Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian independence activist who later became the country’s first Prime Minister.He served as Prime Minister of independent India from 1947 until his death in 1964.He was born on 14th November 1889 in Allahabad, North-Western Provinces, British India (now UttarPradesh, India). In October 1907, Nehru enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge,and graduated in 1910 with honors in natural science. Nehru moved to London after finishing his degree in 1910 to study law at Inner Temple Inn. In 1912, he became a Barristerat law.
Jawaharlal Nehru was an important leader in the Indian independence movement. He participated in the Home Rule Movement, Non-Cooperation Movement, Salt March, Civil Disobedience, and Satyagraha, among others. During the 1920s, he rose to fame as a leading leader of the Indian National Congress’s left-wing groups and later of the entire Congress.
Because of his Kashmiri Pandit lineage, he was also known as Pandit Nehru. Children lovingly called him Chacha Nehru because of his fondness for children. India celebrates Children’s Day on 14th November in honor of Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday. Here are some of Jawaharlal Nehru quotes for motivating students and children.
Jawaharlal Nehru Quotes
- Above all, the Governments of China and Eire, poor in their own resources, full of their own difficulties, yet having had bitter experience themselves of famine and misery and sensing what ailed the body and spirit of India, gave generous help.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Never do anything in secret or anything that you would wish to hide. For the desire to hide anything means that you are afraid, and fear is a bad thing and unworthy of you. Be brave, and all the rest follows.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- She was like some ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed , and yet no succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been written previously.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- But it is distressing that any organization consisting of large numbers of young men, should be so utterly little minded and lacking in not only vision but in commonsense or common understanding. The R.S.S. is typical in this respect of the type of organization that grew up in various parts of Europe in support of fascism..
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Fear builds its phantoms which are more fearsome than fear itself
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Whatever gods there be, there is something godlike in man, as there is also something of the devil in him.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- If communism offends against a widespread national feeling, it will not be accepted.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Learning and knowledge make people think, and doubt and questioning are difficult companions for faith to have.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- The only alternative to coexistence is co-destruction.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Success often comes to those who dare to act. It seldom goes to the timid who are ever afraid of the consequences.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- I was taught by a great man, never to hate – and never to fear.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Fine buildings, fine pictures and books and everything that is beautiful are certainly signs of civilization. But an even better sign is a fine man who is unselfish and works with others for the good of all. To work together is better than to work singly, and to work together for the common good is best of all.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Life is too complicated and, as far as we can understand it in our present state of knowledge, too illogical, for it to be confined within the four corners of a fixed doctrine.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- 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
- Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Evil unchecked grows, evil tolerated poisons the whole system.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- India has known the innocence and insouciance of childhood, the passion and abandon of youth, and the ripe wisdom of maturity that comes from long experience of pain and pleasure; and over and over a gain she has renewed her childhood and youth and age
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- What the mysterious is I do not know. I do not call it God because God has come to mean much that I do not believe in. I find myself incapable of thinking of a deity or of any unknown supreme power in anthropomorphic terms, and the fact that many people think so is continually a source of surprise to me. Any idea of a personal God seems very odd to me.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Without that passion and urge, there is a gradual oozing out of hope and vitality, a settling down on lower levels of existence, a slow merging into non-existence. We become prisoners of the past and some part of its immobility sticks to us.
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.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organized religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always it seemed to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition, exploitation and the preservation of vested interests.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Politics and Religion are obsolete. The time has come for Science and Spirituality.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- The best and noblest gifts of humanity cannot be the monopoly of a particular race or country; its scope may not be limited nor may it be regarded as the miser’s hoard buried underground.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- If any person raises his hand to strike down another on the ground of religion, I shall fight him till the last breath of my life, both as the head of the government and from the outside.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- do or die
Jawaharlal Nehru
- There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit
Jawaharlal Nehru
- We must remember that what our governments are doing today will set the tone for future administrations. The very powers that may be exercised, perhaps for adequate reasons today, may be exercised later for totally inadequate and perhaps even for objectionable reasons. It is always unsafe to weaken on principles.
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
- We talk of high philosophies and our ancient greatness but act in narrow grooves and show intolerance to our neighbour. These are basic questions for us to keep in mind, for our future depends on the answer that we give to them.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- whatever happens in Pakistan, quite clearly our task in India is clear; we must pursue with even greater determination than in the past our efforts at forming a secular State in which men of all communities can walk with their heads high.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- A country under foreign domination seeks escape from the present in dreams of a vanished age, and finds consolation in visions of past greatness. That is a foolish and dangerous pastime in which many of us indulge. An equally questionable practice for us in India is to imagine that we are still spiritually great though we have come down in the world in other respects. Spiritual or any other greatness cannot be founded on lack of freedom and opportunity, or on starvation and misery.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Whatever gods there be, there is something
godlike in man, as there is also something of the devil in him.Jawaharlal Nehru - Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Nationalism is essentially a group memory of past achievements, traditions, and experiences,
Jawaharlal Nehru
- Our desires seek out supporting reasons and tend to
ignore facts and arguments that do not fit in with them.Jawaharlal Nehru - I wish to declare with all earnestness that I do not want any religious ceremonies performed for me after my death. I do not believe in such ceremonies, and to submit to them, even as a matter of form, would be hypocrisy and an attempt to delude ourselves and others.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- 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
- There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open
Jawaharlal Nehru
- I am a socialist not because I think it is a perfect system, but half a loaf is better than no bread. The other systems have been tried and found wanting. Let this one be tried—if for nothing else, for the novelty of the thing.’ Vivekananda
Jawaharlal Nehru
- For only they can sense life who stand often on the verge of it, only they whose lives are not governed by the fear of death.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- But the ideal is terribly difficult to grasp or to hold.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- There is only one thing that remains to us that cannot be taken away: to act with courage and dignity and to stick to the ideals that have given meaning to life; but that is not the politician’s way.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- No country or people who are slaves to dogma and dogmatic mentality can progress, and unhappily our country and people have become extraordinarily dogmatic and little-minded.
Jawaharlal Nehru
- The practical statesman took precedence over the uncompromising prophet.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Conclusion
Nehru received the highest civilian decoration, the ‘Bharat Ratna Award,’ for his important contributions to the freedom movement. His essays, ideas, work, books, and speeches are still followed and admired by many people.
Many of what he said or wrote became the quotes that you saw just now. Do not forget to mention your favorite Jawaharlal Nehru quote in the comments section.
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