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

The things I talk about and explain couldn’t happen – yet, they don’t seem impossible – you could say I talk about the world in an abstract perspective. But then, the world is basically insane – and it’s trying to pass itself off as being a sane place. I show it for what it is.

It’s rare for anyone to value the opinions of a teenage girl.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.

My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

We don’t need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful.

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.

No woman in my time will be prime minister or chancellor or foreign secretary – not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100 percent.

Indeed, we’re strongest when the face of America isn’t only a soldier carrying a gun but also a diplomat negotiating peace, a Peace Corps volunteer bringing clean water to a village, or a relief worker stepping off a cargo plane as floodwaters rise.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.

Every man should know, if you’re comfortable and you like it, you should do it. Everyone always worries about what the girls think, what the guys think. If you like it, do it.

I think we understand that for the Court to work well, we have to not only respect but genuinely like each other.

When I was a young kid, I did not even dream about playing for my country. It was such a farfetched thing to play for India.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

In the studio, we adhere to a strict colour code. Developed over decades, the colour code consists of a finite and precise colour palate… The whole world as we experience it comes to us through the mystic realm of colour.

I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.

Much of India that we dream of still lies ahead of us: housing, power, water and sanitation for all; bank accounts and insurance for every citizen; connected and prosperous villages; and, smart and sustainable cities.

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.

Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in this world.

Women have a certain sexuality, and I think their bodies are beautiful, and I’m not embarrassed to explore that in a film. But there are things you get offered that are vulgar and violent – just like there’s a side of me that’s vulgar and violent.

We inhabit a universe that is characterized by diversity.

Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

Serious illness doesn’t bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.

I’m terrified of losing my voice.

It was the experience of mystery – even if mixed with fear – that engendered religion.

I have a scheme for stopping war. It’s this – no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one.

A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it’s not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It’s more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.

War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.

Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.

There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.

Blacks, especially in America, have been raised with a slave mentality – they don’t feel that they have the right to speak as loud as possible.

I will only say that many freedom fighters of India found their calling in the institutions of Britain. And many makers of modern India, including several of my distinguished predecessors, from Jawaharlal Nehru to Dr. Manmohan Singh, passed through their doors.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

Even when folks are hitting you over the head, you can’t stop marching. Even when they’re turning the hoses on you, you can’t stop.

Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.

Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the Earth are two separate entities, the Earth is only the environment. You are in the centre and you want to do something for the Earth in order for you to survive. That is a dualistic way of seeing.

I’ve used my femininity and my sexuality as a weapon and a tool… but that’s just natural.

In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.

I’m going to get an MRI to find out whether I have claustrophobia.

If I can be a leader, I will.

For somebody who loves foreign policy, being Secretary is the best job in the world – but it doesn’t happen twice.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Information, education, skills, healthcare, livelihood, financial inclusion, small and village enterprises, opportunities for women, conservation of natural resources, distributed clean energy – entirely new possibilities have emerged to change the development model.

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.

When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.

Now I do whatever I want.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway.

Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.