Margaret Thatcher

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.

Roland Folger, MD of Mercedes Benz over Electric Car Market in India

It’s a catch 22 situation all over the industry. You need to reach a certain minimum amount of vehicles that you can sell consistently and sustainably to make it worthwhile investing in a factory. To put us in a position to do that, we need a ramp-up period when incentives are also extended to vehicles not manufactured in the country

Saif Ali Khan

However, in today’s world, apologies are made through Twitter or though some other social media platform. That, is basically apologising to your fans and the world in general, instead of apologising to the person concerned, because you don’t want to lose support. These are the times we live in.

The Dalai Lama

My knees are telling me that you are an 81-year-old person now

Justice D Y Chandrachud on the Right to Privacy Issue

If the government collates crime data to profile a community as criminal, then it is surely violation of right to privacy. But, if the government collates data to profile areas with poverty prevalence to focus availability of food grains, could it be termed violation of right to privacy?

Justice D Y Chandrachud on the Right to Privacy Issue

Unlimited volume of data is shared every minute and these must be getting analysed. A possible way out in this vastness for protection of privacy could be that the government must specify the purpose for collection of personal details and ensure that it was used for that specified purpose only.

But, look at the other possibility. One operating an iPhone or an iPad uses fingerprint to open the device and thereby assigning his fingerprint to the private operator. A vast majority of persons using social networking sites are unconcerned about the purpose for which their personal data is taken, analysed and used commercially. How does one draw a line between sharing personal data voluntarily and breach of privacy,

A Sanskrit Sloka over Incomplete Work

अग्निः शेषं ऋणः शेषं शत्रुः शेषं तथैव च ।
पुनः पुनः प्रवर्धेत तस्मात् शेषं न कारयेत्॥

If fire, debts or enemies remain even in small traces, they keep growing repeatedly. That’s why, one should not leave any traces.

Frank Kingdon-Ward

A quaint prophecy among the Kongbo Tibetans that Namche Barwa will one day fall into the Tsangpo gorge and block the river, which will then turn aside and flow over the Doshong La [pass]. This is recorded in a book by some fabulous person whose image may be seen in the little gompa [monastery] at Payi, in Pome.

Well, Chinese attempt to dam Brahmaputra almost looks like the prophesy…

Ashok Gajapati Raju on Sale of Air India

There are hardly any bakras (scapegoats) around, so to get one is difficult and businessmen are businessmen

Ashok Gajapati Raju on Air India’s Losses

Business as-usual is not an option. Taxpayers’ money cannot be committed for an eternity

From Batman vs Superman

Criminals are like weeds, Alfred. Pull one up, another grows in its place.

From Batman vs Superman

We, as a population on this planet, have been looking for a savior. 90% of people believe in a higher power, and every religion believe in some sort of messianic figure. And when this savior character actually comes to Earth, we want to make him abide by our rules? We have to understand that this a paradigm shift. We have to start thinking beyond politics. Are there any moral constraints on this person? We have international law. On this Earth, every act is a political act. Is it really surprising that the most powerful man in the world should be a figure of controversy? Uh, to have an individual engaging in these state-level interventions should give us all pause. Human beings have a horrible track record of following people with great power down paths that led to huge human atrocities. We have always created icons in our own image. What we’ve done is we project ourselves onto him. The fact is, maybe he’s not some sort of devil or Jesus character. Maybe he’s just a guy trying to do the right thing. We’re talking about a being whose very existence challenges our own sense of priority in the universe. And you go back to Copernicus, where he restored the Sun in the center of the known universe, displacing Earth. And you get to Darwinian evolution, and you find out we’re not special on this Earth, we’re just one among other lifeforms. And now we learn that we’re not even special in the entire universe because there is Superman. There he is. An alien among us. We’re not alone.

From Batman vs Superman

Men fall from the sky. The gods hurl thunderbolts. Innocents die. That’s how it starts, sir. The fever. The rage. The feeling of powerlessness. It turns good men cruel.

The NSA in The Day the Earth Stood Still

NSA: History has lessons to teach us about first encounters between civilizations. As a rule, the less advanced civilization is either exterminated or enslaved. I’m thinking of Pizarro and the Incas, Columbus and the Native Americans…The list goes on. Unfortunately, in this case, the less advanced civilization is us.
A Doctor: This is a representative of an extraterrestrial civilization. This is the most important discovery in the history of mankind.
NSA: It may well be the last discovery in the history of mankind.

