Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.
Jawaharlal NehruRead
Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.
Interpretation
Democracy and socialism are tools used to achieve goals, rather than ultimate objectives in themselves.
Jawaharlal Nehru's quote emphasizes that both democracy and socialism should be viewed as methods to create a better society rather than final destinations. This perspective encourages individuals and societies to focus on the values and objectives that underlie these systems, such as justice, equality, and freedom, instead of getting lost in the ideologies themselves.
In practice
In a discussion about political systems, you can use this quote to remind others that the purpose of democracy is to serve the people's needs.
Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.
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
Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.
What we really are matters more than what other people think of us.
Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit.
There is almost no country in Africa where it is not essential to know to which tribe, or which subgroup of which tribe, the president belongs. From this single piece of information you can trace the lines of patronage and allegiance that define the state.
There's a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls.
People tend to judge presidents on how the economy performs, and yet we don't expect them to have the power to do much about it. Or we don't want them to exercise that power, if they were to have it.
The established politicians, who before the war preached national pride and Christian love, were the first to collaborate with the Germans. But the communists, who as children we'd been taught to fear, kept a resistance movement alive, living and dying true to their ideals.
The U.S. is the last country that should see itself as an ally of the apartheid system.
Governments don't control people like they used to.
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