The new leadership in India is taking shape quietly, without any drum beating through the newspapers. … Various centers, the centers of energy and strength in the life of society are gaining tremendous momentum. May be, the surging new generation of today appears to have lost its bearing, to have lost its soul. But it is absolutely certain that one day it will have its own leader and prophet…. I am absolutely confident that the phoenix of a new leadership is rising from the ashes of all its failure. Soon the world will witness the lightning hidden in its beak and the storm hidden in its wings.

[A balanced economic system is one which provides] sufficiency for all and superfluity for some. The MNCs have entered the country like nomads. The majority doesn't need Pepsi or Coke, they want water. You can have your skyscrapers and Cokes but before this you must ensure that that tribal girl defecating in the open has the privacy of a toilet.

I never had money. But that had never stopped me.

There is a certain callousness in families like mine. They put up strong barriers so as not to see the misery in the world outside and I rebelled against it.

Consider the honey-bee. Its treasure is nectar, obtained even from the chilly plant. It is not at the cost of the flower. In fact, its act of extracting honey contributes to the progress of the flowers. You need not learn from Kahlil Gibran, Marx or Gorbachev, not even from Gandhiji. Choose instead to learn your lesson from the honey bees as your silent partners: they will show you how to develop without destroying.

Our governance is by a gerontocracy. This cataract of history can only be removed by youth. In this common man's century, only the common man can change the profile of this country.

The philosophy is that access to energy is a means to pull people out of poverty, not an end in itself. 

Our motivation is to help people out of poverty, not to be leading technology company.

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.

The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.