"The poor man commands respect; the beggar..." - Quote by Napoleon Bonaparte

“In politics, an absurdity in public business is going into it.”

“After making a mistake or suffering a misfortune, the man of genius always gets back on his feet.”

“Public instruction should be the first object of government.”

“All of a sudden inscriptions appeared on walls. Signs appeared. And that 'no' exploded all over India, in an act of pride that surprised even me. Then even the political parties, all of them, even the deputies in Parliament, said no: it's better to die of hunger than be taken for a nation of beggars.”

“Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.”

“In summer, intolerable closeness; in winter, unendurable cold. All the floors were rotten. Filth on the floors an inch thick; one could slip and fall.”

“Labels are distancing phenomena. They push us away from each other.”

“Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog.”

“There can be little doubt that in many ways the story of bridge building is the story of civilisation. By it we can readily measure an important part of a people's progress.”