Being one of the earliest civilizations of the world, India is enriched with social and cultural heritage. There are a whopping 32 UNESCO World Heritage sites in the country. The largest democracy in the world has a vast diaspora. It is also regarded as the land of inventions. Ayurveda medicine, mathematical feats, the art of navigation, founding of four religions- was all started in India.

Further, India thrives because of its diversity. It has 122 major languages and 234 identifiable mother tongues. In terms of religious diversity, there are more than 10 major religions in India and many other tribal religions. To add to this, even the geography of India ranges from the Himalayan mountain ranges in the north to the coastal cluster of islands of Andaman and Nicobar, from the wettest inhabited place in the world in Meghalaya to the deserts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

It stands apart from the rest of Asia, marked off by the mountains, oceans and seas around it. Home to over 1.3 billion people, the densely populated nation truly has some of the most patriotic and passionate individuals. Not just this, famous people from other nations have also pointed out the distinctivity, diversity, inclusivity of India and the Sanskrit ideology of ‘Vasudhev Kutumbukam’ which translates to ‘The world is one family’.

Quotes about India by Famous Personalities – What is India?

• Mark Twain, Renowned Author

“India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most artistic materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!”

• Will Durant, American historian

“India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe’s languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all.”

• George Bernard Shaw, Irish Playwright

“The Indian way of life provide the vision of the natural and real way of life. We veil ourselves with unnatural masks. On the face of India are the tender expressions which carry the mark of the Creator’s hand.”

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

“In the great books of India, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of old intelligence, which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the questions that exercise us.”

• Nicholas Krstof

“The Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine, is in Northwestern India near the Pakistani border, and it is a delightful place to contemplate the draw of faith.”

• Sir William Jones (British Orientalist)

“The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity is of wonderful structure, more prefect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either.”

India Quotes – Described as a Feeling

• Romain Rolland, French Philosopher

“If there is one place on the face of this Earth where all the dreams of living mean have found a home from the very earliest days when began the dream of existence, it is India.”

• Keith Bellows, National Geographic Community

“There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won’t go. For me, India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds. It was as if all my life I had been seeing the world in black and white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor.”

• Sylvia Levi, French Scholar

“She (India) has left indelible imprints on one fourth of the human race in the course of a long succession of centuries. She has the right to reclaim … her place amongst the great nations summarizing and symbolizing the spirit of humanity. From Persia to the Chinese sea, from the icy regions of Siberia to Islands of Java and Borneo, India has propagated her beliefs, her tales, and her civilization!”

• Martin Luther King, Jr.

“To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim.”

• Erin Reese

“India will reveal to you places in your heart that must be purified.”

• Erin Reese

“There are three trips you take to India: the one you think you’re going to have – that you plan for; the one you actually have; and the one you live through once you go back home.”

Quotes about Indian by the Scientific Community

• Grant Duff, British Historian

“Many of the advances that we consider today to have been made in Europe were in fact made in India centuries ago.”

• Albert Einstein, Theoretical Scientist

“We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!”

• William Durant

“It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system.”

• Max Mueller, German Scholar

“If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.”

• Lancelot Hogben, English Mathematician

“There has been no more revolutionary contribution than the one which the Hindus (Indians) made when they invented zero.”

• Sir W. Hunter, British Surgeon

“The surgery of the ancient Indian physicians was bold and skillful. A special branch of surgery was dedicated to rhinoplasty or operations for improving deformed ears, noses and forming new ones, which European surgeons have now borrowed.”

• P Johnstone

“Gravitation was known to the Hindus (Indians) before the birth of Newton. The system of blood circulation was discovered by them centuries before Harvey was heard of.”

Quotes about India – The Indian Scriptures  

• W. Heisenberg, German Physicist

“After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense.”

• B. G. Rele

“Our present knowledge of the nervous system fits in so accurately with the internal description of the human body given in the Vedas (5000 years ago). Then the question arises whether the Vedas are really religious books or books on anatomy of the nervous system and medicine.”

• William James, American Author

“From the Vedas we learn a practical art of surgery, medicine, music, house building under which mechanized art is included. They are an encyclopedia of every aspect of life, culture, religion, science, ethics, law, cosmology and meteorology.”

Quotes about India – Religion Diversity

• Mark Twain

“In religion, India is the only millionaire… The one land that all men desire to see and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of the rest of the globe combined.”

Quotes by Famous Indians

• Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

“I do not want that our loyalty as Indians should be in the slightest way affected by any competitive loyalty whether that loyalty arises out of our religion, out of our culture or out of our language. I want all people to be Indians first, Indian last and nothing else but Indians.”

• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

“It is the intense spirituality of India, and not any great political structure or social organization that it has developed, that has enabled it to resist the ravages of time and the accidents of history.”

