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The Wit and Wisom of Nani A. Palkhivala
Nani A. Palkhivala, a multi-talented personality, played diverse roles in his life—lawyer, diplomat, orator, author, political and economic thinker, and social reformer. An advocate of civil liberties, he proactively defended the Constitution and the principles enshrined in it.
This book contains select quotations—classified subject-wise under various chapters—from his writings and speeches over six decades of his working life. The book introduces the man through his thoughts and ideas with the aim of inspiring readers, particularly the youth.
This book contains select quotations—classified subject-wise under various chapters—from his writings and speeches over six decades of his working life. The book introduces the man through his thoughts and ideas with the aim of inspiring readers, particularly the youth.
- GenresLawIndiaNonfiction
152 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 15, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 29, 2016
While studying chartered accountancy and while doing tax research, Nani Palkivala's opinions and names cropped up. I just HAD to read this book and I am glad I did. Below are some snippets and takeaways from the book relevant even today, and I suggest everyone picks up the book
-Single-minded pursuit of money impoverishes the mind, shrivels the imagination and desiccates the heart. You must cultivate your mind, but not merely with a view to offering it as a commodity for sale in the marketplace. You can engage in a commercial activity but without a commercialized outlook.
-There are two kinds of poverty— inward and outward. Outward poverty may be reduced by following economic policies. But inward poverty can be reduced only by reading our ancient literature.
-The tricolour fluttering all over the country is black, red and scarlet— black money, red tape and scarlet corruption.
-Unfortunately, in our own times, we have downgraded the intellectual and have in fact devalued the very word. Today an ‘intellectual’ means a man who is intelligent enough to know on which side his bread is buttered.
-At their best, some of our present-day universities are academic cafeterias offering junk food for the mind. At their worst, they are the breeding-grounds of corruption and indiscipline, dishonesty and irresponsibility.
-The argument why India is not willing to submit itself to full-scope safeguards (which require disclosure of its nuclear facilities) if it has nothing to hide … is on a par with the question addressed to an honest man: ‘Since you are honest and you are not a receiver of stolen goods, why don’t you permit the police to come to your house once a month and inspect your house?’
-It is a vicious circle. Men of talent and integrity will not enter public life because of the filth and the stench; and yet public life cannot be cleansed unless men of talent and integrity enter it. It is like the story of the man who decided that he would not enter the water until he had learnt to swim!
-Some minimum qualifications should be prescribed for those who seek election to Parliament… You need years of training to attend to a boiler or to mind a machine, to supervise a shop floor or to build a bridge, to argue a case in a law court or to operate upon a human body. But to steer the lives and destinies of millions of your fellowmen, you are not required to have any education or equipment at all!
-The tragedy of India is the tragedy of waste— waste of national time, energy and manpower. Tens of millions of man-hours, crammed with intelligence and knowledge— of taxgatherers, taxpayers and tax advisers— are squandered every year in grappling with the torrential spate of mindless amendments. The feverish activity achieves no more good than a fever.
-Single-minded pursuit of money impoverishes the mind, shrivels the imagination and desiccates the heart. You must cultivate your mind, but not merely with a view to offering it as a commodity for sale in the marketplace. You can engage in a commercial activity but without a commercialized outlook.
-There are two kinds of poverty— inward and outward. Outward poverty may be reduced by following economic policies. But inward poverty can be reduced only by reading our ancient literature.
-The tricolour fluttering all over the country is black, red and scarlet— black money, red tape and scarlet corruption.
-Unfortunately, in our own times, we have downgraded the intellectual and have in fact devalued the very word. Today an ‘intellectual’ means a man who is intelligent enough to know on which side his bread is buttered.
-At their best, some of our present-day universities are academic cafeterias offering junk food for the mind. At their worst, they are the breeding-grounds of corruption and indiscipline, dishonesty and irresponsibility.
-The argument why India is not willing to submit itself to full-scope safeguards (which require disclosure of its nuclear facilities) if it has nothing to hide … is on a par with the question addressed to an honest man: ‘Since you are honest and you are not a receiver of stolen goods, why don’t you permit the police to come to your house once a month and inspect your house?’
-It is a vicious circle. Men of talent and integrity will not enter public life because of the filth and the stench; and yet public life cannot be cleansed unless men of talent and integrity enter it. It is like the story of the man who decided that he would not enter the water until he had learnt to swim!