Tiberius in Dragon Blade

Power is a conceit which reveals our limitations. A real hero remains accountable to the end

Tiberius in Dragon Blade

I’m not sure why but I’ve always liked those who’ve hated me because through our hatred our real selves are revealed. You see humans become bit more prectical
as they reach their end.

Lidia Wojtczak, a Senior Lector in Sanskrit, SOAS

When we pick up an edited text, we are usually only reading one of its versions without realising the abundance of other ‘versions’ which existed in other scholarly traditions. In the case of the Meghadūta, for instance, the discrepancies between verse numbers and placement is really quite significant – different commentarial traditions present us with between 110 (Kerala) and 127 (Jain poets of Western India) verses. So when we pick up a printed book called Meghadūta, we’re not really reading the Meghadūta, but a Meghadūta.

Count Keyserling on Lord Nataraja

Again and again I must think of the dancing Shiva in the museum in Madras: this many-armed, anatomically impossible bronze realises a possibility which no Greek has ever allowed us to suspect it is simply a wild, undisciplined god, who deliberately dances the world to pieces. How is such a creation arrived at? Only by the realisation of the God within us, and by the ability to re-create this immediate inner experience as immediately in terms of visibility. The artists of the East have accomplished this apparently impossible task. And they have succeeded in doing so by virtue of what I have been writing about during all these days: their culture of concentration

By Nikola Vaptsarov

The fight is hard and pitiless.
The fight is epic, as they say.
I fell. Another takes my place —
Why single out a name ?

After the firing squad — the worms.
Thus does the simple logic go.
But in the storm we’ll be with you,
My people, for we loved you so.

A Discussion between Etu’ilu and Crane – Sleepy Hollow

Etu’ilu: You’ve always needed this, haven’t you? Even as a child, you’d hide in the coach house, reading books forbidden by the Church of England, lit only by a candle you’d stolen from the servants’ quarters. You’d disappear for hours, worry your mother sick.
Crane: How do you know this?
Etu’ilu: You’ve always lived to please; to serve…your father, Washington, Jefferson. No room to question your own wants or identity. Even your role as Witness was inherited through your bloodline. That wasn’t a choice. You didn’t know. Your life was mapped out long before you were even born. So, how could you ever be anything more than that boy in the stables, reading books in the dark?

A Discussion between Etu’ilu and Crane – Sleepy Hollow

Etu’ilu: Do not lecture me on art. For millennia, it has been created to celebrate my glory by those who worship me.
Crane: What have you given in return for their fealty? After all, what is a god without worshippers?
Etu’ilu: And what is a man without belief in higher power?
Crane: Both are lost. But then, of course, you knew that, didn’t you…

A Discussion between Etu’ilu and Crane – Sleepy Hollow

Etu’ilu: Useless pablum to entertain lesser beings.
Crane: Listen…Duke Ellington, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Miles Davis, the artist formerly known as Prince, the political passion of Bob Dylan and Nina Simone, the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare’s sonnets, odes by Yeats. The works of Austen, Dostoyevsky, Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates…Leonardo Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo…Picasso! The fearless lens of Diane Arbus, and the sublime squiggle of Charles M. Schulz. What you call pablum is, in fact, inspiration, and it is forged in the enduring soul of humanity. You may know everything…but you understand nothing.

On Parting – Nikolai Vaptsarov

To my wife

Sometimes I’ll come when you’re asleep,
An unexpected visitor.
Don’t leave me outside in the street,
Don’t bar the door!

I’ll enter quietly, softly sit
And gaze upon you in the dark.
Then, when my eyes have gazed their fill,
I’ll kiss you and depart.

Clement Atlee

“There are two alternative ways of meeting this common desire (a) that we should arrange to get out, (b) that we should wait to be driven out. In regard to (b), the loyalty of the Indian Army is open to question; the INA have become national heroes…”

SK Sinha from Directorate of Military Operations on INA

“There was considerable sympathy for the INA within the Army… It is true that fears of another 1857 had begun to haunt the British in 1946.”

Norman Smith, Director, Intelligence Bureau on INA – Nov 1945

The situation in respect of the Indian National Army is one which warrants disquiet. There has seldom been a matter which has attracted so much Indian public interest and, it is safe to say, sympathy… the threat to the security of the Indian Army is one which it would be unwise to ignore.”