• Shashi Tharoor

“India shaped my mind, anchored my identity, influenced my beliefs, and made me who I am… India matters to me and I would like to matter to India.”

• Anita Desai

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.”

• Shashi Tharoor

“India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay.”

• Arundhati Roy

“India lives in several centuries at the same time.”

• Muhammad Ali Jinnah

“India is not a nation, nor a country. It is a subcontinent of nationalities.”

• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

“It is the intense spirituality of India, and not any great political structure or social organization that it has developed, that has enabled it to resist the ravages of time and the accidents of history.”

• Rajiv Gandhi

“For some days, people thought that India was shaking. But there are always tremors when a great tree falls.”

• Indira Gandhi

“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.”

• Swami Vivekanada

“Civilizations have arisen in other parts of the world. In ancient and modern times, wonderful ideas have been carried forward from one race to another…But mark you, my friends, it has been always with the blast of war trumpets and the march of embattled cohorts. Each idea had to be soaked in a deluge of blood….. Each word of power had to be followed by the groans of millions, by the wails of orphans, by the tears of widows. This, many other nations have taught; but India for thousands of years peacefully existed. Here activity prevailed when even Greece did not exist… Even earlier, when history has no record, and tradition dares not peer into the gloom of that intense past, even from until now, ideas after ideas have marched out from her, but every word has been spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. We, of all nations of the world, have never been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live….!”

• Indu Sundaresan

“This great Mughal Emperor Akbar was illiterate; he could neither read nor write. However, that had not stopped Akbar from cultivating the acquaintance of the most learned and cultured poets, authors, musicians, and architects of the time – relying solely on his remarkable memory during conversations with them.”

• Jawaharlal Nehru

“She was like some ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and yet no succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been written previously.”

“A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new; when an age ends; when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance.”

“Those who are prepared to die for any cause are seldom defeated.”

• Deepak Chopra

“We are living in a time when the world has suddenly discovered India because it’s run out of raw material for its imagination. The raw materials for imagination are inexhaustible here.”

“A child in India grows up with the idea that you have to make choice that will create a better future. In fact, your whole life is a continuum of choice, so the more conscious you are, the greater your life will be.”

• Sai Baba

“If you are wealthy, be humble. Plants bend when they bear fruit.”

• Chetan Bhagat

“Be so busy improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.”

• Harivansh Rai Bacchan

“Remember, no one is stopping you from lighting a lamp in a dark night.”

• Kabir

“To keep your mind and nature cleansed of impurities, make a hut for your critics in your backyard and keep them close.”

• Devdutt Pattanaik

“What we possess is temporary, but what we become is permanent.”

• Tulsidas

“Devotion is that which generates knowledge; knowledge is that which fashions freedom.”

Quotes by Indians – On Indian Food

• Shobhaa De

“Indian food is like classical music raga- it takes time to build up to a crescendo.”

Quotes by Indians – Quirky Quotes

• Nipun Varma

“India is the only country wherein the total number of engineers exceeds the number of vehicles on the road.”

Quotes by Indians – Freedom Fighters

• Rabindranath Tagore

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free. Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls. Where words come out from the depth of truth, where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost it’s way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit. Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action.

Into that heaven of freedom, my father. Let my Country Awake!”

• B R Ambedkar

“Freedom of mind is the real freedom.”

“A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man.”

“One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man.”

“One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead.”

“Freedom of mind is the proof of one’s existence.”

“The soverignity of scriptures of all religions must come to an end if we want to have a united integrated modern India.”

“To my mind, there is no doubt that this Gandhi age is the dark age of India. It is an age in which people, instead of looking for their ideals in the future, are returning to antiquity.”

“Indeed, the Muslims have all the social evils of the Hindus and something more. That something more is the compulsory system of purdah for Muslim women. These burka women walking in the streets is one of the most hideous sights one can witness in India.”

• Chandra Shekhar Azad

“Don’t see others doing better than you beat your own records everyday, because success is a fight between you and yourself.”

• Jawaharlal Nehru

“Citizenship consists in the service of the country.”

• Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel

“Every citizen of India must remember that… he is an Indian and he has every right in this country but with certain… duties.”

“A war based on Satyagraha is always of two kinds. One is the war we wage against injustice and the other we fight against our own weaknesses.”

“We have to shed mutual bickering, shed the difference of being high or low and develop the sense of equality and banish untouability. We have to restore the conditions of Swaraj prevalent prior to British rule. We have to live like the children of the same father.”

“Young men and women are to build-up a strong character. A nation’s greatness was reflected in the character of her people. If it was sullied by selfishness, such people could not prosper or achieve great things. Selfishness had its place in life as everyone had to look to his own needs and that of his family, but it could not be made the be – all and end – all of life.”

