civil-servants-from-the-united-kingdom

"Most English people have heard the name of the Mughals. They have believed that the Mughal Empire was the predecessor to British rule in India. Therefore, they are surprised to learn that in the initial phase of British conquest, the English conquerors did not engage in conflict with any Mughal, whereas their struggle with the Marathas continued incessantly. Many people must be curious about who these Marathas were, who really destroyed the Mughal Empire, who fought with the English and the French to gain control over India, who once again revolted in 1857 and clashed arms with the British rule, and among whom emerged revolutionary leaders as politically astute as Nana Sahib and as brave as the Rani of Jhansi."

"There’s a real partnership approach and a real respect for the work that gets done here with the team in finance – how they manage the funding and the projects and programmes, and there’s a recognition for how hard it is to get those things done."

"Montserrat is the gift that keeps on giving. Whenever new team members joined and they would say ‘I didn’t finish my work.’ I would say you’re never going to finish your work"

"I’ve been a real champion of mental health and safeguarding and I know it’s a difficult conversation to have and it’s very hard for people, but I’m really proud of the work that my team, all of the ministries and the police have done together."

"It is just amazing that we are at the stage to have a successful evaluation. We’ve got a bit of work to do, but for a small territory with a small number of people, the amount of work that we galvanised together and pulling in the new legislation – it was a partnership with government to get all of that in place. In terms of lasting impact for Montserrat, I think things like the CFATF make a big difference.”"

"We’ve done lots of work working closely with government on CIPREG projects. We are about to break ground on the hospital project and with other projects there’s been some challenges in delivering them. But the way that’s progressed and the additional funding that we’ve got which is non ODA is a really positive sign.”"

"Self-awareness about what you do, why you do it and when you do it, is what is so important."

"“My path to entrepreneurialism was more a default necessity out of the fact that I wasn’t very good at being someone else’s employee combined with this constant thirst to ‘disrupt’ and ultimately, and most importantly… luck.”"

"“If you’re fortunate enough to have a product or service that you can trade for another, then ‘in kind’ deals can help a lot with cash flow in the early days.”"

"“The occasional error of judgment or wrong move can often move your business faster than the right ones… About-turns are not weak, they’re strong and demonstrate good leadership, but they need to happen quickly and be communicated decisively.”"

"“Trust your gut instinct as much if not more than the numbers, and surround yourself with people who you respect and enjoy working with.”"

"“Sometimes it’s the right decision to end a particular course of action or working relationship, but I now make a more concerted effort to salvage or reverse a situation.”"

"“Learn from others’ experiences and be inspired by them, but also make your own rules and navigate your own path.”"

"“Stop benchmarking yourself against other successful entrepreneurs or business people—it wastes valuable energy! Your personality and circumstances are unique and there is no right or wrong way to grow an innovative business.”"

"Invest in memories. It’s ultimately what life is about—people, places, moments and experiences."

"The strongest lessons you get in life are normally the negative ones."

"It is a sad woman who buys her own perfume."

": ' A family of shrubs and trees, chiefly tropical and subtropical. Many have bitter bark; that of ' Linnaeus, a South American species, provides the quassia chips of commerce. ... of about 28 genera only Ailanthus is likely to be seen in Britain … Two or three species are now cultivated in Britain, but all except the following are exceedingly uncommon. Ailanthus is a latinized form for ailanto, the native name of ; it means 'a tree tall enough to reach the skies.'"

"s enabled 'sculpture', ornaments, and fountains to be produced cheaply in quantity; Felix Austin of the Artificial Stone Works, New Road, , offered a range of fountains, all designed in the best taste."

"... until his tragic end on 13th July 1834 when, in Hawaii, he fell into a trap and was crushed to death by the wild bull that it had ensnared, devoted his life to exploration. To described the adventures and extreme hardships of this adventurous young botanist, ornithologist, and, in his later trips, surveyor, is beyond our scope. He was temperamental and, though lionized on his visits to London, was inclined to be quarrelsome when the urgency of travel and exploration did not keep him occupied."