Ambedkar on Gandhi’s and Bose’s Role in Indian Independence

I don’t know how Mr Attlee suddenly agreed to give India independence,” wondered Ambedkar, recalling then British Prime Minister’s decision to agree to the transfer of power in 1947. That is a secret that he will disclose in his autobiography. None expected that he would do that, “The national army that was raised by Subhas Chandra Bose. The British had been ruling the country in the firm belief that whatever may happen in the country or whatever the politicians do, they will never be able to change the loyalty of soldiers. That was one prop on which they were carrying on the administration. And that was completely dashed to pieces. They found that soldiers could be seduced to form a party — a battalion to blow off the British.”

Manohar Parrikar on Kashmir Issue

And I feel, there are somethings where discussions should be minimal, but things need to be made to happen. Discussions can be a spoiler,…If you want it to happen, do not discuss it too much in the news. When there is a discussion, one person says one thing, while someone else says something else,”

Gandhi

“Rulers, have only the right to exist if they become the trustees and servants of the people. If the princes do not change, they must cease to be.”

Well, if this the case, development will stop and decay will creep in.

General Aladeen

This constitution is nothing but a license for oil companies and foreign interests to destroy my beloved Wadiya! Wadiya will remain a dictatorship! Oh, be quiet. Why are you guys so anti dictators? Imagine if America was a dictatorship. You could let 1 % of the people have all the nation’s wealth. You could help your rich friends get richer by cutting their taxes and bailing them out when they gamble and lose. You could ignore the needs of the poor for health care and education. Your media would appear free but would secretly be controlled by one person and his family. You could wiretap phones, you could torture foreign prisoners. You could have rigged elections. You could lie about why you go to war. You could fill your prisons with one particular racial group and no one would complain! You could use the media to scare the people into supporting policies that are against their interests. I know this is hard for you Americans to imagine, but please try.
I will tell you what democracy is! Democracy is the worst! Endless talking and listening to every stupid opinion! And everybody’s vote counts, no matter how crippled or black or female they are. Democracy…Democracy has hairy armpits and could lose five pounds. Democracy looks like a midget in a chemo wig. Democracy, your mother called the other day and I forgot to give you the message. It was something very important about your grandmother. Democracy kisses you because she wants to, not because her father is in the next room chained to a radiator with electrodes attached to his nipples. Democracy is flawed! She is not perfect! But democracy, I love you. And that is why I call for real democracy! A real constitution! And real elections in Wadiya!

KM Munshi on Nehru’s disapproval of the renovation of Somnath

I can assure you that the ‘Collective Subconscious’ of India today is happier with the scheme of reconstruction of Somnath sponsored by the Government of India than with many other things that we have done and are doing. It is my faith in our past which has given me the strength to work in the present and to look forward to our future. I cannot value India’s freedom if it deprives us of the Bhagavad Gita or uproots our millions from the faith with which they look upon our temples and thereby destroys the texture of our lives. I have been given the privilege of seeing my incessant dream of Somnath reconstruction come true. That makes me feel – makes me almost sure – that this shrine once restored to a place of importance in our life will give to our people a purer conception of religion and a more vivid consciousness of our strength, so vital in these days of freedom and its trials.

J B Kriplani over the outcome of 1972 Elections

If the present pattern of stable governments both at the Centre and in the States is allowed to last, we would not be in the process of getting a dictatorial party and the dictator at its head but we have already got them. This is stability with a vengeance! Democracy, as we have said earlier, can prosper only where there is a possibility of change. It is wrong to think that periodical changes in the government, whether in favour of a single party or a coalition of parties, is undesirable in a democracy. Most countries on the continent of Europe have no two parties, alternately enjoying power and being in Opposition, as in England and the US. There are generally multi-purpose coalition governments. Also there are frequent changes to the ruling party, or parties. It is notorious that in France before Gen. Charles de Gaulle, there were changes in the Ministry every six months. France did not, on that account suffer very much, in its political, economic and social life. The failure of coalition governments in India was due to their being in an experimental stage, apart from manoeuvre against them by the Centre. It is not necessary that it should always be so. But stable governments, as we have got today at the Centre and in the States, are a menace to democracy. The nation, therefore, may be very well apprehensive of the stable governments that have been recently established.

