70 quotes found
"As a military man who has given half a century of active service I say in all sincerity that the nuclear arms race has no military purpose. Wars cannot be fought with nuclear weapons. Their existence only adds to our perils because of the illusions which they have generated. There are powerful voices around the world who still give credence to the old Roman precept—if you desire peace prepare for war. This is absolute nuclear nonsense."
"We do not know why Mr. Ghulam Mohammad thought it his duty to anticipate the verdict of history regarding the responsibility of Lord Mountbatten for the tragedy of the Punjab. He is reported to have stated at a Press Conference in London that when the history of the events of this dark chapter comes to be written ‘a part of the blame-would rest on Lord Mountbatten.’ He has made two specific charges. The last British Viceroy was aware of a deep laid conspiracy by the Sikhs and Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh “to throttle Pakistan by eliminating Muslim” and refused to take action. The other charge is that Lord Mountbatten forced partition too quickly. The British Commonwealth Relations Office has repudiated both charges. It has pointed out that it was the then Governor of Punjab who had proved himself to be an avowed partisan of Muslim League, and had looked on impotently while sanguinary riots organized by the Muslim League and the Muslim National Guards took place in North Punjab in March and April 1947. It may be convenient for Mr. Ghulam Mohammed to forget that what happened in August 1947, was a mere continuation of the bloody chain of reaction which was set in motion by the Muslim League at Calcutta in August 1946. In March and April 1947, Sikhs had been brutally massacred and looted and they were abused as cowards because they had not reacted at once with violence. As a matter of fact Lord Mountbatten yielded to his pro-Muslim advisers and stationed the major portion of the Punjab Boundary Force in East Punjab with the result that there was no force to check or control the terrible massacres of Hindus and Sikhs that occurred in Sheikhupura and other places. We should certainly like an impartial investigation into the events of those days and we have no doubt it will be found that while, on the Indian side, it was the spontaneous outburst of a people indignant at what they considered the weakness and the appeasement policy of their leadership, on the Muslim side, the League, the bureaucracy, the police and the army worked like Hitler’s team with the tacit if not open approval of those in charge of the Pakistan Government."
"India had barely become independent, in 1947, when Pakistan invaded Kashmir, which at the time was ruled by a maharajah. The maharajah fled, and the people of Kashmir, led by Sheikh Abdullah, asked for Indian help. Lord Mountbatten, who was still governor general, replied that he wouldn’t be able to supply aid to Kashmir unless Pakistan declared war, and he didn’t seem bothered by the fact that the Pakistanis were slaughtering the population. So our leaders decided to sign a document by which they bound themselves to go to war with Pakistan. And Mahatma Gandhi, apostle of nonviolence, signed along with them. Yes, he chose war. He said there was nothing else to do. War is inevitable when one must defend somebody or defend oneself."
"Since we parted, yester eve, I do love thee, love, believe, Twelve times dearer, twelve hours longer, One dream deeper, one night stronger, One sun surer,—thus much more Than I loved thee, love, before."
"The thing which must be, must be for the best."
"Art is Nature made by Man To Man the interpreter of God."
"For only by knowledge of that which is not Thyself shall thyself be learn'd."
"Who can undo What time hath done? who can win back the wind? Beckon lost music from a broken lute? Renew the redness of a last year's rose? Or dig the sunken sunset from the deep?"
"We are but as the instrument of heaven. Our work is not design, but destiny."
"Far up the wave The clouds that lay piled in the golden heat Were turn'd into types of the ancient mountains In an ancient land."
"Then did I feel as one who, much perplext, Led by strange legends and the light of stars Over long regions of the midnight sand Beyond the red tract of the Pyramids, Is suddenly drawn to look upon the sky From sense of unfamiliar light, and sees Reveal'd against the constellated cope The great cross of the South."
"There is a pleasure which is born of pain."
"Love thou the rose, yet leave it on its stem."
"The unknown Is life to love, religion, poetry."
"Oh, moment of sweet peril, perilous sweet! When woman joins herself to man."
"Ah, well! when time is flown, how it fled It is better neither to ask nor tell. Leave the dead moments to bury their dead."
"And the jasmin-flower in her fair young breast: (O the faint, sweet smell of that jasmin-flower!) And the one bird singing alone in his nest: And the one star over the tower."
"The world is fill'd with folly and sin, And Love must cling where it can, I say: For Beauty is easy enough to win; But one isn't loved every day."
"In the lives of most women and men There's a moment when all would go smooth and even, If only the dead could find out when To come back and be forgiven."
"A night of tears! for the gusty rain Had ceased, but the eaves were dripping yet; And the moon look'd forth, as tho' in pain, With her face al white and wet."
"The ages roll Forward; and, forward with them, draw my soul Into Time’s infinite sea. And to be glad or sad I care no more: But to have done, and to have been, before I cease to do and be!"
"Words, however, are things: and the man who accords To his language the license to outrage his soul Is controll'd by the words he disdains to control."
"The man who seeks one thing in life and but one May hope to achieve it before life is done; But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows A harvest of barren regrets."
"Let any man show the world that he feels Afraid of its bark and ’t will fly at his heels: Let him fearlessly face it, ’t will leave him alone: But ’t will fawn at his feet if he flings it a bone."
"Whene'er I hear French spoken as I approve, I feel myself quietly falling in love."
"We may live without poetry, music and art; We may live without conscience and live without heart; We may live without friends; we may live without books; But civilized man can not live without cooks. He may live without books,—what is knowledge but grieving? He may live without hope—what is hope but deceiving? He may live without love,—what is passion but pining? But where is the man that can live without dining?"
"The world is a nettle; disturb it, it stings. Grasp it firmly, it stings not."
"We gain Justice, judgment, with years, or else years are in vain."
