“How can anybody who is the head of a nation afford not to be a prag-matist?”

Ability is not always gauged by examination.

Politics is the art of acquiring, holding, and wielding power.

As my father [Javāharlāl Nehrū] said, you have to keep an open mind, but you have to pour something into it – otherwise ideas slip away like sand between your fingers.

I’m trained to difficulties; difficulties can’t be eliminated from life.

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

The future doesn’t frighten me, even if it threatens to be full of other difficulties.

Mankind will endure when the world appreciates the logic of diversity.

The purpose of life is to believe, to hope, and to strive.

I began to travel by myself, in Europe, when I was eight years old. At that age I was already on the move between India and Swizerland, Switzerland and France, France and England. Administering my own finances like an adult.

We always said that our struggle was not only against the British as representatives of colonialism, it was against all the evil that existed in India. The evil of the feudal system, the evil of the system based on caste, the evil of economic injustice.

I don’t mind if my life goes in the service of the nation. If I die, every drop of my blood will invigorate the nation.

You don’t help a country by supporting a military regime that denies any sign of democracy, and what defeated Pakistan was its military regime.

I learned very soon to get along by myself.

I cannot understand how anyone can be an Indian and not be proud.

When it’s impossible, it’s better to stoop to compromise, without resisting and without complaining. People who complain are selfish.

There is not love where there is no will.

The privileged classes today are bothered about petrol and diesel prices while the poor can’t afford two meals a day. I am a very small person, but I want us to think beyond personal and regional interests.

I’m like, ‘Yeah, I could afford braces, but why should I change myself to be what everybody else wants me to be when I’m OK with who I am and I’m happy with who I am?’

When I was a kid in Houston, we were so poor we couldn’t afford the last 2 letters, so we called ourselves po’.

Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.

Middle class America is acutely aware of how bad this economy is, and it is going to demand changes. I don’t think politicians can afford to be complacent.

When we make college more affordable, we make the American dream more achievable.

He who has nothing to lose can afford all risks.

In my early years, there were a number of experiences that made me decide I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. There were a number of issues I wanted to address. And I wanted to use my career as a platform.