political woman. My father was a saint. I am not. — Indira Gandhi

We would rather starve than sell our national honor. — Indira Gandhi

There is not love where there is no will. — Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi had been this very powerful, dominating, ambiguous mother figure. Ambiguous because she was tyrannical, she had imposed ... she had suspended Indian democracy for a few years but she also was the woman who had defeated Pakistan in war at a time when most male politicians in India had secretly feared fighting that war, so that here in India even today Indira Gandhi is called by Indian nationalists the only man ever to have governed India. — Aravind Adiga

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. — Indira Gandhi

All unprejudiced persons objectively surveying the grim events in Bangla Desh since March 25 have recognized the revolt of 75 million people, a people who were forced to the conclusion that neither their life, nor their liberty, to say nothing of the possibility of the pursuit of happiness, was available to them. — Indira Gandhi

Did Indira Gandhi ask for somebody's permission to carry out the test in 1974? — Atal Bihari Vajpayee

What is popular need not necessarily be right or wise. — Indira Gandhi

We have believed - and we do believe now - that freedom is indivisible, that peace is indivisible, that economic prosperity is indivisible — Indira Gandhi

Have a bias toward action - let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away. — Indira Gandhi

Dacca is now the free capital of a free country. — Indira Gandhi

The environmental problems of developing countries are not the side effects of excessive industrialisation but reflect the inadequacy of development. — Indira Gandhi

We have to prove to the disinherited majority of the world that ecology and conservation will not work against their interest but will bring an improvement in their lives. — Indira Gandhi

I have lived a long life, and I am proud that I spend the whole of my life in the service of my people. I am only proud of this and nothing else. I shall continue to serve until my last breath, and when I die, I can say, that every drop of my blood will invigorate India and strengthen it. — Indira Gandhi

Politics is the art of acquiring, holding, and wielding power. — Indira Gandhi

The greatest of all contraceptives is affluence. — Indira Gandhi

Rebels and non-conformists are often the pioneers and designers of change. — Indira Gandhi

The meek may one day inherit the earth, but not the headlines. — Indira Gandhi

Home is wherever I go. — Indira Gandhi

Forgiveness is the virtue of Brave. — Indira Gandhi

I like how small you can be on TV. — Indira Varma

Even if I died in the service of the nation, I would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood ... will contribute to the growth of this nation and to make it strong and dynamic. — Indira Gandhi

Fruits doesn't fall far from the tree but there seeds can go places
and wherever they go
by their virtues
they leave their traces — Indira Mukhopadhyay

There are moments in history when brooding tragedy and its dark shadows can be lightened by recalling great moments of the past. — Indira Gandhi

People with clenched fists can not shake hands. — Indira Gandhi

Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance. — Indira Gandhi

Without courage, you cannot practice any other virtue. You have to have courage - courage of different kinds: first, intellectual courage, to sort out different values and make up your mind about which is the one which is right for you to follow. You have to have moral courage to stick up to that - no matter what comes in your way, no matter what the obstacle and the opposition is. — Indira Gandhi

Peace comes to those who let others live in peace. — Indira Mukherjee

Nothing that is worthwhile is ever easy. — Indira Gandhi

We do not wish to impoverish the environment any further, and yet we cannot for a moment forget the grim poverty of large numbers of people. Are not poverty and need the greatest polluters? — Indira Gandhi

Indira was surrounded by people who had given up hope, who blamed their own misery on the influence of Christianity and western cultures, and yet, literally in the midst of squalor, her family had created a place of real beauty. It really makes you stop and think. Uncle Google should be spitting out eight hundred million things American schools have done right. The fact things are so screwed up makes no sense. If you believe Uncle Google, then we've done the exact opposite from Indira's family - in the land of hope and plenty we've created a place that's ugly. We have so much. Can things really be so bad? Maybe we can't fix our schools because as individuals we've never truly been broken. Or maybe Chinese lanterns make everyone wax philosophical. — Tucker Elliot

It is legitimate to have one's own point of view and political philosophy. But there are people who make anger, rather than a deeply held belief, the basis of their actions. They do not seem to mind harming society as a whole in the pursuit of their immediate objective. No society can survive if it yields to the demands of frenzy, whether of the few or the many. — Indira Gandhi

Would you consider a man or a woman to be complicated? Is it that difficult to understand both the sexes? We say that we know what the other sex is all about, but is that really true? Perhaps the following witty, funny quotes and sayings can help simplify things down about men. — Indira Gandhi

I don't mind if my life goes in the service of the nation. If I die, every drop of my blood will invigorate the nation. — Indira Gandhi