Every democratic system evolves its own conventions. It is not only the water but the banks which make the river.

... where does strength come from? It is not muscle strength any more. It is not also mere intellectual strength. What is strength? Strength is the support of the people.

When one has had a life as difficult as mine, one doesn't worry about how others will react.

It's not at all hard to reconcile the two things if you organize your time intelligently. Even when my sons were little, I was working.

Opportunities are not offered. They must be wrested and worked for. And this calls for perseverance... and courage.

At a certain point the family moved to Jaipur, where no woman could avoid the doli or purdah. They kept her in the house from morning to night, either cooking or doing nothing. [My mother] hated doing nothing, she hated to cook. So she became pale and ill, and far from being concerned about her health, my grandfather said, 'Who's going to marry her now?' So my grandmother waited for my grandfather to go out, and then she dressed my mother as a man and let her go out riding with her brothers.

We would rather starve than sell our national honor.