“masses follow the classes.”

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”

“The question of vernaculars as media of instruction is of national importance; neglect of the vernaculars means national suicide.”

“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.”

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

“If we are to make progress, we must not repeat history but make new history. We must add to inheritance left by our ancestors.” 

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

“My regard for jurisprudence increased, I discovered in it religion. I understood the Gita teaching of non-possession to mean that those who desired salvation should act like the trustee who, though having control over great possessions, regards not an iota of them as his own.”

“No hay caminos para la paz; la paz es el camino.”

“Why, then, grieve — tatra ka paridevana — asks Shri Krishna. This is the great mystery of God. As a magician creates the illusion of a tree and destroys it, so God sports in endless ways and does not let us know the beginning and the end of his play. Why grieve over it?”

“My difficulties lay deeper. It was more than I could believe that Jesus was the only incarnate son of God, and that only he who believed in him would have everlasting life. If God could have sons, all of us were His sons. If Jesus was like God, or God Himself, then all men were like God and could be God Himself. My reason was not ready to believe literally that Jesus by his death and by his blood redeemed the sins of the world. Metaphorically there might be some truth in it. Again, according to Christianity only human beings had souls, and not other living beings, for whom death meant complete extinction; while I held a contrary belief. I could accept Jesus as a martyr, an embodiment of sacrifice, and a divine teacher, but not as the most perfect man ever born. His death on the Cross was a great example to the world, but that there was anything like a mysterious or miraculous virtue in it my heart could not accept. The pious lives of Christians did not give me anything that the lives of men of other faiths had failed to give. I had seen in other lives just the same reformation that I had heard of among Christians. Philosophically there was nothing extraordinary in Christian principles. From the point of view of sacrifice, it seemed to me that the Hindus greatly surpassed the Christians. It was impossible for me to regard Christianity as a perfect religion or the greatest of all religions.”

“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.”

“When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.”

“Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood.”

“The useful and the useless must, like good and evil generally, go on together, and man must make his choice.”