• B R Ambedkar

“So as long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you.”

• Bhagat Singh

“The sanctity of the law can be maintained only so long as it is the expression of the will of the people.”

“Bombs and pistols do not make a revolution. The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting stone of ideas.”

“Revolution is an inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is an imperishable birthright of all.”

“A rebellion is not a revolution. It may ultimately lead to that end.”

“Merciless criticism and independent thinking are the two necessary traits of revolutionary thinking.”

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak

“Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it.”

“Our nation is like a tree and to the original trunk of Swarajya, two huge branches have emerged in the form of Swadeshi and Boycott.”

“If God were to tolerate untouchability, I would not recognize him a God at all.”

• Ashfaqulla Khan

“There is no dream, and if there is, there is only one to see you my children struggling for the same and for which I am expected to be finished.”

• Lala Lajpat Rai

“Every blow on our bodies this afternoon is like a nail driven into the coffin of the British imperialism.”

Quotes by Indians – Industry Leaders

• Indra Nooyi, CEO Pepsico

“Leadership is hard to define and good leadership is even harder. But, if you can get people to follow you to the end of the earth, you are a great leader.”

• Narayan Murthy, Co-Founder, Infosys

“Respect, recognition and reward flow out of performance.”

• Satya Nadella, CEO Miscrosoft

“Be passionate and bold. Always keep learning. You stop doing useful things if you don’t learn.”

“I deeply appreciate all the support and encouragement I have received from people all across India.”

“India for sure is a mobile-first country. But I don’t think it will be a mobile-only country for all the time. An emerging market will have more computing in their lives, not less computing, as there is more GDP and there is more need. As they grow, they will also want computers that grow from their phone.”

• Azim Premji, Chairman WIPRO

“If people are not laughing at your goals, your goals are too small.”

• Ratan Tata

“I don’t believe in taking right decisions.. I take decisions and make them right.”

“Don’t look back and think what you have not been able to do.”

• Mahatma Gandhi

“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and the souls of its people.”​

• J.R.D. Tata

“When you work, work as if everything depends on you. When you pray, pray as if everything depends on God.”

Quotes by Indians – Indian Army Quotes

• Capt Vikram Batra, PVC

“Either I will come back after hoisting the tricolour, or I will come back wrapped in it, but I will be back for sure.”

• Major Somnath Sharma

“The enemy are only 50 yards from us. We are heavily outnumbered. We are under devastating fire. I shall not withdraw an inch but will fight to our last man and our last round.”

• Capt Manoj Kumar Pandey

“Some goals are so worthy, it is glorious even to fail.”

“It’s my nature to be kind, gentle and humane, but remember, when it comes to matters of protecting my people, Fear me! For I’m also the deadliest one, who is powerful and relentless.”

“Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it, it flies with the last breath of every soldier who died protecting it.”

Quotes by Indians – Leaders addressing National Issues

• Jawaharlal Nehru

“Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge. At the stroke of midnight when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”

• Sadar Vallabhai Patel

“Little pools of water tend to become stagnant and useless, but if they are joined together to form a big lake the atmosphere is cooled and there is universal benefit.”

• APJ Abdul Kalam

“As a young citizen of India, armed with technology, knowledge and love for my nation, I relize small aim is a crime.”

“India has to be transformed into a developed nation, a prosperous nation, and a healthy nation, with a value system.”

“India can live without nuclear weapons. That’s our dream, and it should be the dream of the United States also.”

“Unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. In this world, fear has no place. Only strength respects strength”.

“Tell me, why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognise our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?”

“We will be remembered only if we give to our younger generation a prosperous and safe India, resulting out of economic prosperity coupled with civilizational heritage.”

“Don’t take rest after your first victory because if you fail in the second one, more lips are waiting to say that your first victory was just luck.”

• Sarojini Naidu

“We want deeper sincerity of motive, a greater courage in speech and earnestness in action.”

“A country’s greatness lies in its undying ideals of love and sacrifice that inspire the mothers of the race.”

• Swami Vivekananda

“Let new India arise out of peasant’s cottage, grasping the plough, out of huts, cobbler and sweeper.”

Deshpee Group is an Indian group of companies trying to make this world a better place. We are an internet marketing company that stands for much more than just internet marketing. The group started off with an interior design company, expanded to an affordable social media marketing platform and now also includes digital marketing, an NGO and a Marketing Training Institute. The goal of the group is to have a group company in every major industry which significantly contributes to India’s GDP.

We are proud to be Indians and we hope this compilation of quotes about India and by Indians inspires you to achieve more in life. Jai hind!