First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"I cannot help remarking the extreme mildness of the native character. Every one seems to walk slowly and lightly; all speak low, even in the market; there is a sort of gentleness in their voice and manner – those who were not employed sat squatting at their doors, smoking their hookahs. The games of the children seem to partake of the native character; they, too, squat, in little parties, about the doors, and, though they look lively, you scarcely ever hear their little voices, and none of their amusements appear at all of a riotous nature."
"The Hindoos, apparently not having Gods enough of their own, worship those of other sects whenever they come in their way. They also appear to observe not only their own festivals, but those of the Christians and Mahometans, and indeed the whole year round was nothing but a succession of different mysteries and mummery, in honour of some Saint, or of some holiday.… The Hindoos must certainly have the organ of veneration very strongly developed, for not only do they perform poojah to their own deities, but they are very ready also to join in the religious rites of other nations; they will follow the Mussulman’s taboot, and at our Christmas, they will bring an offering of cakes, flowers, and sugar-candy to the Christian Sahib…"
"The Hindoo character is highly deserving minute study; for I know no other people who resemble them, or any known principles to which their peculiarities can be referred. The Hindoo has a most perfect and enviable command of countenance: whether in joy or sorrow, he never betrays feelings he may desire to conceal; and the calm and serene appearance of his features, would induce an observer to believe him an apathetic being, whom the ordinary passions of our nature could not assail. Yet, how superficial is this judgment! See him in his temples, joining in some of the wild and startling ceremonies of his idol worship, his eye kindling with enthusiasm, and his form writhing with excitement before the altars of his gods; see him at his festivals, garlanded with flowers, covered with unguents and perfumes, half mad with mirth, shouting and feasting in these joyous saturnalia: and then wonder, as we must, at the calm eye, and quiet aspect of the Hindoo, in his usual and public bearing. The absence of that fear of death, which is so powerful in the hearts of civilised men, is the most remarkable trait in the Hindu character; as a subject of contemplation and enquiry, this has great interest. Probably the inhabitants of civilised nations set an undue value on life…"
"My mentors have been incredibly important to me. I trusted them to give me the best advice, whether I had asked for it or not, and they also gave me confidence to take up opportunities I might otherwise have declined. It’s really important that we take the time to do the same for the next generation of chemists."
"I am passionate about chemistry and really keen to ensure that opportunities are available to young people from all different backgrounds to become chemists. We need diversity of opinions, different perspectives and the best talent to take the discipline forward into the future."
"For years ahead, anyone you ask will be able to tell you where he was and what he was doing when he first learned of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination"
"I'm a risk-taker, there's no doubt about it."
"I was the worst actress in the world - ever"
"Some shows make money and some don't, and it 'sort of evens out in the end."
"You spend an awful lot of money, and then you're at the mercy of the critics. But you think about today; you don't think too much about tomorrow. I'll tell you what it is: on the inside you're calm, and on the outside, you're buzzing. So it belies what you feel inside. If anything does get too much, too outrageous, I let myself go calm inside, even though on the outside I might be this buzzy woman. It's an art; you learn it."
"I knew I wasn't very good. I'm interested in being the proactive person. I don't want to walk into a room and just be judged on what I look like"
"You do need an element of madness."
"When I left two hours later, my overwhelming feeling was one of shame that this monstrous act should have happened in proud, beloved Texas. And for all the stricken Dallas citizens, who had tried so hard, a sense of pity came even before the feeling of grief for the country’s loss. It was evident on many faces that the keen edge of shame cut deep"
"If I can deliver a strong script, compelling characters, and ensure they are well taken care of during their time with us, everything will fall into place."
"The restructuring of the fundraising team has been crucial. It had been almost entirely focused on events, so Horton set it the goal of developing new funding sources such as individual giving and corporate donations."
"The ruthless answer is do I want to keep reading because my reading pile is huge... Is there a story or character I’m compelled by?"
"You have to invest up front to raise money through things like individual giving, and you don't always see the returns in the first year"
"“Tell the truth, even if that truth is sometimes unpalatable.”"
"I sat down and talked to everyone, from the staff and trustees to the volunteers, stakeholders and celebrities, about what they did and what the charity was doing right and wrong.""
"There are lots of things in life that happen that we need to address, and we shouldn’t shy away and just think, ‘Okay, well, that’s a bit tough’ or ‘That’s a bit that is very out there,’ but actually it’s all based on stuff that actually happens."
"How do you get your boss to like you? It’s now developed into something more, because it’s earned the right to do that. So I’m really looking forward to the audience getting to see storylines that are opening up more."
"That enthuses staff as they see the benefits, which lifts morale, making people happier and more motivated.""
"Equality and diversity require collective attention and commitment. Those with industry experience should focus on creating opportunities for diverse talent."
"I think really what we look for are good stories, well told, with something to say. We tend to really lean into strong female characters, and we look for something that has a moral center, even if sometimes that moral center looks like a cold, dark heart."
"Doing this job is like studying for an exam that you are never prepped for. The workload never ever goes away. I’ve got literally hundreds of scripts, any time of a given month or week."
"Engage with other women, both younger and older, and stand firm against any negativity. I wish someone had shared this wisdom with me."
"I think it’s gut instinct, really. Sometimes, in something like Industry, that was inspired by wanting to look in that world."
"You can’t expect people to live in cities, to trade in cities, to exchange ideas in cities, if they don’t have the basic right to shelter in those cities."
"I think that’s the work that curator’s do. I see it less as a challenge, it’s just the task at hand."
"There are moments when you’re driving or walking around, and you find yourself in that meeting point."
"For many who attended the conference it was a weekend of "firsts" - the first meeting with others of the same type, the first opportunity to be dressed outside one's own bedroom and for a whole day, the first meal in a public restaurant, the first time one could discuss the state with others and to find out what sort of people we were. And all of this we owed to June."
"We hope, most fervently, that such better understanding may ultimately mean that the transvestite and the transsexual can walk freely abroad in Society, offending no-one, better understood by some, and, we hope, tolerated by all."
"[On the mass closure of children's playgrounds during the pandemic lockdowns] It was a decision taken by people who have no real life experience of what it's like to be stuck at home with a toddler."
"If I think about working for [[Theresa May|[Theresa] May]], I don't think there's any world in which we could have got from January to May [2020] and had this sort of culture, because it just wasn't there in the DNA of the organisation at that time."
"[From MacNamara's written evidence] In terms of the policy response the exclusion of a female perspective led to significant negative consequences, including the lack of thought given to childcare in the context of school closures. There was a serious lack of thinking about domestic abuse and the vulnerable, about carers and informal networks for how people look after each other in families and communities."
"I do not remember anyone working in the centre or who was part of the conversations who had a detailed understanding of the way the NHS operated. This is not unusual or unique to that time. Social policy and the "operational" management of the state is always under-represented in the centre of power whereas HM Treasury, foreign policy and national security are over-represented in line with what is normally the focus for a Prime Minister."
"[From MacNamara's written evidence] For example, the long-term impact of a generation of young people being deprived of schooling and peer-group contact for an extended period of time were hard to bring in as a balancing argument because the harm was not immediately quantifiable, or amenable to being reduced into a data set and presented in a diagram. Similarly, less visible impacts suffer in this format. I remember it being far too difficult to get people to pay attention to domestic violence and lockdown - and the No 10 Private Secretary (Hannah Young) having to push back against the assertion that it was not an urgent problem because it was “not showing up in the data"."
"[Referring to the Cabinet Office and No. 10 Downing Street] I would find it hard to pick one day when the regulations were followed properly inside that building. [...] I know that because ... there was one meeting where we absolutely adhered to the guidance, to the letter, and that was the cabinet meeting, and everybody moaned about it and tried to change it repeatedly. So I know how exceptional it was to really, really, really properly follow the guidance."
"[MacNamara provided a Karaoke machine for a lockdown-defying gathering for someone who was leaving No. 10 Downing Street] My profound regret is for the damage that’s been caused to so many people because of it, as well as just the mortifying experience of seeing what that looks like and how rightly offended everybody is in retrospect. [...] I absolutely knew and thought it was actually important for there to be space for - particularly the private office - to be able to gather together and spend time together. That was entirely because of the kind of culture that they were working in and entirely because I was really worried about individuals breaking and suffering, and whether they were going to be okay, and how important their colleagues were to each other. I'm saying none of that in excuse of my own misjudgment. I'm saying none of that in excuse of thinking any of these things were okay. But it was a much more complex situation than has allowed to be presented for lots of different reasons."