"was a doctor, a self-sacrificing man who lived and practised in not far from the . In spite of the grimy surroundings of his home, he was an ardent naturalist."

"... when the was formed, and at times seemed inclined to devote a preponderance of its activities towards the study of vegetables and fruit, was there to urge the merits of botany and s. For a time, too, he acted as its honorary secretary ..."

"... in 1722 was made head gardener at , the director at the time was a certain —a learned but hot-tempered and difficult man, whose reputation was soon quite eclipsed by the fame of his gardener, for in 1724 was issued the first volume of Philip Miller's ."

"Of the geologically younger s, the is mainly to be found in Yorkshire; , built like so many s with stone found on its own estate, is a fine example. ... ... has been used extensively in and especially Cornwall; it dictates its own forms—gritty, grainy, sparing in ornamentation but magnificently durable."

"At one time trees were , principally to provide fuel. Such are the famous , ... pollarded from about 1500 to 1820, when the use of became general; such, too are the numerous pollards in ."

"Meantime they are more open to the reception of Christianity, the surest road to civilization, than any other section of the population. They would then prove the most assured supporters of the present state of things."

"The country bears traces of having once been well inhabited. At no very distant period, the waters of the Guggur [Ghaggar] river reached as far as Sooratgurh, and old wells are numerous as far as Bhatner [Hanumangarh]’. ...‘one remarkable feature in the country traversed to Bahawalpore, which is the traces that exist in it of the course of some former river’. And ‘it is to the forsaken bed of this river that we are indebted for the opening to us of a road through the desert’. ... the breadth to which the bed of the Slakro [Hakra] attains in this part of its course is such as to favour the idea that it was a larger river than the Sutlej . . . Ages have elapsed since this river ceased to flow, and I shall leave to those who care to prosecute the inquiry to establish the permanency or otherwise of its character, merely observing here, that . . . I traced to my entire satisfaction the deserted course of a large river as far as the Kalipahar wells . . . From that point its course was reported to me to continue . . . passing Delawur [Derawar Fort] and other forts in the desert, built on its channel . . ."

"When I was at the Treasury I argued for the most open door possible to immigration ... I think it's my job to maximise global welfare not national welfare."

"It is indeed very questionable whether the ancient Hindus ever possessed the true historical sense in the shape of the faculty of putting together genuine history on broad and critical lines."

"The internal situation, in my opinion, was never so menacing as it is to-day. I am most anxious not to seem to exaggerate the situation, but I must say that some of the reports we receive are really most fallacious. Latterly, I have seen it said that Mr. Gandhi is rapidly losing his influence with the educated classes and that his non-cooperation movement is breaking down. That may be true to some extent, but what is forgotten is that his appeal to the ignorant and fanatical masses has aroused a feeling of race hatred which may take years before it subsides, if, indeed, it ever does subside. He has followed Mrs. Besant's earlier efforts but with much greater effect, working upon the masses and upon the boys and students, to imbue them with dislike and contempt not only of the British Government, but of all British officials in India, and the strength of that appeal lies in its religious aspects. Mr. Ghandi and his myrmidons teach that British rule is satanic, that it is the duty of all religious Indians to get. rid of it. No one who has not lived in India can quite understand how dangerous such teaching is, especially when the teacher claims, and is conceded, supernatural powers and supernatural sanction."

"The danger to the peace of India, internally and externally, was never so great as it is now. The Dobbs mission has been in Cabul for four months and apparently has accomplished nothing. That is a humiliating fact which must tell against our prestige throughout the whole of the East. It is admitted. It has been admitted in this House that the Afghans, while negotiating with our Mission, concluded a Treaty with the Bolsheviks.' Since then, according to the Manchester Guardian, a supplementary clause has been added to that Treaty providing for a subsidy of one million gold or silver roubles, and also the construction of a telegraph line from Kustk through Herat and Kandahar to Cabul, with any technical assistance which may be required. The object of that telegraph line is obvious. But it is also reported now that another Treaty has been made with the Nationalist Turks by the Afghans. So it seems that the Afghans are rapidly falling under the influence either of the Bolsheviks, or of Pan-Islam, or possibly of both."

