Indira Gandhi

“The great need in the world today is for for nations to so define their national interest that it makes for greater harmony, greater equality and justice and greater stability in the world.”

“We believe in freedom with a passion that only those who have been denied it for so long can understand it, We believe in equality because so many in our nation have been denied for so long, we believe in human worth for that is the basis for all our current work in India.”

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

“India wants to avoid a war at all costs but it is not a one-sided affair, you cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”

“There are grave misgivings that the discussion on ecology may be designed to distract attention from the problems of war and poverty.”

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

“All unprejudiced persons objectively surveying the grim events in Bangladesh since March 25 have recognized the revolt of 75 million people, a people who were forced to the conclusion that neither their life, nor their liberty, to say nothing of the possibility of the pursuit of happiness, was available to them.”

“Dacca is now the free capital of a free country.”

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

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

“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.”

“We make no discrimination against the adherent of any religion. All faiths are entitled to equal protection and equal respect. This we have named "Secularism", which entitles each Indian to pursue his own belief and learn more about his own creed. But it also requires him to extend the same right to persons of other religions.”

“I am not interested in a long life. I am not afraid of these things. I don't mind if my life goes in the service of this nation. If I die today, every drop of my blood will invigorate the nation.”

“My grandfather once told me that there are 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 there.”

“As for the position they held in this war ... well, I think they’ve been more skillful than the Americans. Certainly they’ve had a lighter touch—had they wanted to, they could have done more for Pakistan. Isn’t that so? It was the Americans who sent the Seventh Fleet into the Bay of Bengal, not the Chinese.”

“I’m not for nationalization because of the rhetoric of nationalization, or because I see in nationalization the cure-all for every injustice. I’m for nationalization in cases where it’s necessary.”