-Some minimum qualifications should be prescribed for those who seek election to Parliament… You need years of training to attend to a boiler or to mind a machine, to supervise a shop floor or to build a bridge, to argue a case in a law court or to operate upon a human body. But to steer the lives and destinies of millions of your fellowmen, you are not required to have any education or equipment at all!
-The tragedy of India is the tragedy of waste— waste of national time, energy and manpower. Tens of millions of man-hours, crammed with intelligence and knowledge— of taxgatherers, taxpayers and tax advisers— are squandered every year in grappling with the torrential spate of mindless amendments. The feverish activity achieves no more good than a fever.
October 12, 2016
The book contains some inimitable "gems" from Nani Palkhivala. His comments on the annual budget are legendary , on occasions garnered more attention than the budget itself. In this book, the editor has meticulously chosen his comments on a variety of issues and personalities. "When Gandhiji smiled it was public event; when he did not, it was a chapter of history". There couldn't be a better way to describe the Mahatma. Despite garnering so much attention he remained as humble as ever : "We are all insignificant members of an insignificant species on an insignificant planet in an infinite Universe". He was indeed upset at the manner in which democracy was evolving in India : "The tri colour fluttering all over the country is black, red and scarlet- black money, red tape and scarlet corruption". He was extremely critical of the education system, specially higher education, in India : "At their best, some of our present day universities are academic cafeterias offering junk food for the mind. At their worst, they are the breeding grounds for corruption and indiscipline, dishonesty and irresponsibility". How true.
His comments on the annual budget were full of wit and wisdom :" To a dehydrated nation, the budget offers water from an eye-dropper". He did not spare the mandarins of North Block, coming up with a special one for them :" The sacred cows of economic theology (as distinct from economic rationalism) graze more plentifully in the North Block than any other pasture"
All in all these quotes bring out the true persona of Palkhivala.
His comments on the annual budget were full of wit and wisdom :" To a dehydrated nation, the budget offers water from an eye-dropper". He did not spare the mandarins of North Block, coming up with a special one for them :" The sacred cows of economic theology (as distinct from economic rationalism) graze more plentifully in the North Block than any other pasture"
All in all these quotes bring out the true persona of Palkhivala.
January 22, 2020
Nani A. Palkhivala is one of the most brilliant Indian. You measure him on any dimension :-).
There is no denying that this book is a product of immense research and labor. A quote without context is very difficult to understand and relate to. Reading a full book of quotes becomes a challenge. But that is my own limitation.
There is no denying that this book is a product of immense research and labor. A quote without context is very difficult to understand and relate to. Reading a full book of quotes becomes a challenge. But that is my own limitation.
August 15, 2023
Good book with some good quotes. Successfully achieves the objective it sets out. Some of the best quotes:
- the contrast between the culture of ancient India and that of modern India seems sufficient to disprove Darwin’s theory of evolution.
- in the case of every soul, however troubled, restoration can come only from within.
- a man is as small as the things that annoy him.
- though all of us belong to the same species of creation, we are at different stages of evolution.
- nature has not read article 14 of the constitution which grants equality to all persons. Men are born unequal in character, in intelligence, in their capacity for hard work, their willingness to take risks, and their ability to take initiative.
- India has undertaken, unilaterally and voluntarily, a project of moral disarmament.
- the most persistent tendency in India has been to have too much government and too little administration; too many laws and too little justice; too many public servants and too little public service; too many controls and too little welfare.
- we endure injustice and unfairness with feudalistic servility and fatalistic resignation
- the essential purpose of our constitution is to ensure freedom of the individual and the dignity of man, and to put basic human rights above the reach of the state and of transient politicians in power whose naked juvenile chatter is covered by the fig leaf of demagogic claptrap.
- what the tenth legion was to Julius Caesar, what the old guard was to Napoleon, what the eighth army was to Montgomery, the fundamental rights are to the citizens. Without them, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to guard the citadel of freedom.
- of parliament had the power to destroy the basic structure of the constitution, it would cease to be a creature of the constitution and become its master.
- you can lead a man to the University but you cannot make him think
- History will record that the greatest mistake of the Indian republic in the first 45 years of its existence war to give abysmally low priority to education-in fact no priority at all.
- Unfortunately, in our own times, we have downgrades the intellectual and have in fact devalued the very word. Today an intellectual means a man who is intelligent enough to know on which side his bread is buttered.