"Besides that, fighting is now constantly taking place on the frontier, as we read almost every day. With a hostile Afghanistan, or even an unfriendly Afghanistan, frontier warfare would be far more serious and more continuous than it was in the past. In 1897 we employed 120,000 troops on the frontier, though the Afghans at that time were quite friendly to us. In the spring of 1919 when the Afghans invaded India, we required over 200,000 troops on the frontier, or, with non- combatants, about 300,000 men, though only part of the tribes rose at that time. Is the Government sure that when the Army is reduced as proposed it will be able to deal with the much greater troubles that may at any time arise on the frontier and at the same time be sufficient to preserve order in India?"

"The Moslem extremists are even more violent in their language than Mr. Gandhi himself, and the wildest falsehoods about our treatment of the holy places of Islam have been widely circulated amongst the fanatical classes in India. During the last month we have seen two shocking outbreaks of violence, one at Malegaon in the Bombay Presidency, and the other on the Bengal coalfield. The police were easily overpowered, and loss of life and destruction occurred because troops were not available in time to deal with these disturbances. Then the forces of Bolshevism are certainly being brought to bear upon parts of India at the present time. The objects of the Bolsheviks, of course, differ from those of Mr. Gandhi and his associates, but they reinforce each other, because they both agree in the determination to turn us out of India."

"Animals don't behave like men. If they have to fight, they fight; and if they have to kill they kill. But they don't sit down and set their wits to work to devise ways of spoiling other creatures' lives and hurting them. They have dignity and animality."

"I dislike the whole business of experiments on animals, unless there's some very good and altogether exceptional reason in a particular case. The thing that gets me is that it's not possible for the animals to understand why they're being called upon to suffer. They don't suffer for their own good or benefit at all, and I often wonder how far it's for anyone's. They're given no choice, and there's no central authority responsible for deciding whether what's done in this case or that is morally justifiable. These experimental animals are just sentient objects; they're useful because they're able to react; sometimes precisely because they're able to feel fear and pain. And they're used as if they were electric light bulbs or boots. What it comes to is that whereas there used to be human and animal slaves, now there are just animal slaves. They have no legal rights, and no choice in the matter."

"When the man was disgraced and told to go away, he was allowed to ask all the animals whether any of them would come with him and share his fortunes and his life. There were only two who agreed to come entirely of their own accord, and they were the dog and the cat. And ever since then, those two have been jealous of each other, and each is for ever trying to make man choose which one he likes best. Every man prefers one or the other."

"Dangerous thing, a name. Someone might catch hold of you by it, mightn't they?"

"Here is a boy who was waiting to be punished. But then, unexpectedly, he finds that his fault has been overlooked or forgiven and at once the world reappears in brilliant colors, full of delightful prospects. Here is a soldier who was waiting, with a heavy heart, to suffer and die in battle. But suddenly the luck has changed. There is news! The war is over and everyone bursts out singing! He will go home after all! The sparrows in the plowland were crouching in terror of the kestrel. But she has gone; and they fly pell-mell up the hedgerow, frisking, chattering and perching where they will."

"When several creatures, men or animals, have worked together to overcome something offering resistance and have at last succeeded, there follows often a pause, as though they felt the propriety of paying respect to the adversary who has put up so good a fight. The great tree falls, splitting, cracking, rushing down in leaves to the final, shuddering blow along the ground. Then the foresters are silent, and do not at once sit down. After hours, the deep snowdrift has been cleared and the lorry is ready to take the men home out of the cold. But they stand a while, leaning on their spades and only nodding unsmilingly as the car-drivers go through, waving their thanks."

