100 Quotes by Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, was the architect of a nascent nation's identity, an emblem of democratic ideals and social justice. His leadership during the tumultuous period of India's independence and its initial years was marked by his visionary approach to nation-building. Nehru's commitment to secularism, education, and industrialization laid the foundation for a modern, pluralistic India. His speeches and writings reflected his deep belief in scientific temper and rationality as drivers of progress. The lasting impact of his leadership can be seen in India's institutions, scientific endeavors, and foreign policy. Despite criticisms and challenges, Nehru's legacy remains a testament to the delicate balance between tradition and progress, unity and diversity, that defines the Indian nation. He remains not just a political figure but a symbol of the aspirations of a young nation striving to navigate a complex world.
Jawaharlal Nehru Quotes
Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
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.
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure.
Time is not measured by the passing of years but by what one does, what one feels, and what one achieves.
Success often comes to those who dare to act. It seldom goes to the timid who are ever afraid of the consequences.
Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.
What we really are matters more than what other people think of us.
The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.
Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.
By education I am an Englishman, by views an internationalist, by culture a Muslim and a Hindu only by accident of birth.
Play the hand you're dealt.
A man who is afraid will do anything.
You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.
Citizenship consists in the service of the country.
The art of a people is a true mirror of their minds.
A country is known by the way it treats its animals
Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.
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.
Blood and tears are going to be our lot, whether we like them or not. Our blood and tears will flow; maybe the parched soil of India needs them so that the fine flower of freedom may grow again.
Ignorance is always afraid of change.
A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his action.
You don't change the course of history by turning the faces of portraits to the wall.
Without peace, all other dreams vanish and are reduced to ashes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The man who has gotten everything he wants is all in favor of peace and order.
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.
Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.
I am the last Englishman to rule in India.
To be successful in life what you need is education.
Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge... At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.
Socialism is... not only a way of life, but a certain scientific approach to social and economic problems.
Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit.
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.
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.
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.
The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.
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.
Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.
To be in good moral condition requires at least as much training as to be in good physical condition.
Where freedom is menaced or justice threatened or where aggression takes place, we cannot be and shall not be neutral.
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.
India cannot sit on the fence anymore. It may have to make a choice. Either way it is going face problems.
It is far better to know our own weaknesses and failures than to point out those of others.
It is a fundamental rule of human life, that if the approach is good, the response is good.
Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.
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.
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.
The boundaries of democracy have to be widened so as to include economic equality also. This is the great revolution through which we are all passing.
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.
Act with courage and dignity; stick to the ideals that give meaning to life.
There is perhaps nothing so bad and so dangerous in life as fear.
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.
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
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
What we need is a generation of peace.
The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
The purely agitational attitude is not good enough for a detailed consideration of a subject.
As fear is a close companion to falsehood, so truth follows fearlessness.
No country or people who are slaves to dogma and dogmatic mentality can progress.
A tyrst with destiny - A the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awaken to life and Freedom
Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.
There is nothing more horrifying than stupidity in action.
Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.
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.
The future belongs to science and those who make friends with science.
Poverty anywhere is a danger to prosperity everywhere
The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.
Evil unchecked grows, evil tolerated poisons the whole system.
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.
It is only too easy to make suggestions and later try to escape the consequences of what we say.
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.
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.
Action itself, so long as I am convinced that it is right action, gives me satisfaction.
Often in history we see that religion, which was meant to raise us and make us better and nobler, has made people behave like beasts. Instead of bringing enlightenment of them, it has often tried to keep them in the dark; instead of broadening their minds, it has frequently made them narrow-minded and intolerant of others.
We can't encourage narrow mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought.
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.
It is now clear that science is incapable of ordering life. A life is ordered by values.
The basic fact of today is the tremendous pace of change in human life.
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.
America is a country no one should go to for the first time.
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.
Great causes and little men go ill together.
Logic and cold reason are poor weapons to fight fear and distrust. Only faith and generosity can overcome them.
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.
A theory must be tempered with reality.
Most things, except agriculture, can wait
Peace is not merely an absence of war. It is also a state of mind.
Every little thing counts in a crisis.
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.
I have long believed that the only way peace can be achieved is through world government.
Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.
The future has to be lived before it can be written about.
Obviously, the highest type of efficiency is that which can utilize existing material to the best advantage.
Unity must be of the mind and heart, a sense of belonging together and of facing together those who attack it.
Let us be a little humble; let us think that the truth may not perhaps be entirely with us.
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.
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.
The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere following Gandhi's assassination.
Time is not measured by the years that pass by, instead by the things you do, feel or accomplish.
People avoid action. Often because they are afraid of the consequences, for action means risk and danger. Danger seems terrible from a distance; it is not so bad if you have a close look at it
The person who runs away exposes himself to that very danger more than a person who sits quietly.
Restraint does not mean weakness. It does not mean giving in.
Those who are prepared to die for any cause are seldom defeated.
When you imitate the enemy's tactics, you take on his liabilities.
If the world suffers from mental deterioration or from moral degradation, then something goes wrong at the very root of civilization or culture. Even though that civilization may drag out for a considerable period, it grows less and less vital and ultimately tumbles down.
Theoretical approaches have their place and are, I suppose, essential but a theory must be tempered with reality.
It is the habit of every aggressor nation to claim that it is acting on the defensive.
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.
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.
We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?
It is better to understand a part of truth and apply it to our lives than to understand nothing at all and flounder helplessly in a vain attempt to pierce the mystery of existence.
It is always more difficult to fight one's own failings than the power of an adversary.
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.
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.
What is history, indeed, but a record of change?
Please remember that law and sense are not always the same.
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.
Those who boast are seldom the great.
Only a prisoner who has been confined for long behind high walk can appreciate the extraordinary psychological value of these outside walks and open views.
When the present is full of gloom, the past becomes haven of refuge that provides relief and inspiration.
I wish that more and more adventurous young men would give up the gun in favour of the camera.
― Jawaharlal Nehru Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
