In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

My 2020 Vision for India is to transform it into a developed nation. That cannot be abstract; it is a lifeline.

Men are mortal. So are ideas. An idea needs propagation as much as a plant needs watering. Otherwise both will wither and die.

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

Let my skin and sinews and bones dry up, together with all the flesh and blood of my body! I welcome it! But I will not move from this spot until I have attained the supreme and final wisdom.

We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us. 

A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, 'Huh. It works. It makes sense.'

Law and order are the medicine of the body politic and when the body politic gets sick, medicine must be administered.

The basic Buddhist stand on the question of equality between the genders is age-old. At the highest tantric levels, at the highest esoteric level, you must respect women: every woman.

In most cases, my visits to the West are for promotion of human values and religious harmony.