Indira Gandhi

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.
– Indira Gandhi

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.
– Indira Gandhi

People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights.
– Indira Gandhi

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.
– Indira Gandhi

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.
– Indira Gandhi

Martyrdom does not end something, it is only a beginning.
– Indira Gandhi

I have lived a long life and I am proud that I spent the whole of my life in the service of my
people. I am only proud of this and nothing else. I shall continue to serve until my last breath
and when I die, I can say, that every drop of my blood will invigorate India and strengthen it.
– Indira Gandhi, speech of 30 October 1984 (the night before she was assassinated)

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

I would say our greatest achievement is to have survived as a free and democratic nation.
– Indira Gandhi

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with
people.
– Indira Gandhi

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

The power to question is the basis of all human progress.
– Indira Gandhi

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

I cannot understand how anyone can be an Indian and not be proud – the richness and
infinite variety of our composite heritage, the magnificence of the people’s spirit, equal to any
disaster or burden, firm in their faith… even in poverty and hardship.
– Indira Gandhi

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

My father was a statesman – I’m a political woman. My father was a saint – I’m not.
– Indira Gandhi

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

Have a bias toward action. Let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into
small steps and take the first step right away.
– Indira Gandhi