Jawaharlal Nehru Death Anniversary 2024: Inspiring Quotes by India’s First Prime Minister

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, breathed his last in Delhi on May 27, 1964. As a lawmaker, administrator, freedom fighter, writer and thinker, Nehru made a lasting impression in whatever field he chose to pursue in life. He was the Prime Minister from 1947 to 1964. One of the most prominent politicians of India, Nehru was homeschooled till the age of 15 by various English governesses and teachers. Soon after, he went abroad to pursue his higher studies.

He enrolled in Harrow, a prestigious English school, in 1905 and spent two years there. He then proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied for three years in order to graduate with honours in natural science. After graduating from Cambridge, he spent two years in the Inner Temple in London, where he passed the examinations “with neither glory nor ignominy.”

His own works, such as The Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History, demonstrate his extraordinary depth of knowledge and critical thinking. He frequently cited literary masterpieces, scientific theories and historical occurrences in his remarks.

Remembering Pandit Nehru: 10 Inspiring Quotes

1. “A language is something infinitely greater than grammar and philology. It is the poetic testament of the genius of a race and culture and the living embodiment of the thoughts and fancies that have moulded them.”
2. “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 again she has renewed her childhood and youth and age.”
3. “What the mysterious is I do not know. I do not call it God because God has come to mean much that I do not believe in. I find myself incapable of thinking of a deity or of any unknown supreme power in anthropomorphic terms, and the fact that many people think so is continually a source of surprise to me. Any idea of a personal God seems very odd to me.”
4. “Without that passion and urge, there is a gradual oozing out of hope and vitality, a settling down on lower levels of existence, a slow merging into non-existence. We become prisoners of the past and some part of its immobility sticks to us.”
5. “There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
6. “But the ideal is terribly difficult to grasp or to hold.”
7. “Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.”
8. “Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit.”
9. “Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.”
10. “It is only too easy to make suggestions and later try to escape the consequences of what we say.”