Namdev on Ravana

सरब सोइन की लंका होती रावन से अिधकाई खन मिह भई पराई तेरा नामु रूड़ो रूपु रूड़ो अित रं ग रूड़ो मेरो रामईआ

Lanka was totally rich with gold. Nobody was more powerful than Ravana but in a second it was all gone. Your Name is so beautiful! Your form is so beautiful! Your Love is so very beautiful, O Rama!!!

Kabir on Ravana

जिन गड़ कोट कीए कं चन के छोिड गइआ सो रावनु काहे कीजतु है मिन भावन! किह कबीर ते अंते मुकते जन्ह हरदै राम रसाइनु:

Translation: Ravan acted as it pleased his mind. In the end, he died leaving behind his fortresses of gold. Says kabir, only those who has sublime essence of ‘Ram’ in their hearts are liberated

John Sullivan

Upon extermination of a Native State, the Englishman takes the
place of the sovereign, under the name of commissioner; three or
four of his associates displace as many dozen of the Indian official
aristocracy; while some hundreds of our troops take the place of the
many thousands that every Indian chief supports. The little Court
disappears — trade languishes — the capital decays — the people are
impoverished — the Englishman flourishes, and acts like a sponge,
drawing up riches from the banks of the Ganges, and squeezing them
down upon the banks of the Thames.

Kamaraj Nadar on his not becoming Prime Minister of India in 1964

No Hindi, no English, how?

Supreme Court Bench over a Terrorist asking Parole for his Daughter’s Marriage

If someone is involved in heinous offence of indiscriminate killing of innocents, then it’s better he forgets his family ties. No parole or interim bail should be granted to them to attend any family exigencies

Urjit Patel on Demonetisation

I think that it is important that one grows a thick skin fast in this business and I think we have done that. We have gone about our work, we had undertaken major challenges during these past few months and valid criticism is something that we are open to and we take it in the spirit in which it is given and try to improve ourselves

Ravi Shastri on the New ICC Scheme of Things

Something like 80% of revenues for these tournaments come from India. Then to say that India is the bully, because they are asking for extra share, is the biggest load of bullshit I’ve heard. I say this because the BCCI is not asking for 80%, they’re asking for a much lower percentage. They have every right to. You take India out of the equation, I’d like to see what kind of revenue will be left.

Mani Sankar Aiyar on the AIADMK Slugfest

The Raman Effect, which won Sir CV Raman the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930, held that when light is refracted through another medium, it gets scattered into a spectrum of different coloured lights. The Raman Effect appears to have overtaken the AIADMK, which has seen the effulgence of Jayalalithaa passing through Sasikala and scattering into several different colours as AIADMK leaders vie with each other to claim that they alone represent the original light of Amma.

People over why Crowds didn’t get converted into Votes in 1996 Tamil Nadu Elections

We came to see Sasikala. We have only seen her pictures during the famous wedding. We want to see her in person, and we want to know whether she wears all those jewels every day

Naziruddin Ahmad over having Sanskrit as the National Language of India in the Constituent Assembly

Yes, and for the simple reason that it is impartially difficult to all. Hindi is easy for the Hindi speaking areas, but it is difficult for other areas. I offer you a language which is the grandest and the greatest and it is impartially difficult, equally difficult for all to learn. There should be some impartiality in the selection.

Lee Kuan Yew

The Asiatics were supposed to panic when the firing started, yet they were the stoical ones who took the casualties and died without hysteria. It was the British civilian bosses who ducked under tables when the bombs and shells fell. It was the British civilians and bureaucrats in Penang who, on 16 December 1941, in the quiet of the night, fled the island for the ‘safety’ of Singapore, abandoning the Asiatics to their fate. The British had proved as frightened and at a loss as to what to do as the Asiatics, if not more so

An Indian Soldier over the Japanese Invasion of Malaya

When the Japanese attacked, the British ran away. They were very clever. They had a wonderful life with bungalows and butlers and cooks and all that, but as soon as the Japanese came, they ran away. And once they got back to India, they sent Gurkhas, Sikhs, Marathas and other Indians to fight the Japanese. They knew it was too dangerous for them. That is how we got independence in Malaya

Deve Gowda on Demonetisation

On November 17, I wrote to the Prime Minister, welcoming the move but said it had been done without a proper assessment of the situation. From November 8 to now, several alterations have been made; now the amendments to the Taxation Bill have created confusion. My concern is will these steps yield the expected results? If it does, then Modi will be a great leader. If he can achieve his dreams of a Digital India, cashless economy, within six months, certainly I will bow my head. If this demonetisation succeeds, he will be the unquestioned leader. If it fails, he will be destroyed…The GDP is going to go down. The value of the rupee could fluctuate. If within six months things don’t settle down, and digital India is not put in place, the problems will increase. Unemployment will grow — people in the unorgansised sector will be hit…I don’t want to jump to conclusions that there will be a Third Front tomorrow. Circumstances will create the situation … if there is an adverse impact of demonetisation, then the people will put pressure on political parties. People are tolerant. But there will be a limit to their patience.

