Jawaharlal Nehru Quotes (57 Quotes)

Great causes and little men go ill together.

Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit.

It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening of custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, or a rich country inhabited by starving poor... 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.

The person who runs away exposes himself to that very danger more than a person who sits quietly.

Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.

Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.

Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.

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

It is only too easy to make suggestions and later try to escape the consequences of what we say.

Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.

Those who are prepared to die for any cause are seldom defeated.

It is the habit of every aggressor nation to claim that it is acting on the defensive.

Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.

Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.

Every little thing counts in a crisis.

There is perhaps nothing so bad and so dangerous in life as fear.

Citizenship consists in the service of the country.

Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.

Action itself, so long as I am convinced that it is right action, gives me satisfaction.

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

The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

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.

Socialism is... not only a way of life, but a certain scientific approach to social and economic problems.

The art of a people is a true mirror of their minds.

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

Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.

The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.

The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.

The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.

I want nothing to do with any religion concerned with keeping the masses satisfied to live in hunger, filth, and ignorance.

Evil unchecked grows, evil tolerated poisons the whole system.

A man who is afraid will do anything.

Let us be a little humble; let us think that the truth may not perhaps be entirely with us.

Ignorance is always afraid of change.

Obviously, the highest type of efficiency is that which can utilize existing material to the best advantage.

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.

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.

You don't change the course of history by turning the faces of portraits to the wall.

The man who has gotten everything he wants is all in favor of peace and order.

Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.

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.

America is a country no one should go to for the first time

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.

India cannot sit on the fence anymore. It may have to make a choice. Either way it is going face problems,

A theory must be tempered with reality.

What we need is a generation of peace.

What we really are matters more than what other people think of us.

A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his action.

Its Communism's unfortunate association with violence encourages a certain evil tendency in human beings.

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.