Quotes on Indian Independence Day

So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.

When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous

How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master's bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately, therefore, it is I who am the victor and not he, for he has failed in getting me to do what he wanted done.

In the great books of India, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence, which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the questions that exercise us.

To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs.

For some days, people thought that India was shaking. But there are always tremors when a great tree falls.

So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you.

One individual may die for an idea, but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives.

India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all.

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

Even if I died in the service of the nation, I would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood... will contribute to the growth of this nation and to make it strong and dynamic.

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free.

In religion, India is the only millionaire... the One land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.

India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?