Bhagat Singh
I have always been of opinion that all the political workers should be indifferent and should never bother about the legal fight in the law courts and should boldly bear the heaviest possible sentences inflicted upon them. They may defend themselves but always from purely political considerations and never from a personal point of view.Collection: Legal
In the future society, i.e. the communist society that we want to build, we are not going to establish charity institution, as there shall be no needy or poor, and no alms-giving and alms-taking.Collection: Future
Our entire family is replete with sentiments of patriotism. Uncle Swarna Singh left for his heavenly abode in jail in 1910, two or three years after my birth. Uncle Ajit Singh is leading the life of an exile in foreign countries.Collection: Patriotism
A rebellion is not a revolution. It may ultimately lead to that end.
'Study' was the cry that reverberated in the corridors of my mind. Study to enable yourself to face the arguments advanced by opposition. Study to arm yourself with arguments in favor of your cult. I began to study.
Compromise is not such ignoble and deplorable a thing as we generally think. It is rather an indispensable factor in the political strategy. Any nation that rises against the oppressors is bound to fail in the beginning and to gain partial reforms during the medieval period of its struggle through compromises.
This is not the time to marry. My country is calling me. I have taken a vow to serve the country with my heart and soul.
Let me announce, with all the strength at my command, that I am not a terrorist and I never was, expect perhaps in the beginning of my revolutionary career. And I am convinced that we cannot gain anything through those methods.
In what way can a man believing in God cease believing due to his personal vanity? There are only two ways. The man should either begin to think himself a rival of God, or he may begin to believe himself to be God.
I never had any desire to defend myself, and never did I seriously think about it.
I am still not at all in favour of offering any defence. Even if the court had accepted that petition submitted by some of my co-accused regarding defence, etc., I would not have defended myself.
My applications submitted to the Tribunal regarding my interview during the hunger strike were misinterpreted, and it was published in the press that I was going to offer defence, though in reality I was never willing to offer any defence.
I will climb the gallows gladly and show to the world as to how bravely the revolutionaries can sacrifice themselves for the cause.
All the political movements of our country that have hitherto played any important role in our modern history had been lacking in the ideal at the achievement of which they aimed. Revolutionary movement is no exception.
Revolution did not necessarily involve sanguinary strife. It was not a cult of bomb and pistol. They may sometimes be mere means for its achievement.
I had only one idea before me throughout the trial, i.e. to show complete indifference towards the trial in spite of serious nature of the charges against us.
In the statement accompanying the text of Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance, the Viceroy had stated that the accused in this case were trying to bring both law and justice into contempt. The situation afforded us an opportunity to show to the public whether we were trying to bring law into contempt or whether others were doing so.
Those revolutionaries who have, by chance, escaped the gallows should live and show to the world that they cannot only embrace gallows for the ideal but also bear the worst type of tortures in the dark, dingy prison cells.
We must make it clear that revolution does not merely mean an upheaval or a sanguinary strife. Revolution necessarily implies the programme of systematic reconstruction of society on new and better adapted basis after complete destruction of the existing state of affairs (i.e., regime).
There is tension all over the country. The party in Bengal has done substantial work. They have eliminated a few officers. The Englishmen are terrified. As a result, they have started sending their families to Britain. After some time, they will realise that they cannot exercise authority over India.
The martyrdom of Lalaji has shaken the Congressmen. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru is planning something solid to be presented for adoption in the coming session of the Congress, but I am not sure if he would be able to do something.
L. Ram Saran Das was sentenced to death in 1915, and the sentence was later commuted to life transportation. Today myself, sitting in the condemned cell, I can let the readers know as authoritatively that the life-imprisonment is comparatively a far harder lot than that of death.
L. Ram Saran Das was a member of the revolutionary party which was held responsible for many a violent deed. But this by no means proves that revolutionaries are bloodthirsty monsters, seeking pleasure in destruction.