"Rabbits (says Mr. Lockley) are like human beings in many ways. One of these is certainly their staunch ability to withstand disaster and to let the stream of their life carry them along, past reaches of terror and loss. They have a certain quality which it would not be accurate to describe as callousness or indifference. It is, rather, a blessedly circumscribed imagination and an intuitive feeling that Life is Now. A foraging wild creature, intent above all upon survival, is as strong as the grass."

"Like the pain of a bad wound, the effect of a deep shock takes some while to be felt. When a child is told, for the first time in his life, that a person he has known is dead, although he does not disbelieve it, he may well fail to comprehend it and later ask--perhaps more than once--where the dead person is and when he is coming back."

"There's terrible evil in the world. It comes from men. All other elil do what they have to do and Frith moves them as he moves us. They live on the earth and they need food. Men will never rest till they've spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals."

"The full moon, well risen in a cloudless eastern sky, covered the high solitude with its light. We are not conscious of daylight as that which displaces darkness. Daylight, even when the sun is clear of clouds, seems to us simply the natural condition of the earth and air. When we think of the downs, we think of the downs in daylight, as we think of a rabbit with its fur on. Stubbs may have envisaged the skeleton inside the horse, but most of us do not: and we do not usually envisage the downs without daylight, even though the light is not a part of the down itself as the hide is part of the horse itself. We take daylight for granted. But moonlight is another matter. It is inconstant. The full moon wanes and returns again. Clouds may obscure it to an extent to which they cannot obscure daylight.Water is necessary to us, but a waterfall is not. Where it is to be found it is something extra, a beautiful ornament. We need daylight and to that extent it is utilitarian, but moonlight we do not need. When it comes, it serves no necessity. It transforms. It falls upon the banks and the grass, separating one long blade from another; turning a drift of brown, frosted leaves from a single heap to innumerable flashing fragments; or glimmering lengthways along wet twigs as though light itself were ductile. Its long beams pour, white and sharp, between the trunks of trees, their clarity fading as they recede into the powdery, misty distance of beech woods at night. In moonlight, two acres of coarse bent grass, undulant and ankle deep, tumbled and rough as a horse's mane, appear like a bay of waves, all shadowy troughs and hollows. The growth is so thick and matted that event the wind does not move it, but it is the moonlight that seems to confer stillness upon it.We do not take moonlight for granted. It is like snow, or like the dew on a July morning. It does not reveal but changes what it covers. And its low intensity---so much lower than that of daylight---makes us conscious that it is something added to the down, to give it, for only a little time, a singular and marvelous quality that we should admire while we can, for soon it will be gone again."

"To come to the end of a time of anxiety and fear! To feel the cloud that hung over us lift and disperse—the cloud that dulled the heart and made happiness no more than a memory! This at least is one joy that must have been known by almost every living creature."

"When Marco Polo came at last to Cathay, seven hundred years ago, did he not feel--and did his heart not falter as he realized--that this great and splendid capital of an empire had had its being all the years of his life and far longer, and that he had been ignorant of it? That it was in need of nothing from him, from Venice, from Europe? That it was full of wonders beyond his understanding? That his arrival was a matter of no importance whatever? We know that he felt these things, and so has many a traveler in foreign parts who did not know what he was going to find. There is nothing that cuts you down to size like coming to some strange and marvelous place where no one even stops to notice that you stare about you."

"You know how you let yourself think that everything will be all right if you can only get to a certain place or do a certain thing. But when you get there you find it's not that simple."

"Look. Look. That's the place for us. High, lonely hills, where the wind and the sound carry, and the ground's as dry as straw in a barn. That's where we ought to be. That's where we have to get to."

"El-ahrairah, your people cannot rule the world, for I will not have it so. All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed."

"I confidently expect that we shall continue to be grouped with mothers-in-law and Wigan Pier as one of the recognized objects of ridicule."

"When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find that far more, and far more hideous, crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion."