Let every man make known what kind of government
would command his respect, and that will be
one step toward obtaining it.
-- Henry David Thoreau

"Friends may not be able to pull you up,

The Seven Social Sins

1. Politics without principles     
2. Commerce without morality
3. Wealth without work            
4. Education without character
5. Science without humanity      
6. Pleasure without conscience
7. Worship without sacrifice      

--- Mahatma Gandhi

"Friends may not be able to pull you up,
but they will still think of ways not to let you fall".

"Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience
the world in the way they have been told to." --- Alan Keightley

"I expounded this imperishable yoga to Vivasan; Vivasan communicated it to Manu, and Manu to Ikshvaku.
Thus handed down in succession, the royal sages learnt it, with long lapse of time it dwindled away in this world, O Parantapa".

--- Bhagvad Gita IV.1 & IV.2

May there always be work for your hands to do;
May your purse always hold a coin or two;
May the sun always shine on your windowpane;
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;
May the hand of a friend always be near you;
May god fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

"I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.
Life is no 'brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which    
I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before
handing it on to future generations." --- George Bernard Shaw 1856

"I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me. Once when we were sitting at the edge
of a swimming pool, she filled the palm of her hand with a little water and held it before me,
and said this: " You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It symbolizes Love."

"This was how I saw it : "As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to remain there,
it will always be there. However, if you attempt to close your fingers around it and try to posses it,
it will spill through the first cracks it finds. This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet
love...they try to posses it, they demand, they expect... and just like the water spilling out of your hand,
Love will retrieve from you.

For love is meant to be free, you can not change it's nature. If there are people you love, allow them to
be free beings. Give and don't expect. Advise, but don't order. Ask, but never demand. It might sound
simple, but it is a lesson that may take a lifetime to truly practice.

It is the secret to true love. To truly practice it, you must sincerely feel no expectations
from those who you love, and yet an unconditional caring." --- Swami Vivekanada

"Hatred ever kills, love never dies such is the vast difference between the two.
What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred
proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred. --- By M. K. Gandhi

"Subtler, they say, are the senses; subtler than the senses is the mind;
subtler than the mind is the reason; but subtler even than the reason is He."

--- Bhagvad Gita III.42

"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your
environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in
yourself alone." --- Orison Swett Marden

 
"We are, all of us moulded and remoulded by those
who have loved us, and though that love may pass,
we remain none the less their work - a work which
they seldom recognize and is never what they
intended. No love, no friendship can cross our
destiny without leaving a mark on it for ever"
A decade back, my roomie rephrased the first line
to "our lives are shaped by those who love us -
still more, by those who refuse to love us"
Five years back, we had another addendum
"our lives are shaped by those who love us - still
more, by those who refuse to love us - and still
more, by those whom we refuse to love"
--- Francois Mauriac

 
Nice to know that you are doing well. but it (is) time for you
to convert all your Bs to A and As to A+
Your work will be appreciated later in life.
so keep working.
--- N. Ramkrishnan (an email)

 
I spend a lot of time thinking about
the hereafter I go somewhere to get something and then
wonder what I'm here after.
--- Anonymous (by forwarded e-mail)

 
Notwithstanding judicial decisions on the matter,
the (Gujarat) riots have hit India's secularism.
It has made minorities' position uncertain. I would
not take consolation if it is worse elsewhere.
-- Amartya Sen

 
...this (patriotism, brotherhood) must transcend even national borders
and extend to humanity because if ideas be only
for the prosperity of your country, it would end
where it began, by being a prophet to your own
community and very probably to your own self
-- Sarojini Naidu

I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much
with you, apply the following test: Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man
whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to
him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?
In other words, will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?
Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away.
--- Mahatma Gandhi
(Reference: Rajiv Gandhi's speech at Congress Centenary Session, Bombay, December 27-29, 1985)

I regard my self as a soldier, so as a soldier of peace,
and know the value of discipline and truth;
I must ask you to believe me when I say
that I have never made a statement with description
that the masses of India, if it became necessary,
would resolve to violence.
--- Mahatma Gandhi

It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world
at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.
--- Albert Einstein

"Leadership is not about exercising power as much as it is about
contributing. This will happen when we realize that leadership is not a
privilege but a responsibility."

-- Azim Premji, IIM Calcutta at the Convocation Ceremony in 2004
(He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Wipro Ltd.)

None are more unjust in their judgements other
than those who have a high opinion of themselves.
-- Anonymous

Nor am I greatly interested in the after life, in what happens after death.
I find the problems of this life sufficiently absorbing to fill my mind?
It is the Tao, the path to be followed and the way of life that interests me;
how to understand life, not to reject it but to accept it, t
o confirm it and to improve it. -- Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy,
you must have somebody to divide it with.
--- Mark Twain (on marraige)