I have altogether failed to comprehend as to how undue pride or vain-gloriousness could ever stand in the way of a man believing in God.
I deny the very existence of that Almighty Supreme Being.
They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit.Collection: Crush
Life is lived on its ownother's shoulders are used only at the time of funeral.Collection: Funeral
It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas.Collection: Ideas
If the deaf are to hear the sound has to be very loudCollection: Sound
Love always elevates the character of man. It never lowers him, provided love be loveCollection: Character
Any man who stands for progress has to criticize, disbelieve and challenge every item of the old faith. Item by item he has to reason out every nook and corner of the prevailing faith. If after considerable reasoning one is led to believe in any theory or philosophy, his faith is welcomed. His reasoning can be mistaken, wrong, misled and sometimes fallacious. But he is liable to correction because reason is the guiding star of his life. But mere faith and blind faith is dangerous: it dulls the brain, and makes a man reactionary.Collection: Stars
Merciless criticism and independent thinking are the two necessary traits of revolutionary thinking.Collection: Independent
I am a man and all that affects mankind concerns meCollection: Men
Revolution is an inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is an imperishable birth right of all. Labor is the real sustainer of society, the sovereignty of the ultimate destiny of the workers.Collection: Freedom
Lovers, Lunatics and poets are made of same stuff.Collection: Stuff
For us, compromise never means surrender, but a step forward and some rest. That is all and nothing else.Collection: Mean
In times of great necessity, violence is indispensable.Collection: Violence
The aim of life is no more to control the mind, but to develop it harmoniously; not to achieve salvation here after, but to make the best use of it here below; and not to realise truth, beauty and good only in contemplation, but also in the actual experience of daily life; social progress depends not upon the ennoblement of the few but on the enrichment of democracy; universal brotherhood can be achieved only when there is an equality of opportunity - of opportunity in the social, political and individual life.Collection: Opportunity
Every tiny molecule of Ash is in motion with my heat I am such a Lunatic that I am free even in Jail.Collection: Jail
'Revolution' does not necessarily involve sanguinary strife nor is there any place in it for individual vendetta. It is not the cult of the bomb and the pistol. By 'Revolution' we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice, must change.Collection: Mean
The aim of life is no more to control the mind, but to develop it harmoniously; not to achieve salvation here after, but to make the best use of it here belowCollection: Motivational
Crush your individuality first. Shake off the dreams of personal comfort. Then start to work. Inch by inch you shall have to proceed. It needs courage, perseverance and very strong determination. No difficulties and no hardships shall discourage you. No failure and betrayals shall dishearten you. No travails (!) imposed upon you shall snuff out the revolutionary will in you. Through the ordeal of sufferings and sacrifice you shall come out victorious. And these individual victories shall be the valuable assets of the revolution.Collection: Crush
The dirty alliance between religious preachers and possessors of power brought the boon of prisons, gallows, knouts and above all such theories for the mankind.Collection: Religious
The sanctity of law can be maintained only so long as it is the expression of the will of the people.Collection: Expression
For mass struggles, nonviolence is essential.Collection: Struggle
...by crushing individuals, they cannot kill ideas.Collection: Crush
If, as you believe there is an Almighty, Omnipresent, Omniscient God, who created the earth or universe, please let me know, first of all, as to why he created this world. This world which is full of woe and grief, and countless miseries, where not even one person lives in peace....Where is God? What is He doing? Is He getting a diseased pleasure out of it? A Nero! A Genghis Khan! Down with Him!Collection: Grief
Man acts only when he is sure of the justness of his action, as we threw the bomb in the Legislative AssemblyCollection: Men
I emphasize that I am full of ambition and hope and of full charm of life. But I can renounce all at the time of need, and that is the real sacrifice.Collection: Real
The people generally get accustomed to the established order of things and begin to tremble at the very idea of a change. It is this lethargical spirit that needs be replaced by the revolutionary spirit.Collection: Order