"[Boris Johnson's "breezy confidence" about COVID in March 2020] It was the day on which there was a question about whether the Prime Minister should shake hands with people on a visit to the hospital and there was a jokey discussion about alternative greetings to handshakes. The Prime Minister felt - not unreasonably - that it was a bit ridiculous for him to suggest alternative greetings. But the jovial tone, the view that in implementing containment measures and suspending work and schooling, the Italians were overreacting, and the breezy confidence that we would do better than others had jarred with me. I remember saying that I thought that all people wanted to know was what was the right thing to do - and that was not clear."
"[At the start of 2020] [T]he Cabinet Office in Whitehall had developed some unhealthy habits in terms of ways of working and it was a low trust environment in terms of relationships between the civil service and the prime minister and his political team."
"[From MacNamara's written statement about a meeting in the prime minister's study on on Friday, 13 March 2020] I have just been talking to the official Mark Sweeney, who is in charge of coordinating with the Department for Health. He said I have been told for years that there is a whole plan for this. There is no plan. We are in huge trouble. I have come through here to the Prime Minister’s office to tell you all that I think we are absolutely f-----. I think this country is heading for a disaster. I think we are going to kill thousands of people. As soon as I have been told this, I have come through to see you. It seems from the conversation you are having that that is correct."
"Poverty in the UK is too high and the experiences of many people in poverty are now getting worse. Governments of all colours have worked hard to change that picture, but as a society, we have failed to make significant progress."
"Everyone in 21st-century Britain should be able to afford the basics they need to avoid poverty. It’s shameful that instead millions of families are on the edge of destitution. In recent years, we’ve made little progress in tackling the causes of poverty: low wages, an inadequate social security system and sky-rocketing housing costs. As the commission shows, the solutions are there to tackle these issues. What we need now is the collective will."
"If you think you are one of the a small group of people in the world who are truly GREAT at project management, then we want to talk to you. Victoria Woodcock ran ' — she was a truly awesome project manager and without her Cameron would certainly have won. We need people like this who have a 1 in 10,000 or higher level of skill and temperament."
"... Victoria Woodcock, Operations Director, known as Vics, who was the most indispensable person in the campaign. If she’d gone under a bus, Remain would have won. When comparing many things in life the difference between average and best is say 30% but some people are 50 times more effective than others. She is one of them."
"Wouldn’t it be worth working out what the actual criteria are?"
"If Woodcock’s nose had been shorter…"
"untrue and completely unsupported by the evidence"
"As the Indian sages pondered on the problem of good and evil, they were confronted with the apparent injustices and cruelties of the world around them, and this state of affairs was finally reconciled with their idea of Brahman by the conception of a universal ethical law applymg to all life. This law as proclaimed as the law of karma. In the words of the Upanishads, "As is a man's desire so is his will, and 1\S is his will so is his deed, and whatever deed he does that he will reap." "India held a strange and irresistible attraction for the whole of Asia in the first millennium. People in the most primitive stage of development as well as the Chinese with a civilization as ancient and illustrious as India's own, acknowledged India as first in the supreme realm of spiritual perception. Yet the civilization of India, transplanted abroad, did not have a deadening effect of suppressing or stifling native genius, as the imposition of a foreign culture often does. On the contrary, it called out the best that others had to give.As a result of India's fertilizing influence, new and distinctive types of culture everywhere arose, and each new colony was able to create and contribute fresh treasure, to be added to the great Asiatic heritage. How Indian religions and Indian culture blossomed anew in foreign environments and endured for many centuries is a fascinating and little appreciated chapter of Indian history." ... "The Indian colonies which began to grow up all along the periphery of the motherland were essentially cultural and religious, rather than political or racial. Yet they were subject to strong Indian influences. These swept outward like tidal waves. They passed south to Sri Lanka and beyond to the remote islands of the Pacific. They inundated Burma, Malaya, Siam and Indo-China. They overwhelmed Nepal and Tibet. From Afghanistan, they passed along to central Asia and China. They lapped at the far shores of Korea and Japan. Indian religious ideas and literature, Indian conventions of art and architecture, Indian legal codes and social practices ... all took root in these outer territories." "For a long time Indians seem to have held the monopoly of maritime commerce in both the southern and eastern seas of Asia. They possessed large ocean-going vessels, in which they first ventured to Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaya and gradually they extended their journeys to Java and Sumatra and then to southern China."
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.