- At their best, some of our present day universities are academic cafeterias offering junk food for the mind. At their worst, they are the breeding ground of corruption and indiscipline, dishonestly and irresponsibility.
- We continue to churn out ethical illiterates and moral idiots. Our education continues to be value agnostic and value neutral
- let us make no mistake. Civil liberty and individual freedom can die as surely, thought not as swiftly, in a democracy as it can in a totalitarian state. The noise counting method, one man one vote, will certainly survive. But it is only the husk of democracy. When civil liberties and individual freedoms are excessively restricted, it is poor consolation to know that the persons responsible for such a state of affairs were the elected representatives of the people.
- The law does not cease to be tyrannical because it has been passed by the elected representatives of the people.
- when we live in a democracy, we live in hazard. There is no amenable god in it, no particular concern or mercy. Democracy involves the cooperation of all perceptive citizens in the active work of running the country. It means payment to the stste, not only in taxes but in time and in thought.
- when we became a republic, we forgot that from is like alcohol. It must be taken in moderation.
- Thought is certainly free in this country. What we lack is thought, not the freedom of thought.
- there is the other type of socialism which is socialism on the cheap, which feeds on slogans and promises, and thrives on the gullibility of the people. This wrong brands of socialism is extremely popular because it is so much easier in practice. It mistakes amiri hatao for garibi hatao; it is content satisfy the pangs of envy when it cannot satisfy the pangs of hunger; and since it cannot create income or wealth, it plans for poverty and equal distribution of misery.
- Distributive justice can never get off to a start when there is nothing to distribute.
-to a dehydrated nation, the budget offers water from an eye dropper
- While death and taxes are inevitable, being taxed to death is not.
- What is wrong with India is the pathological obsession displayed by the law makers who frame laws only with the tax evaders in mind, regardless of the enormous inconvenience and harassment to the far larger section of honest taxpayer
- The income tax act is a national disgrace. Yet more and more half baked changes every few months are received calmly by our people as part of their collective karma. Our laws are changed on the assumption that there is no intelligent life outside the North block.
- we keep on breezily tracking fifty year problems with five year plans, staged by two year officials, working with one year appropriations, fondly hoping that somehow the laws of economics will be suspended because we are Indians.
- perhaps there is no other country in earth which has such ample measure all the enterprise and skills needed to create National wealth and which takes such deliberate and endless pains to restrict and hamper it's creation
- Surely something is basically wrong with our economic philosophy and political ideology of Indians are able to enrich foreign countries but are not allowed to solve the problem of poverty at home.
- It is the unshakable conviction of our government that the right thing to do economically is the wrong thing to do politically.
- some minimum qualifications should be prescribed for those who seek election to parliament. You need years of training to attend to a boiler or to mind a machine or to supervise a shop floor or to build a bridge. But to steer the lives and destinies of millions of your fellowmen you are not required to have any education or equipment at all.
- We need a man of wisdom. Where will we find him? We need men like Emperor Asoka or Akbar, but do you think they would ever get elected in times like
ours?
- Public amnesia is the politician's best friend.
- 'Amiri hatao' at budget time is an excellent political substitute for 'Garibi hatao' at election time; and the public mind may be trusted to be sufficiently muddled to see no distinction between the two.
- A large percentage of our population is literally illiterate, making meaningful democracy impossible but making it easily possible for politicians to have a vested interest in illiteracy and public ignorance.
- Reassuring statements emanate from New Delhi from time to time, but they remain in the realm of words. Ministerial pronouncements are like a rain dance during a drought: they do not change the weather, but they are calculated to give the impression that the chief is doing something about the scourge.
- On public indifference towards the country's degraded political situation: The peacock must not be replaced as the national bird by the ostrich.
- on bureaucracy: It is unfortunate that our government keeps the nation's most outstanding men out, standing.
- The Union of India has formed the disconcerting habit of legislating first and thinking later.
- A lawsuit, once started in India, is the nearest thing to eternal life ever seen on this earth. If litigation were to be included in the next Olympics, India would be quite certain of winning at least one gold medal! Our cases drag over a length of time which makes eternity intelligible.
- On lengthy judgments: Understandably, brevity is not the forte of a people who were the first to evolve the concepts of eternity and infinity. Brevity might well be cultivated as a virtue in our court judgments at least as a concession to the shortness of human life.
- India is a country where the family comes first, the caste second, the party third and the nation is hardly relevant at all.
