59 Best Indira Gandhi Quotes

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the 3rd prime minister of India and was also the first and, to date, only female prime minister of India. Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the 1st prime minister of India.  Here are some Indira Gandhi quotes for motivation.

“Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.”

“One must beware of ministers who can do nothing without money, and those who want to do everything with money.”

“You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.”

“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.”

“Whenever you take a step forward, you are bound to disturb something.”

“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.”

“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.”

“People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights.”

Indira Gandhi Quotes

“A nation’ s strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others.”

“Opportunities are not offered. They must be wrested and worked for. And this calls for perseverance… and courage.”

“People with clenched fists can not shake hands.”

“Life is a continuous process of adjustment.”

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Best quotes by Indira Gandhi

“There is not love where there is no will.”

“The immediate is often the enemy of the ultimate.”

“Martyrdom does not end something, it only a beginning.”

“My theory is that men are no more liberated than women.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The power to question is the basis of all human progress.”

“There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten.”

“You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.”

“My father was a statesman, I am a political woman. My father was a saint. I am not.”

“Politics is the art of acquiring, holding, and wielding power.”

“The greatest of all contraceptives is affluence.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The civil servant is primarily the master of the short-term solution.”

“in today’s world no country can be absolutely independent of another. It is a world of interdependence.”

“To me the function of politics is to make possible the desirable.”

“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.”

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

“… 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.”

“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.”

“Every new experience brings its own maturity and a greater clarity of vision.”

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“Home is wherever I go.”

“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?”

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

“The meek may one day inherit the earth, but not the headlines.”

“Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance.”

“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.”

“Every democratic system evolves its own conventions. It is not only the water but the banks which make the river.”

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

“Forgiveness is the virtue of Brave.”

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Famous quotes by Indira Gandhi

“The old need the company of the young so that they renew their contact with life.”

“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.”

“We would rather starve than sell our national honor.”

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

“The purpose of life is to believe, to hope, and to strive.”

“Nothing can convince me that people are at one with their work unless they’re joyous about it.”

“Rebels and non-conformists are often the pioneers and designers of change.”

“what is popular need not necessarily be right or wise.”

“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.”

“The longer one doesn’t write, the more difficult it is to communicate.”

“How can anybody who is the head of a nation afford not to be a pragmatist?”

“Defeats are always pitiful. Victories are always last resources.”

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“Mankind will endure when the world appreciates the logic of diversity.”

“We have believed – and we do believe now – that freedom is indivisible, that peace is indivisible, that economic prosperity is indivisible”

“Never forget that when we are silent, we are one. And when we speak we are two.”

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