Hindus

"My brothers and my sisters, do always persevere in true and earnest prayer, and the Lord will hear you. Believe that the highest revelations of science are conformable to the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer; that in this doctrine the highest philosophy harmonizes with the purest devotion."

"Prayer simply means a longing of the heart, it is the wish felt, - it may be expressed, or not expressed. It may take the form of human language or it may never be uttered at all; still it is a prayer, if God only hears it in the secret recess of the heart."

"Her (India’s) great curse is caste; but English education has already proved a tremendous power in levelling the injurious distinctions of caste."

"In the most politically charged of all his public addresses, ‘Asia’s Message to Europe’, delivered before a vast audience of Bengalis and Europeans in January 1883, Keshub opened with a long and electrifying depiction of British brutality in India: ‘Whence this plaintive and mournful cry, which so profoundly distresses the patriot’s breast? It seems that a whole continent is writhing beneath the lash of oppression, and sending forth from the depths of its heart a deep wail of woe. It is India that weeps. Nay, not India alone; all Asia cries. Many there are in Europe who hold that Asia is a vile woman, full of impurity and uncleanness. Her scriptures tell lies; her prophets are all impostors; her people are all untruthful and deceitful. Europe has perpetrated frightful havoc among the nations of the East. Europe, why do thy eyes still a role in wild fury and insatiate antagonism, as if bent upon Asia’s total annihilation? Before the formidable artillery of Europe’s aggressive civilization the scriptures and prophets, the language and literature, of the East, nay her customs and manners, her social and domestic institutions, and her very industries have undergone a cruel slaughter. The rivers that flow eastward and the rivers that flow westward are crimson with Asiatic gore’."

"‘Let my European brethren do all they can to establish and consolidate the moral kingdom of Christ in India’."

"One united people, regardless of race, language or religion."

"I think that Mr Rajaratnam has left an imprint on the Foreign Service of Singapore that it is a foreign policy of ideas."

"He had this enormous gift of being self-possessed - friendly, approachable, very personable and he got on with people. I thought he was the one who would represent us best abroad, and he did."

"His weapon was the typewriter, He loved putting up the drafts of the ideology, which was a group consensus."

"With his passing, Singaporeans have lost a patriot, a man of deep conviction and principle. His contribution was not in bricks and mortar, or concrete and glass, but in ideas, sentiments and spirit. Everyday when the pledge is recited in our schools, our children are reminded to live up to our aspirations as Raja expressed them."

"His strength was as a thinker and a writer, a man of honour, with great moral courage. He had a way with people, enormous charm, integrity and character. He was self-possessed, had a good strong voice, and won the confidence of those who dealt with him."

"If this is an attempt by voters to blackmail the government, to compromise on important issues or principles, then we must show them we cannot be blackmailed. No government should succumb to blackmail."

"Singapore run only by PhDs would be my vision of a purgatory. Equally, a government run by roadsweepers can be no less a terrifying place to live in."

"If you think of yourself as Chinese, Malays, Indians and Sri Lankans, then Singapore will collapse. You must think of Singapore: 'This is my country.' I fight and die for Singapore if necessary."

"We believe in a democratic society by governments freely and periodically elected by the people... We believe, in the virtue of hard work and that those who work harder in society should be given greater rewards... We believe that the world does not owe us a living and that we have to earn our keep." Adapted from speech by S Rajaratnam, Minister for Foreign Affairs, at a dinner in honour of His Excellency Mr. Hans Dietrich Genscher, Minister for Foreign Affairs."

"This was a new generation but now that they are all grown up, probably fathers and grandfathers but at that time, this concept (of a nation) was not even part of the imagination of adults, let alone children. So the best way to create a nation is to start from the schools. Once this is embodied and thinking by pure repetition everyday, that becomes part of the psyche of the people. So let me tell you if you are a Singaporean - two and a half million - no place to run - no more. Whether you are a Singapore Chinese, Singapore Malay and Singapore Indian, you cannot run away. This is your last stand, last outpost. So how do you do it? If you think of yourself as Chinese, Malays, Indians and Sri Lankans, then Singapore will collapse. You must think of Singapore - this is my country. I fight and die for Singapore if necessary. (undated)"

"The NFP firmly believes that a society has to be created where all people irrespective of race feel peaceful and secure."

"Instead of sharing and co-existing, the people have retreated into their racial compartments instead of uniting both as communities and as a nation. Instead of uniting as a nation, our leaders have created a racial gulf that is tearing our island nation apart."

"You can be standing right in front of the truth and not necessarily see it, and people only get it when they’re ready to get it."

"Give me love, give me peace on earth, Give me light, give me life, keep me free from birth, Give me hope, help me cope, with this heavy load, Trying to, touch and reach you with, heart and soul."

"Bangladesh, Bangladesh Where so many people are dying fast And it sure looks like a mess I've never seen such distress. Now won't you lend your hand, try to understand? Relieve the people of Bangladesh."

"My sweet Lord (Hallelujah) Hm, my Lord (Hallelujah) My, my, my Lord (Hallelujah) I really want to know you (Hallelujah) Really want to go with you (Hallelujah) Really want to show you Lord (ahh) That it won't take long, my Lord (Hallelujah) Hmm (Hallelujah) My sweet Lord (Hallelujah) My, my, Lord (Hallelujah) Hm, my Lord (Hare Krishna) My, my, my Lord (Hare Krishna)"

"I really want to see you, Really want to be with you, Really want to see you lord, But it takes so long, my lord."

"If I grow up I'll be a singer, wearing rings on every finger Not worrying what they or you say, I'll live and love and maybe someday Who knows baby you may comfort me."

"Something in the way she moves attracts me like no other lover."

"Little darling I feel that ice is slowly melting Little darling It seems like years since it's been clear Here comes the sun..."

"Little darling, It's been a long cold lonely winter. Little darling, It feels like years since it's been here. Here comes the sun..."

"I don't know how you were diverted You were perverted too. I don't know how you were inverted No one alerted you."

"I look at the world and I notice it’s turning. While my guitar gently weeps. With every mistake we must surely be learning, Still my guitar gently weeps."

"If you'd have asked me that question, 9 months ago, well, I would have been able to say, to come to America, to have a number one hit in America, and to play Carnegie Hall, to play the Palladium, to play in front of the Queen, and all that. ... The things we've done, they were our ambitions, say 9 months ago."

"If there's a God, I want to see Him. It's pointless to believe in something without proof, and Krishna consciousness and meditation are methods where you can actually obtain God perception. In that way you can see, hear and play with God. Perhaps this may sound weird, but God is really there next to you."

"From the Hindu perspective, each soul is divine. All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn't matter what you call Him just as long as you call. Just as cinematic images appear to be real but are only combinations of light and shade, so is the universal variety a delusion. The planetary spheres, with their countless forms of life, are naught but figures in a cosmic motion picture. One's values are profoundly changed when he is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture and that not in, but beyond, lies his own ultimate reality."

"My idea in "My Sweet Lord," because it sounded like a "pop song," was to sneak up on them a bit. The point was to have the people not offended by "Hallelujah," and by the time it gets to "Hare Krishna," they're already hooked, and their foot's tapping, and they're already singing along "Hallelujah," to kind of lull them into a sense of false security. And then suddenly it turns into "Hare Krishna," and they will all be singing that before they know what's happened, and they will think, "Hey, I thought I wasn't supposed to like Hare Krishna!""

"If everybody who had a gun just shot themselves there wouldn’t be a problem."

"I always felt at home with Krishna. You see it was already a part of me. I think it's something that's been with me from my previous birth .... I'd rather be one of the devotees of God than one of the straight, so-called sane or normal people who just don't understand that man is a spiritual being, that he has a soul."

"It just annoyed me that people got so into the Beatles. "Beatles, Beatles, Beatles." It's not that I don't like talking about them. I've never stopped talking about them. It's "Beatles this, Beatles that, Beatles, Beatles, Beatles, Beatles." Then in the end, it's like "Oh, sod off with the Beatles," you know?"

"I had no ambition when I was a kid other than to play guitar and get in a rock 'n' roll band. I don't really like to be the guy in the white suit at the front. Like in the Beatles, I was the one who kept quiet at the back and let the other egos be at the front."

"He was annoyed 'cause I didn't say that he'd written one line of this song "Taxman." But I also didn't say how I wrote two lines of "Come Together" or three lines of "Eleanor Rigby," you know? I wasn't getting into any of that. I think, in the balance, I would have had more things to be niggled with him about than he would have had with me!"

"Rap music is just computerised crap. I listen to Top of the Pops and after three songs I feel like killing someone."

"I felt in love, not with anything or anybody in particular but with everything."

"I don't know why nobody told you how to unfold your love I don't know how someone controlled you They bought and sold you."

"I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping While my guitar gently weeps."

"Do what you want to do, And go where you're going to. Think for yourself 'Cause I won't be there with you."

"...the more I learn the less I know..."

"If you're listening to this song You may think the chords are going wrong But they're not We just wrote it like that"

"Without going out of your door, You can know all things on earth. Without looking out of your window you could know the ways of heaven. The farther one travels. the less one knows, the less one really knows."

"Try to realize it's all within yourself, No one else can make you change. And to see you're really only very small And life flows in within you and without you."

"The money we raised was secondary. The main thing was, we spread the word and helped get the war ended ... What we did show was that musicians and people are more humane than politicians."

"Even now I still meet waiters in Bengali restaurants who say, "When we were in the jungle fighting, it was great to know somebody out there was thinking of us.""

"I got tired of people saying "But what can I do?" Also, the reluctance of the press to report the full details created the need to bring attention to it. So the song "Bangla Desh" was written specifically to get attention to the war prior to the concert."