One of the sanest pieces I saw from the opposition over demonetisation.

Rajagopalachari on Hyderabad Problem

If it is cancer, it has to be removed, even if it is painful

Rajagopalachari

Democracy ceases to exist if there is no provision of either sort for free criticism of the policies of the government. Windows to let in air are wanted, not glass mirrors which reflect what is inside but which shut out ventilation. Parliament and the State legislatures are there, but Parliaments in which opposition is overruled by brute majorities are not enough and are no substitutes for public criticism

Saif Ali Khan

It is terrible to apologise for expressing one’s opinion. If our beliefs or statements are scrutinised all the time, then nothing original or heartfelt would ever be said. Even for that matter, it was sad that Salman Khan had to apologise for his comments on Yakub Memon. Even Neha Dhupia wasn’t spared recently. Different people have different views. It is difficult to make everyone happy. But if you ask me, I want to stay apolitical. I don’t want to exhaust myself by convincing a non-believer. In context to Hafiz Saeed, I would like to say that I was just stating a fact and not making a comment

Saif Ali Khan

Everyone is entitled to a defence. But we have seen his (Hafiz Saeed) hate speeches. He hates us. And people like Ajmal Kasab are a result of it. They are sent to India to harbour terrorist organisations. But at the same time, we know he doesn’t represent the people of Pakistan. There is a part of their country which wants to promote culture and maintain good relations

Saif Ali Khan

It’s a complicated situation. The two countries are opposed to each other. Even during our childhood days, when my cousin and I used to play games, it was a difficult situation for us as either I had to kill him, or he had to kill me to win the battle. Even back then, we were somewhere aware of the fact that we belong to enemy countries. Everything said and done, I think I would still choose my country over any relative. I would be against anyone who is against my country

Krishna Kant

the majority-minority party equation in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) changes at a much slower pace than in the Lok Sabha. There may be occasions when a party enjoying a majority in both the Houses is reduced to a minority during an election in the Lower House, but remains a majority in the Rajya Sabha. Some experts argue that this position is an anomaly because it derogates from the theory of mandate, which holds that popular mandate, at any given time, gives to the winning majority an untrammeled right to initiate legislations germane to that mandate. The need to carry the opposition majority in the Upper House is, by inference, an anomalous provision. There is the added danger, that the Opposition in the Upper House can use its majority to embarrass the government of the day

From an IBM blog

The best frying pan in the world can’t make rotten eggs taste any better.

Nehru to Field Marshal Kariappa introspecting over the 1948 Kashmir War

You see, U.N. Security Council felt that if we go any further it may precipitate a war. So, in response to their request we agreed to a ceasefire, Quite frankly, looking back, we should have given you ten-fifteen days more. Things would have been different then.

The Dalai Lama

My knees are telling me that you are an 81-year-old person now

General Shankar Roy Chowdhary over Gen VK Singh’s Comments over OROP

Gen VK Singh was the Chief of Army Staff like me so I won’t comment on what he said

Manohar Parrikar over OROP

My biggest worry is that discipline gets compromised when non-official channels are used to air serious issues. And discipline is foremost for any uniformed force. I feel pained when social media is used to express concerns, without reaching out to us directly. Our government is sensitive to the cause of our soldiers. The anomalies will be rectified and the forces will get their due,
“There are appropriate forums to discuss and resolve serious issues, social media and other non-conventional platforms not being one among them. Most of the pending issues have been inherited by this government. Barring the disability pension, most other issues have their origin in the Sixth Pay Commission, which we are committed to resolve. It is inappropriate to allow vested interest groups to deliberately build a narrative that is factually baseless and devoid of merit,
“The military makes enormous sacrifices and makes our nation proud. But in a democratic set-up such as ours, the military has to co-exist and work closely with the civilian bureaucracy. Any trust deficit, or lack of respect between them will impair their abilities to serve their mandates and our people,”

Shashi Tharoor on his Wife’s Death

One of the more unpleasant experiences of being in politics has been that when you suffer a personal tragedy, instead of being allowed to mourn in peace, you are harassed by a voyeuristic and sensationalist media and, I might say, by some opposition party individuals as well.

