On the one hand, the rich look askance at our continuing poverty - on the other, they warn us against their own methods.
My father was a statesman, I am a political woman. My father was a saint. I am not.
People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights.
You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.
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.
Winning or losing of the election is less important than strengthening the country.
I have lived a long life, and I am proud that I spend 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.
We have to prove to the disinherited majority of the world that ecology and conservation will not work against their interest but will bring an improvement in their lives.
Even if I died in the service of the nation, I would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood... will contribute to the growth of this nation and to make it strong and dynamic.
I think basically I'm lazy, but I have a housewife's mentality when I go about my job.
I have already reached out to the janata, and I am only trying to acquaint myself with people's problems.
There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten.
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.
There is not love where there is no will.
I am not a person to be pressured - by anybody or any nation.
I'm certainly not a workaholic.
Ability is not always gauged by examination.
We do not wish to impoverish the environment any further, and yet we cannot for a moment forget the grim poverty of large numbers of people. Are not poverty and need the greatest polluters?
The environmental problems of developing countries are not the side effects of excessive industrialisation but reflect the inadequacy of development.
The power to question is the basis of all human progress.
This is why we feel that democracy's important: because democracy allows you to have small explosions and therefore avoid the bigger explosions.
All the people who fought for freedom were my heroes. I mean, that was the sort of story I liked reading... freedom struggles and so on.
I've never turned to anybody for advice and counsel. Even when I was a very small child, I had to stand on my feet because of the circumstances of those times, and somehow, the circumstances have remained more or less the same. I have to take my own decisions.
The people have nothing to fear of me; people have never feared me.
Martyrdom does not end something, it only a beginning.
Wearing khadi was a badge of honour. It was something one was proud to do.
If I see something dirty or untidy, I have to clean it up.
One must beware of ministers who can do nothing without money, and those who want to do everything with money.
I don't think my father was my mentor.
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.