"'Twas a hand White, delicate, dimpled, warm, languid, and bland. The hand of a woman is often, in youth, Somewhat rough, somewhat red, somewhat graceless in truth; Does its beauty refine, as its pulses grow calm, Or as sorrow has cross'd the life-line in its palm."
"We are what we must, And not what we would be. I know that one hour Forestalls not another. The will and the power Are diverse."
"Rest is sweet after strife."
"When life leaps in the veins, when it beats in the heart, When it thrills as it fills every animate part, Where lurks it? How works it?.. we scarcely detect it."
"There's no weapon that slays Its victim so surely (if well aim'd) as praise."
"You know There are moments when silence, prolong'd and unbroken, More expressive may be than all words ever spoken."
"No true love can be without Its dread penalty—jealousy."
"Those true eyes Too pure and too honest in aught to disguise The sweet soul shining through them."
"Do not think that years leave us and find us the same!"
"Alas! must it be ever so? Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go, And fight our own shadows forever?"
"In life there are meetings which seem Like a fate."
"To all facts there are laws. The effect has its cause, and I mount to the cause."
"We are our own fates. Our deeds Are our doomsmen. Man's life was made not for men's creeds, But men's actions."
"There is purpose in pain, Otherwise it were devilish."
"Life hath set No landmarks before us."
"Thought alone is eternal."
"'Tis more brave To live, than to die."
"As pure as a pearl, And as perfect: a noble and innocent girl."
"That's best Which God sends. 'Twas His will: it is mine."
"No star ever rose And set, without influence somewhere."
"No life Can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife And all life not be purer and stronger thereby."
"Life is good; but not life in itself."
"Who seeks for aid Must show how service sought can be repaid."
"But, however we pass Time, he passes still, Passing away whatever the pastime, And, whether we use him well or ill, Some day he gives us the slip for the last time."
"Unseen hands delay The coming of what seems close in ken, And, contrary, the moment when we say "'Twill never come!" comes on us even then."
"O be very sure That no man will learn anything at all, Unless he first will learn humility."
"I loved you ere I knew you: know you now, And, having known you, love you better still."
"Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can."
"That man is great, and he alone, Who serves a greatness not his own."
"Who knows nothing base Fears nothing known."
"Advice can never take the place of experience. That which advice can sometimes do is to make experience more fruitful of good; to help us the better to understand the lessons of life; and when those lessons are sharp and unwelcome, to bear them with an even and unruffled mind."
"Truth is the only foundation of honour, and the surest source of a man's influence with his fellow-men. When you come across someone of whom those who know him say "so-and-so told me such and such a thing, so it must be true"– you are dealing, believe me, with a man to be reckoned with. But there are other aspects of Truth not quite so obvious as those with which I have been dealing. We have been thinking about Truth as between ourselves and others. There is also, and just as important, the matter of Truth within ourselves."
"No one can possess what we call good judgement, which is about the same thing as an instinct for recognizing Reasonable Probabilities, whose mind is not trained to follow truth. And in many of the most important things of life. Reasonable Probabilities are our only guides."
"The removal from among us of a public man of exceptional capacity and marked personality still in the prime of life, is at any time a tragedy. The sense of loss on personal and public grounds, and the inevitable diminution of the effective influence which at all times so essentially depends on the winning personality of the individual, are keen and real."
"We are living in troubled times. None can see far into the future, or can pretend to guess what new order, social, political or economic, may emerge for the world in the next few years. At such a time individuals, communities, nations, and all mankind are in desperate need of the virtues of courage, self-confidence, mutual trust and understanding, which alone can lead the peoples of the world to build again what has been shattered, and bind themselves together more strongly in a spirit of unity, brotherhood and goodwill."
"We have, I suspect, a long way to go yet. We may have to face many very difficult and awkward situations. It may well be that the real test still lies ahead of us."
"I well know that there are many people who press for swifter and more radical solutions of the problems before us."
"I do not question the sincerity or the good intentions of those who feel that way."
"Art never thrives, though its seeds may continue to live, during a period of intellectual complacency or of political chaos, such as, those which followed the disintegration of the Roman Empire and the end of the Mughal Period. Greek Art of the Periclean Age and the Art of the Italian Renaissance rose out of a trough of conventionalism on the uprising of a great wave of fresh ideas and new values, of bold and courageous experiment."
"I am optimistic enough to believe that out of the struggle in which we are engaged today a new world will be born; a world of security, confidence, prosperity and co-operation; a world in which the arts of peace can flourish. Let us hope so, at any rate for, paradox though it may seem, that is what we are fighting for."
"War is an evil thing."
"Lord Ellenborough, the Governor General, made his entry into Ferozpur on the 9th of December, with 120 elephants, 700 camels, and numerous wagons…General Nott crossed the Sutlej with his corps on the 23rd of December, the anniversary of the murder of Sir William M‘Naughten. He brought with him the famous sandal-wood gates of Somnauth, which were covered with red cloth, embroidered with gold, and drawn by twenty-four oxen. It is said that Mahmood the Ghuznevide took these gates with him to Ghuznee, when he destroyed the temple of Somnauth, in 1025; but this splendid Hindoo temple, to which they are to be restored, retains scarcely a trace of its former magnificence, and its remains have been converted into a mosque. The Maharaja, Shere Singh, had not only sent a bodyguard to receive the gates on British territory, but had given a present of a sum of money to the escort. When I went to examine the gates more closely the next day, I found a number of Brahmins, strewing flowers upon them, who assured me there was not the slightest doubt that they were genuine. They are most skillfully carved with stars and arabesques, and bordered with Kufic characters, but unfortunately the gates are so much injured, that scarcely the half of the beautiful work has been preserved."