- The riots and disturbances which took place at Ayodhya, Mumbai and Surat in I992-93 were the handiwork of hoodlums who made Hitler look like a juvenile delinquent.
- As is evident from the traffic on our roads, we have grown accustomed to a sloppy way of behaviour and accept it as a fact of Indian life. This acceptance of indiscipline is even more disastrous than indiscipline itself.
- We are as careless about public property as we are careful about our own property. Those who would not allow any trespass on their private estate are willing to contemplate, with total equanimity, encroachments on public property and destruction of public amenities.
- Today many of our roads resemble the test tracks of commercial vehicle manufacturers.
- On prolonged power failures: They serve to remind us that dining by candlelight is romantic only when there is a choice.
- A problem avoided turns into a crisis; and the crisis not mastered turns into a disaster further down the road.
- The human mind is more malleable than gold; and can be easily conditioned to endure injustice and unfairness through prolonged exposure to such an environment.
- Single-minded pursuit of money impoverishes the mind, shrivels the imagination and desiccates the heart. You must cultivate your mind, but not merely with a view to offering it as a commodity for sale in the marketplace. You can engage in a commercial activity but without a commercialized outlook.
- The contrast between the culture of ancient
India and that of modern India seems sufficient to disprove Darwin's theory of evolution.
- the contrast between the culture of ancient India and that of modern India seems sufficient to disprove Darwin’s theory of evolution.
- in the case of every soul, however troubled, restoration can come only from within.
- a man is as small as the things that annoy him.
- though all of us belong to the same species of creation, we are at different stages of evolution.
- nature has not read article 14 of the constitution which grants equality to all persons. Men are born unequal in character, in intelligence, in their capacity for hard work, their willingness to take risks, and their ability to take initiative.
- India has undertaken, unilaterally and voluntarily, a project of moral disarmament.
- the most persistent tendency in India has been to have too much government and too little administration; too many laws and too little justice; too many public servants and too little public service; too many controls and too little welfare.
- we endure injustice and unfairness with feudalistic servility and fatalistic resignation
- the essential purpose of our constitution is to ensure freedom of the individual and the dignity of man, and to put basic human rights above the reach of the state and of transient politicians in power whose naked juvenile chatter is covered by the fig leaf of demagogic claptrap.
- what the tenth legion was to Julius Caesar, what the old guard was to Napoleon, what the eighth army was to Montgomery, the fundamental rights are to the citizens. Without them, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to guard the citadel of freedom.
- of parliament had the power to destroy the basic structure of the constitution, it would cease to be a creature of the constitution and become its master.
- you can lead a man to the University but you cannot make him think
- History will record that the greatest mistake of the Indian republic in the first 45 years of its existence war to give abysmally low priority to education-in fact no priority at all.
- Unfortunately, in our own times, we have downgrades the intellectual and have in fact devalued the very word. Today an intellectual means a man who is intelligent enough to know on which side his bread is buttered.
- At their best, some of our present day universities are academic cafeterias offering junk food for the mind. At their worst, they are the breeding ground of corruption and indiscipline, dishonestly and irresponsibility.
- We continue to churn out ethical illiterates and moral idiots. Our education continues to be value agnostic and value neutral
- let us make no mistake. Civil liberty and individual freedom can die as surely, thought not as swiftly, in a democracy as it can in a totalitarian state. The noise counting method, one man one vote, will certainly survive. But it is only the husk of democracy. When civil liberties and individual freedoms are excessively restricted, it is poor consolation to know that the persons responsible for such a state of affairs were the elected representatives of the people.
- The law does not cease to be tyrannical because it has been passed by the elected representatives of the people.
- when we live in a democracy, we live in hazard. There is no amenable god in it, no particular concern or mercy. Democracy involves the cooperation of all perceptive citizens in the active work of running the country. It means payment to the stste, not only in taxes but in time and in thought.
- when we became a republic, we forgot that from is like alcohol. It must be taken in moderation.
- Thought is certainly free in this country. What we lack is thought, not the freedom of thought.
- there is the other type of socialism which is socialism on the cheap, which feeds on slogans and promises, and thrives on the gullibility of the people. This wrong brands of socialism is extremely popular because it is so much easier in practice. It mistakes amiri hatao for garibi hatao; it is content satisfy the pangs of envy when it cannot satisfy the pangs of hunger; and since it cannot create income or wealth, it plans for poverty and equal distribution of misery.
