Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.
Jawaharlal NehruRead
What we really are matters more than what other people think of us.
Interpretation
Our true essence is more important than others' opinions of us.
This quote emphasizes the importance of self-identity and authenticity over external validation. It suggests that our character and the essence of who we are hold greater significance than the perceptions and judgments that others may have of us.
In practice
During a personal development seminar about self-esteem.
Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.
India has known the innocence and insouciance of childhood, the passion and abandon of youth, and the ripe wisdom of maturity that comes from long experience of pain and pleasure; and over and over a gain she has renewed her childhood and youth and age
Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.
Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit.
Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.
However strong, however imposing a ship may appear, it is not 'disgraced' because it flies before the tempest. A commander ought always to remember that a man's life is worth more than the mere satisfaction of his own pride. In any case, to be obstinate is blameable, and to be wilful is dangerous.
Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end. The exclusivism of there being only one way in which we can be saved, the idea that there is a single religious group that is in sole possession of the truthβthat is the world as we know it that must pass away. What is the kingdom? It lies in our realization of the ubiquity of the divine presence in our neighbors, in our enemies, in all of us.
We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways.
To be born in India is to arrive into the world swimming in religion.
Israelites, Christians and Muslims profess immortality, but the veneration they render this world proves they believe only in it, since they destine all other worlds, in infinite number, to be its reward or punishment.
While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.
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