A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Quotes
Former President of India
Never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined place - that is, the unique you. Have an aim in life, continuously acquire knowledge, work hard, and have perseverance to realise the great life.
Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honour for me.
Small aim is a crime; have great aim.
A teacher should have a creative mind.
If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun.
Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.
You have to dream before your dreams can come true.
Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.
We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like that of a million people. Dream, dream, dream!
Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.
If we are not free, no one will respect us.
Let me define a leader. He must have vision and passion and not be afraid of any problem. Instead, he should know how to defeat it. Most importantly, he must work with integrity.
To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.
The purpose of education is to make good human beings with skill and expertise... Enlightened human beings can be created by teachers.
If four things are followed - having a great aim, acquiring knowledge, hard work, and perseverance - then anything can be achieved.
Science is a beautiful gift to humanity; we should not distort it.
If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.
Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person.
We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.
Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? Is it a legacy of our colonial years? We want foreign television sets. We want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported?
As a child of God, I am greater than anything that can happen to me.
Creativity is the key to success in the future, and primary education is where teachers can bring creativity in children at that level.
Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model.
Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.
Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.
Excellence is a continuous process and not an accident.
No religion has mandated killing others as a requirement for its sustenance or promotion.
Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.
My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.
Do we not realize that self respect comes with self reliance?
Unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. In this world, fear has no place. Only strength respects strength.
My 2020 Vision for India is to transform it into a developed nation. That cannot be abstract; it is a lifeline.
Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is harmony in the house; when there is harmony in the house, there is order in the nation; when there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.
The world has today 546 nuclear plants generating electricity. Their experience is being continuously researched, and feedback should be provided to all. Nuclear scientists have to interact with the people of the nation, and academic institutions continuously update nuclear power generation technology and safety.
It means, people who are in high and responsible positions, if they go against righteousness, righteousness itself will get transformed into a destroyer.
Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow.
To become 'unique,' the challenge is to fight the hardest battle which anyone can imagine until you reach your destination.
The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation.
God is everywhere.
War is never a lasting solution for any problem.
Writing is my love. If you love something, you find a lot of time. I write for two hours a day, usually starting at midnight; at times, I start at 11.
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.
I was willing to accept what I couldn't change.
Where do the evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. The fight for corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with 'what can I give' spirit.
The youth need to be enabled to become job generators from job seekers.
You see, God helps only people who work hard. That principle is very clear.
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?
In a democracy, the well-being, individuality and happiness of every citizen is important for the overall prosperity, peace and happiness of the nation.
Great teachers emanate out of knowledge, passion and compassion.
When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.
Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.
Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness.
Almost half of the population of the world lives in rural regions and mostly in a state of poverty. Such inequalities in human development have been one of the primary reasons for unrest and, in some parts of the world, even violence.
My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias.
I firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.
No sanction can stand against ignited minds.
In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.
One of the very important characteristics of a student is to question. Let the students ask questions.
God, our Creator, has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer helps us tap and develop these powers.
English is necessary as at present original works of science are in English. I believe that in two decades times original works of science will start coming out in our languages. Then we can move over like the Japanese.
What is politics? Political system is equal to development politics plus political politics.
India should walk on her own shadow - we must have our own development model.
There has to be a global mission of human progress.
Ultimately, education in its real sense is the pursuit of truth. It is an endless journey through knowledge and enlightenment.
The wealth of information now available at the click of a finger amazes me.
Regarding marriage, it - somehow, it didn't happen. One fellow in such a big family not getting married is not an issue.
Real education enhances the dignity of a human being and increases his or her self-respect. If only the real sense of education could be realized by each individual and carried forward in every field of human activity, the world will be so much a better place to live in.
There are a number of women who have brought about immense change in society.
I love the sea.
Science is global. Einstein's equation, E=mc2, has to reach everywhere. Science is a beautiful gift to humanity, we should not distort it. Science does not differentiate between multiple races.
India has to be transformed into a developed nation, a prosperous nation and a healthy nation, with a value system.
We have not invaded anyone. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them.
It's when children are 15, 16 or 17 that they decide whether they want to be a doctor, an engineer, a politician or go to the Mars or moon. That is the time they start having a dream, and that's the time you can work on them. You can help them shape their dreams.
While children are struggling to be unique, the world around them is trying all means to make them look like everybody else.
I'm not an expert on the arms race.
Rameswaram has, since antiquity, been an important pilgrimage destination.
Small aim is a crime.
New markets could be created by rural potentials, which could lead to rise in the employment.
For success of any mission, it is necessary to have creative leadership. Creative leadership is vital for government, non-governmental organisations as well as for industries.
India's trade deficit is because of excess of import over exports.
India can live without nuclear weapons. That's our dream, and it should be the dream of the U.S. also.
Science has revealed that the human body is made up of millions and millions of atoms... For example, I am made up of 5.8x10 27 atoms.
How accurately can the law fix the crime? There has to be a mechanism for very fast action. The law is like this: catch them and punish them.
When I took over as president, I studied the Constitution, and the more I studied it, the more I realised that it does not prevent the president of India from giving the nation a vision. So when I went and presented this vision in Parliament and in legislative assemblies; everyone welcomed it, irrespective of party affiliations.
One lesson that every nation can learn from China is to focus more on creating village-level enterprises, quality health services and educational facilities.
Wherever I go, as long as I get a hot vegetable dish, I am okay. If I am in Gujarat, I have Gujarati food. If it's Shillong, it's northeastern.
The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.
I have met 18 million youth, and each wants to be unique.
Smart habitation is an integrated area of villages and a city working in harmony and where the rural and urban divide has reduced to thin line.
Nations consist of people. And with their effort, a nation can accomplish all it could ever want.
Every nation has to follow a certain policy: Commercial, trade, various other types of policies.
I was a disadvantaged child from a non-educated family, yet I had the advantage of being in the company of great teachers.
Building capacity dissolves differences. It irons out inequalities.
One of the more difficult tasks for me as president was to decide on the issue of confirming capital punishment awarded by courts... to my surprise... almost all cases which were pending had a social and economic bias.
Widespread use of antibiotics promotes the spread of antibiotic resistance. Smart use of antibiotics is the key to controlling its spread.
My hair grows and grows; you cannot stop it - that fellow grows, it grows wild.
Economy forced me to become a vegetarian, but I finally starting liking it.
Today, India consumes about 682 watts per capita, far lesser than developed nations. As India develops, it will definitely require a lot more energy.
Developing nations want to become developed nations.
When a nation is surrounded by weaponized nations, she has to equip herself.