Harish Salve on Cyrus Mistry’s ouster

When it comes to governance of an institution, sometimes things don’t go right, there is hurt, there is disappointment, sometimes there is also a sense of humiliation

Harish Salve

Tata has a reputation for weathering storms,…you don’t ditch assets in difficult moments …try to fix it before you dismantle it.”

US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on North Korea

And I got a good taste of that when I was there, about how the world looks from their vantage. And they are under siege, and they are very paranoid. So the notion of giving up their nuclear capability, whatever it is, is a nonstarter with them.

Farooq Abdullah

If we run the country on assembly elections’ results, the country won’t run. We need policies for the future of the nation, not temporary solutions because elections are here or elections are there

Senge Hasnan Sering from Gilgit Baltistan to Pakistan envoy Mushahid Hussain Syed

You talked about US failures in Pakistan and repeatedly said that Pakistan has done much better than the US. Maybe, one of the reasons is that Pakistan is helping the Taliban which is killing the US soldiers. Next time, since you are on the defence committee, maybe you want to sit with the mothers and wives who have lost their sons and husbands’ and explain to them that why you take money from the US and then give to Taliban to kill the US soldiers.
Now coming to Kashmir since I am from Gilgit-Baltistan, I see you as a proxy of Pakistani Military and not representing Kashmir. Pakistan has proxies in Jammu and Kashmir. They have weapons and explosives. You come here as a proxy with sweet talk. Everytime the money dries up, you show up here with blackmail, Russia talk, China talk, Iran. I request the US to get out of this vicious cycle. Pakistan is not good for any country and it has done no good to the United States. It is not good for the people of Kashmir. You occupy one-third of Kashmir and an occupier cannot be a friend of Kashmir on the other side. You have been exploiting resources in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Without paying royalty or compensation, a single penny for the last 70 years, I call you a thief in Gilgit-Baltistan. And a thief in Gilgit-Baltistan cannot be a friend in Jammu and Kashmir.
The only thing that is good is that Pakistani Army wants to maintain a status quo because that is a money making machine. UN resolution wants you to withdraw, that’s the first prerequisite. It’s a one-page document. The first prerequisite is, you get out of Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir and then the people of Kashmir, United Nation and the Indian Government will sit down to form a mechanism to hold the plebiscite and this double talk that you have been doing in Afghanistan, Kashmir and US, it needs to be exposed and I tell you wherever you go, there would be someone from Gilgit-Baltistan exposing Pakistan.

Syed Akbaruddin, India’s Permanent Representative to UN on Security Council

At best, it is now a body that can be described as an interesting and random mix of ad-hocism, scrambling and political paralysis. This global governance architecture now calls for comprehensive reform

Nana Patekar over Pakistan Artists in Bollywood post Uri

Pakistani artists are secondary. What comes first for me is my nation. I neither know nor would I want to know anyone else other than my nation. Hum kalaakar desh ke saamne khatmal ki tarah hai. Hamari keemat kuch nahi hai. (We artistes are like mere termites when compared to our nation as a whole. We are least important people). Nation comes first and that’s how it should be for one and all. I have been a part of Indian army for two-and-a-half years and I know that our Jawans fighting at the border are the real heroes. Our soldiers are the biggest heroes in the world…We actors aren’t the real heroes and people shouldn’t pay heed to what we actors say. We shouldn’t be taken seriously. People should stop paying heed to actors who keep blabbering about Pakistani artists. Don’t give too much importance to those actors as they aren’t deserving of that importance.

Salahuddin Rabbani

The way Pakistan behaves is because they have India phobia, there are military and civilian tensions and there is trust deficit between Afghanistan and Pakistan…After the formation of the national unity government, we did our best to go and work with Pakistan and we tried to open a new chapter of relations. On India phobia and the military and civilian tensions of the Pakistani leaders, this is something that they (Pakistan) have to sort it out

Arnold Toynbee

It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in human history , the only way of salvation is the ancient Hindu way. Here we have the attitude and spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together in to a single family.

