Indira Gandhi
Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.Collection: Forgiveness
Happiness is a state of mind, you know. I don't think you are permanently happy. One is happy about certain things and not so happy about others.Collection: Happiness
There is not love where there is no will.Collection: Relationship
One must beware of ministers who can do nothing without money, and those who want to do everything with money.Collection: Money
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.Collection: Death
All the people who fought for freedom were my heroes. I mean, that was the sort of story I liked reading... freedom struggles and so on.Collection: Freedom
You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.Collection: Peace
There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.Collection: Work
The power to question is the basis of all human progress.Collection: Power
The environmental problems of developing countries are not the side effects of excessive industrialisation but reflect the inadequacy of development.Collection: Environmental
A nation' s strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others.Collection: Strength
Winning or losing of the election is less important than strengthening the country.
People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights.
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.
You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.
I do not like carving the world into segments; we are one world.
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?
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.
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.
There are grave misgivings that the discussion on ecology may be designed to distract attention from the problems of war and poverty.
My father was a statesman, I am a political woman. My father was a saint. I am not.
Martyrdom does not end something, it only a beginning.
My son had nothing to do with policy or decision making, nor did I discuss the elections or any other matter with him.
I think basically I'm lazy, but I have a housewife's mentality when I go about my job.
I am frequently attacked.
I am not a person to be pressured - by anybody or any nation.
If I see something dirty or untidy, I have to clean it up.
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.
I've never turned to anybody for advice and counsel. Even when I was a very small child, I had to stand on my feet because of the circumstances of those times, and somehow, the circumstances have remained more or less the same. I have to take my own decisions.
I don't think my father was my mentor.
I'm certainly not a workaholic.
Wearing khadi was a badge of honour. It was something one was proud to do.
The collective judgment of the electorate must be respected.
All my games were political games; I was, like Joan of Arc, perpetually being burned at the stake.
This is why we feel that democracy's important: because democracy allows you to have small explosions and therefore avoid the bigger explosions.
On the one hand, the rich look askance at our continuing poverty - on the other, they warn us against their own methods.
There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten.
I have already reached out to the janata, and I am only trying to acquaint myself with people's problems.
The people have nothing to fear of me; people have never feared me.
I was happy to be with my parents. I didn't see very much of them, so I was very happy when my father was there and out of jail.
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.Collection: Funny
Opportunities are not offered. They must be wrested and worked for. And this calls for perseverance... and courage.Collection: Perseverance
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.Collection: Men
Every new experience brings its own maturity and a greater clarity of vision.Collection: Maturity
I am proud that I spent the whole of my life in the service of my people ... 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.Collection: Blood
The purpose of life is to believe, to hope, and to strive.Collection: Believe
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.Collection: Practice
Women sometimes go too far, it's true. But it's only when you go too far that others listen.Collection: Sometimes
To become capable, one must have faith in oneself.Collection: Have Faith
Never forget that when we are silent, we are one. And when we speak we are two.Collection: Two