Abdul Kalam

1. We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.
2. Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person.
3. Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.
4. To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.
5. 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.
6. Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model.
7. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.
8. Unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. In this world, fear has no place. Only strength respects strength.
9. 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.
10. 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?
11. 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.
12. 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?
13. Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.
14. Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.
15. God, our Creator, has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer helps us tap and develop these powers.
16. You have to dream before your dreams can come true.
17. Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness.
18. Do we not realize that self respect comes with self reliance?
19. 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.
20. Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.
21. If we are not free, no one will respect us.
22. As a child of God, I am greater than anything that can happen to me.
23. Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.
24. I was willing to accept what I couldn't change.
25. No religion has mandated killing others as a requirement for its sustenance or promotion.
26. The youth need to be enabled to become job generators from job seekers.
27. 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.
28. 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.
29. India can live without nuclear weapons. That's our dream, and it should be the dream of the U.S. also.
30. India has to be transformed into a developed nation, a prosperous nation and a healthy nation, with a value system.
31. 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.
32. 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.
33. I'm not an expert on the arms race.
34. We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like that of a million people. Dream, dream, dream!
35. It means, people who are in high and responsible positions, if they go against righteousness, righteousness itself will get transformed into a destroyer.
36. When a nation is surrounded by weaponized nations, she has to equip herself.
37. 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.
38. Developing nations want to become developed nations.
39. India should walk on her own shadow - we must have our own development model.
40. My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias.
41. I love the sea.
42. Today, India consumes about 682 watts per capita, far lesser than developed nations. As India develops, it will definitely require a lot more energy.
43. Every nation has to follow a certain policy: Commercial, trade, various other types of policies.
44. One lesson that every nation can learn from China is to focus more on creating village-level enterprises, quality health services and educational facilities.