Arnold Toynbee

The last stage but one of every civilisation, is characterised by the forced political unification of its constituent parts, into a single greater whole.

Arnold Toynbee

America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair.

Arnold Toynbee

Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.

Arnold Toynbee

I don’t believe a committee can write a book. It can, oh, govern a country, perhaps, but I don’t believe it can write a book.

Arnold Toynbee

Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.

Arnold Toynbee

Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.

Varun Gandhi in a Speech

My name is Feroze Varun Gandhi, if my name would have been Feroze Varun Ahmed, or Tiwari, or Singh, or Prasad, I would have also been an audience like you,

E Sreedharan

This is the standard of education that we are getting in this country. Is that enough? In engineering profession, knowledge is the most important thing. You will have to be expert. Knowledge has to be practical-oriented…What I find is that, in this country, the best engineers or those coming out of IITs and NITs straightaway make a beeline to foreign countries for higher studies or better employment. Many even join IT or management degree

Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha

Our foreign policy was enshrined in the charter of the UN, charter of the Non-Alignment Movement as well as Panchseel doctrine…We have been governed by high ideals and we really did not follow a very pragmatic approach, to my mind, to security needs. To that extent, we did ignore the role of the military power to maintain conducive environment…(over Kashmir in 1948) And when a military solution was in sight, taking moral high ground, I think we went to UN for a peaceful solution to this problem. The problem still continues. PoK remains a thorn in our flesh today

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw on the Proposed Strike in Bangalore

A protest should have a window for dialogue, and if the government is offering such a platform union leaders should make use of it and resolve the issues through discussion, rather than shutting down the whole country and thereby incurring a huge loss for the economy. If the whole city was supporting and marching for a cause it is understandable, but forcing others to participate in a protest is not healthy and it clearly depicts that it is being done at the behest of a handful of people who are trying to exploit the situation in their favour. The regular strikes and protests will hamper Brand Bengaluru, which represents growth and development

Garnet Wolseley on the Battle of Isandlwana

I don’t like the idea of officers escaping on horseback when their men on foot are being killed

Mehbooba Mufti when questioned over the Deaths during the Kashmiri Unrest

Had a kid gone to buy a toffee from an army camp? A 15-year-old boy who attacked a police station (in south Kashmir), had he gone to buy milk?

Harry Lime in The Third Man

Remember what the fella said: In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long, Holly.

Harry Lime in The Third Man

What fools we are talking to each other this way as though I’d do anything to you
or you to me. You’re just a little mixed up about things in general. Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don’t. Why should we? They talk about the people and the proletariat. I talk about the suckers and the mugs. It’s the same thing. They have their five-year plans, and so have I.

A Discussion from The Third Man

Harry Lime: It’s a far, far better thing that I do, the old limelight, the fall of the curtain -No. Holly, you and I aren’t heroes. The world doesn’t make any heroes – outside of your stories.
Holly Martins: Have you ever seen any of your victims?
Harry Lime: You know, I never feel comfortable on these sort of things. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you £20,000 for every dot that stopped would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money? Or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spend? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax – the only way you can save money nowadays.

Holly Martins in The Third Man

I never knew the old Vienna before the war with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm. Constantinople suited me better. I really got to know it in the classic period of the black market. We’d run anything if people wanted it enough and had the money to pay. Of course, a situation like that does tempt amateurs but, well, they-you know, they can’t stay the course like a professional. Now the city, it’s divided into four zones, you know…each occupied by a power: the American, the British, the Russian and the French. But the center of the city, that’s international policed by an international patrol, one member of each of the four powers. Wonderful! What a hope they had, all strangers to the place and none of them could speak the same language except a sort of smattering of German. Good fellows, on the whole. Did their best, you know.

Tony Benn in British Parliament

In all fairness—this is an important point—we did not fight Hitler because of his persecution of the Jews; we fought because he challenged the power of the west. When Hitler died in 1945, the obituary in The Times did not mention the holocaust. I contributed in a minor way to the war, but that war was not about human rights—it was a bit more than that.

