“Todo lo que hagas en la vida será insignificante, pero es importante que lo hagas.”

“I learned from Hussain how to be wronged and be a winner, I learnt from Hussain how to attain victory while being oppressed.”

“no scheme of self-government, however benevolently or generously it may be bestowed upon us, will ever make us a self-governing nation, if we have no respect for the languages our mothers speak.

“Where love is, there God is also.”

“But all my life through, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise.”

“Where there is love there is life.”

“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”

“The path is the goal.”

“The terrible sacrifice offered to Kali in the name of religion enhanced my desire to know Bengali”

“No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.”

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”

“Lebe, als würdest Du morgen sterben und lerne, als ob Du ewig leben würdest.”

“The earth has everything for all human needs, but nothing for his greed.”

“Children inherit the qualities of the parents, no less than their physical features. Environment does play an important part, but the original capital on which a child starts in life is inherited from its ancestors. I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul. Polak and I had often very heated discussions about the desirability or otherwise of giving the children an English education. It has always been my conviction that Indian parents who train their children to think and talk in English from their infancy betray their children and their country. They deprive them of the spiritual and social heritage of the nation, and render them to that extent unfit for the service of the country. Having these convictions, I made a point of always talking to my children in Gujarati. Polak never liked this. He thought I was spoiling their future. He contended, with all the vigour and love at his command, that, if children were to learn a universal language like English from their infancy, they would easily gain considerable advantage over others in the race of life. He failed to convince me. I do not now remember whether I convinced him of the correctness of my attitude, or whether he gave me up as too obstinate. This happened about twenty years ago, and my convictions have only deepened with experience. Though my sons have suffered for want of full literary education, the knowledge of the mother-tongue that they naturally acquired has been all to their and the country’s good, inasmuch as they do not appear the foreigners they would otherwise have appeared. They naturally became bilingual, speaking and writing English with fair ease, because of daily contact with a large circle of English friends, and because of their stay in a country where English was the chief language spoken.”

“Quien sigue el camino de la verdad, no tropieza.”