Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) was an Indian nationalist and a political leader who played a prominent role during India’s independence movement. As Mahatma Gandhi’s chosen political heir, Nehru became the first prime minister of independent India in 1947 and served until his death.
Born in Allahābād, India, Nehru was the son of Motilal Nehru, a renowned lawyer from a family that had its roots in Kashmir. Jawaharlal was educated in England, and, influenced by Gandhi, joined India’s fight for greater autonomy from the British. During the 1920s and the 1930s, the British imprisoned him repeatedly for civil disobedience.
After becoming the first prime minister (1947–64) of independent India, Nehru worked as a modernizer and a reformer, with an emphasis on creating a secular constitution for the newly formed state. He also implemented socialist economic reforms and earmarked India to a policy of industrialization.
Nehru was a prolific writer in English; his notable works include The Discovery of India (1945,) Letters from a Father to His Daughter (1929,) and his autobiography, Toward Freedom (1936.)
Nehru’s descendants, the so-called ‘Nehru dynasty,’ have dominated Indian politics since the 1940s. His daughter Indira Gandhi succeeded him as prime minister.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Jawaharlal Nehru
The basic fact of today is the tremendous pace of change in human life.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Change
It is far better to know our own weaknesses and failings than to point out those of another.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
What we need is a generation of peace.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Peace
Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Culture
Citizenship consists in the service of the country
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Great causes and little men go ill together.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Reason
The ideals and objectives of yesterday was still ideals of today, but they lost some of their luster and even, as one seemed to go towards them, they lost the shining beauty which had warmed the heart and vitalized the body. Evil triumphed often enough, but what was far worse was the coarsening and distortion of what seemed so right. Was human nature so essentially bad that it would take ages of training, through suffering and misfortune, before it could behave reasonably and raise man above the creature of lust and violence and deceit that he now was? And, meanwhile, was every effort to change radically in the present or the near future doomed to failure.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Time is not measured by the passing of years, but by what one does, what one feels and what one achieves.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Time, Graduation, Spending time wisely, Time Management
Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Fate, Will, Willpower, Will Power, Decisions
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.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Peace, Serenity
There is perhaps nothing so bad and so dangerous in life as fear.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Fear
Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Action
Most of us seldom take the trouble to think. It is a troublesome and fatiguing process and often leads to uncomfortable conclusions. But crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Strength, Crises
The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Virtue
The purely agitation attitude is not good enough for a detailed consideration of a subject.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Argument
Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Facts
A man who is afraid will do anything.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Fear, Motivation
The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Risk
A country is known by the way it treats its animals.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Wildlife, One liners
The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Capitalism
It is only too easy to make suggestions and later try to escape the consequences of what we say.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Advice
I want nothing to do with any religion concerned with keeping the masses satisfied to live in hunger, filth, and ignorance. I want nothing to do with any order, religious or otherwise, which does not teach people that they are capable of becoming happier and more civilized, on this earth, capable of becoming true man, ‘master of his fate and captain of his soul’.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Proverbs, Religion
A theory must be tempered with reality.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Reality
A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his action.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Intuition
Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Work
A language is something infinitely greater than grammar and philology. It is the poetic testament of the genius of a race and a culture, and the living embodiment of the thoughts and fancies that have moulded them.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
We can’t encourage narrow mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
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. 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. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Independence, Change, History
Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Inaction, Procrastination, Getting Going
The wheel of change moves on, and those who were down go up and those who were up go down.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Change
I think the years I have spent in prison have been the most formative and important in my life because of the discipline, the sensations, but chiefly the opportunity to think clearly, to try to understand things.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Adversity, Difficulties
Action itself, so long as I am convinced that it is right action, gives me satisfaction.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Satisfaction, Action
The man who has gotten everything he wants is all in favor of peace and order.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Peace
Every little thing counts in a crisis.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Trouble
You don’t change the course of history by turning the faces of portraits to the wall.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Courage, History
It is the habit of every aggressor nation to claim that it is acting on the defensive.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Those who are prepared to die for any cause are seldom defeated.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Defeat
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.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Adventure, Beauty
Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Failure, Mistakes, Principles, Failures
The person who runs away exposes himself to that very danger more than a person who sits quietly.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
Topics: Danger
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