Quotes from Indira Gandhi

I'm certainly not tired - work doesn't tire people, it's getting bored that's tiring.

All the people who fought for freedom were my heroes. I mean, that was the sort of story I liked reading... freedom struggles and so on.

In India people can't stomach this attitude of mine, and when I say, 'Hurry up, let's get to the point,' they feel hurt.

I want to succeed. And I want to succeed in the best way possible, without caring whether people call my actions leftist or rightist.

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

Opportunities are not offered. They must be wrested and worked for. And this calls for perseverance... and courage.

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.

I suppose that leadership at one time meant muscle; but today it means getting along with people.

My theory is that men are no more liberated than women.

My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there.

If I die a violent death, as some fear and a few are plotting, I know that the violence will be in the thought and the action of the assassins, not in my dying.

Anger is never without an argument, but seldom with a good one.

One must beware of ministers who can do nothing without money, and those who want to do everything with money.

A nation' s strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others.

Martyrdom does not end something, it only a beginning.

My father was a statesman, I am a political woman. My father was a saint. I am not.

There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten.

We must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.

You must be still in the midst of activity, and be vibrantly alive in repose.

You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.

My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.

Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.

You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and vibrantly alive in repose.

The meek may one day inherit the earth, but not the headlines.