Lord Salisbury

The commonest error in politics is sticking to the carcass of dead policies

Boris Johnson on EU Debate

Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically…The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods…But fundamentally what is lacking is the eternal problem, which is that there is no underlying loyalty to the idea of Europe. There is no single authority that anybody respects or understands. That is causing this massive democratic void…The Italians, who used to be a great motor-manufacturing power, have been absolutely destroyed by the euro – as was intended by the Germans…The euro has become a means by which superior German productivity is able to gain an absolutely unbeatable advantage over the whole eurozone

Manohar Parrikar over the AFSPA Debate

I don’t want to train the army to use lathis…We can’t lose people. So, wherever the army is used, the powers will have to be there, otherwise don’t use the army. In fact, I will be very happy if we don’t use the army anywhere in the country, other than disaster management

Prof Bhim Singh

A dead Saddam can be more dangerous than a living Saddam for the US and UK…The execution may take a moment. But its consequences will be dangerous and long-term. It is not easy to execute a Head of State and somebody who has been a powerful ruler.

Krishna Menon on the Pakistani Delegate to UN who was demanding Plebiscite in Kashmir

Sir, ask this gentleman whether his country has ever seen a ballot box!

Margaret Thatcher to the Indian Ambassador Maharajakrishna Rasgotra when he enquired about how the Commonwealth Summit of a few months earlier had gone

What summit! Rajiv did not come and Benazir was heartbroken!

Parag Thakkar of HDFC Securities

We did one chat with Accenture head and he said that all these digital contracts are coming in small pieces and the size of the deals are getting reduced and that is why the predictability has come into problem. So, we cannot now expect every IT company to predict everything on dot and that is why some sort of PE multiple downgrade has happened

Alexander Fraser Tytler

The average age of the world’s greatest civilisations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.

Alexander Fraser Tytler on Democracy

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

Muhammad Ali on Vietnam War Conscription

Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger

Narayan Singh, a Mughal official on East India Company in 1765

What honour is left to us, when we have to take orders from a handful of traders who have not yet learned to wash their bottoms?”

Garry Kasparov

Yes, please take Scandinavia as an example! Implementing some socialistic elements AFTER becoming a wealthy capitalist economy only works as long as you don’t choke off what made you wealthy to begin with in the process. Again, it’s a luxury item that shouldn’t be confused with what is really doing the work, as many do. And do not forget that nearly all of the countless 20th-century innovations and industries that made the rest of the developed world so efficient and comfortable came from America, and it wasn’t a coincidence. As long as Europe had America taking risks, investing ambitiously, and yes, being “inequal,” it had the luxury of benefiting from the results without making the same sacrifices. Who will be America’s America?

Garry Kasparov

I’m enjoying the irony of American Sanders supporters lecturing me, a former Soviet citizen, on the glories of Socialism and what it really means! Socialism sounds great in speech soundbites and on Facebook, but please keep it there. In practice, it corrodes not only the economy but the human spirit itself, and the ambition and achievement that made modern capitalism possible and brought billions of people out of poverty. Talking about Socialism is a huge luxury, a luxury that was paid for by the successes of capitalism. Income inequality is a huge problem, absolutely. But the idea that the solution is more government, more regulation, more debt, and less risk is dangerously absurd.

Cicero

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.

Narayana Murthy of Infosys

Every party should accept some ‘ism’. They should decide on what they want to embrace, capitalism, socialism or any other ism. And they should vote for or oppose the government based on their own ‘ism’ and not just for the sake of opposing. Maybe there’s a need to set up a school of the political economic principles of governance for those who want to enter politics so they’re all on the same page. They can then reduce their disagreements, if these disagreements are on principles and governments can take quicker decisions.

Narayana Murthy of Infosys

There is no better alternative to capitalism. But inequality is increasing because the leaders of capitalism have to themselves exercise some restraint on their salaries, on the lives they lead, on the luxuries they spend their money on. Societies that have embraced capitalism have to create mechanisms that look to bettering opportunities for the poorer sections. There is a craving among the rich to reduce taxes. If you do this, governments have less money to spend on the basic needs of the poor.
So we have to adopt a capitalistic-socialistic model like the Scandinavian and some European countries. Fully allow people to leverage their ideas to acquire wealth, but at the same time tax levels are also higher. This allows them to increase allocation for health, education, nutrition of the poor. So we need to combine the good ideas of capitalism and the good ideas of socialism. Demand from the rich and spend on the poor.

Narayana Murthy of Infosys

as a nation we still think that poverty is a virtue. Anybody who has acquired some wealth is looked at with a level of scepticism and suspicion. The reason for this is that the pay of politicians and bureaucrats is very low compared to the pay of CEOs etc who go to them for approval. So naturally, there’s always a little bit of hostility.