Morarji Desai quotes

Morarji Desai was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India. Known for his austere lifestyle and strong advocacy for honesty in public life, he played a pivotal role in shaping post-independence Indian politics. He was the first Prime Minister to lead a non-Congress government in India. Here are 52 of his quotes:

I believe in preventing cruelty to all living beings in any form.

Morarji Desai

As long as man eats animals how can cruelty to animals be removed.

Morarji Desai

I do not say that one who is vegetarian is full of compassion and one who is not, is otherwise. We sometimes find people, who are vegetarians, are very bad people.

Morarji Desai

One can't be kind to one person and cruel to another.

Morarji Desai

I do not want to go into its physical reasons: the construction of the human body is different from that of carnivorous animals. But man's intelligence is such that it can be utilised to defend any-thing he does, whether right or wrong.

Morarji Desai

Vegetarianism alone can give us the quality of compassion, which distinguishes man from the rest of the animal world.

Morarji Desai

The vegetarian movement is an ancient movement and is not quite a modern one.

Morarji Desai

If we do not want to be pained by anybody we must not pain anybody; and how can man consider himself humane if he wants to live at the cost of others.

Morarji Desai

Life at any time can become difficult: life at any time can become easy. It all depends upon how one adjusts oneself to life.

Morarji Desai

I would, therefore, say that for no reason whatsoever, except in self-defense, should one think of killing any animal.

Morarji Desai

One has got to choose between the two evils, also between the lesser of the two evils in the matter of food, and therefore vegetarian food has got to be taken by man in order to sustain human life.

Morarji Desai

In the early ages, I believe not much thought was given to what man is and what his real functions should be, and what is the real purpose of his life.

Morarji Desai

For those who believe in God the matter is simpler still and clearly than anything else: because those who believe in God believe that God is the Creator of the whole Universe and there is nothing that does not come from Him.

Morarji Desai

We should propagate the values of vegetarianism.

Morarji Desai

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.

Morarji Desai

I receive letters from people who've been cured with the ‘urine-therapy'.... Several years ago, a man called Lawrence Armstrong was suffering from TB. One day, he was reading the psalms from the Bible, he found the passage, ‘Drink from your own cistern when you're in trouble.' He wondered what it meant. It struck him that it was his own urine. And, he saw in the veterinary hospitals some animals given their own urine by his doctor friend. Nature has provided its own cures. What happens to the birds and animals in the forest? For 45 days, he consumed all the urine he passed and at the end of it, he was a young man. Then he wrote a book, "Waters of Life."

Morarji Desai

There is an inherent quality [resistant to change] in this country which doesn't allow anybody to destroy it. Whoever tries to destroy it will himself be destroyed. Ravan was destroyed.

Morarji Desai

You are quite correct in saying that I banned the export of monkeys on a humanitarian basis and not because the number was lessening.

Morarji Desai

Unless morality comes to public life, politics will remain what it is all over the world. My only interest in remaining in politics is to bring in morality. I've chosen the path of action and bhakti.

Morarji Desai

I only cherished service to people. There should not be greed even in service.

Morarji Desai

This country [India] has the best future. When it reached its summit, it was bound to come down. It has taken 2000 years. Yet, this is the only country which has not been destroyed in the world. All other civilizations have gone.... This is the only country whose civilization has survived to this day. Whether it is Egypt, Babylon or Sumeria, there is absolutely no indication of that in those countries at present.

Morarji Desai

I have even acted in a children's film. It was a 10-minute role which I did somewhere around 1961. I had to quote from Gandhi. I spoke for 8 to 10 minutes continuously without any rehearsal, or writing, or retake. Not one word had to be changed. Because when you speak and act truthfully, you do not make a mistake. It comes naturally.

Morarji Desai