- Distributive justice can never get off to a start when there is nothing to distribute.
-to a dehydrated nation, the budget offers water from an eye dropper
- While death and taxes are inevitable, being taxed to death is not.
- What is wrong with India is the pathological obsession displayed by the law makers who frame laws only with the tax evaders in mind, regardless of the enormous inconvenience and harassment to the far larger section of honest taxpayer
- The income tax act is a national disgrace. Yet more and more half baked changes every few months are received calmly by our people as part of their collective karma. Our laws are changed on the assumption that there is no intelligent life outside the North block.
- we keep on breezily tracking fifty year problems with five year plans, staged by two year officials, working with one year appropriations, fondly hoping that somehow the laws of economics will be suspended because we are Indians.
- perhaps there is no other country in earth which has such ample measure all the enterprise and skills needed to create National wealth and which takes such deliberate and endless pains to restrict and hamper it's creation
- Surely something is basically wrong with our economic philosophy and political ideology of Indians are able to enrich foreign countries but are not allowed to solve the problem of poverty at home.
- It is the unshakable conviction of our government that the right thing to do economically is the wrong thing to do politically.
- some minimum qualifications should be prescribed for those who seek election to parliament. You need years of training to attend to a boiler or to mind a machine or to supervise a shop floor or to build a bridge. But to steer the lives and destinies of millions of your fellowmen you are not required to have any education or equipment at all.
- We need a man of wisdom. Where will we find him? We need men like Emperor Asoka or Akbar, but do you think they would ever get elected in times like
ours?
- Public amnesia is the politician's best friend.
- 'Amiri hatao' at budget time is an excellent political substitute for 'Garibi hatao' at election time; and the public mind may be trusted to be sufficiently muddled to see no distinction between the two.
- A large percentage of our population is literally illiterate, making meaningful democracy impossible but making it easily possible for politicians to have a vested interest in illiteracy and public ignorance.
- Reassuring statements emanate from New Delhi from time to time, but they remain in the realm of words. Ministerial pronouncements are like a rain dance during a drought: they do not change the weather, but they are calculated to give the impression that the chief is doing something about the scourge.
- On public indifference towards the country's degraded political situation: The peacock must not be replaced as the national bird by the ostrich.
- on bureaucracy: It is unfortunate that our government keeps the nation's most outstanding men out, standing.
- The Union of India has formed the disconcerting habit of legislating first and thinking later.
- A lawsuit, once started in India, is the nearest thing to eternal life ever seen on this earth. If litigation were to be included in the next Olympics, India would be quite certain of winning at least one gold medal! Our cases drag over a length of time which makes eternity intelligible.
- On lengthy judgments: Understandably, brevity is not the forte of a people who were the first to evolve the concepts of eternity and infinity. Brevity might well be cultivated as a virtue in our court judgments at least as a concession to the shortness of human life.
- India is a country where the family comes first, the caste second, the party third and the nation is hardly relevant at all.
- The riots and disturbances which took place at Ayodhya, Mumbai and Surat in I992-93 were the handiwork of hoodlums who made Hitler look like a juvenile delinquent.
- As is evident from the traffic on our roads, we have grown accustomed to a sloppy way of behaviour and accept it as a fact of Indian life. This acceptance of indiscipline is even more disastrous than indiscipline itself.
- We are as careless about public property as we are careful about our own property. Those who would not allow any trespass on their private estate are willing to contemplate, with total equanimity, encroachments on public property and destruction of public amenities.
- Today many of our roads resemble the test tracks of commercial vehicle manufacturers.
- On prolonged power failures: They serve to remind us that dining by candlelight is romantic only when there is a choice.
- A problem avoided turns into a crisis; and the crisis not mastered turns into a disaster further down the road.
- The human mind is more malleable than gold; and can be easily conditioned to endure injustice and unfairness through prolonged exposure to such an environment.
- Single-minded pursuit of money impoverishes the mind, shrivels the imagination and desiccates the heart. You must cultivate your mind, but not merely with a view to offering it as a commodity for sale in the marketplace. You can engage in a commercial activity but without a commercialized outlook.
- The contrast between the culture of ancient
India and that of modern India seems sufficient to disprove Darwin's theory of evolution.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2017
Nothing substantial, a bunch of quotes on each topic. You can read the book in an hour. The only plus being that it gives the reader an idea about Palkhivala's worldview and philosophy.
.
.
April 16, 2017
This book is my conscience keeper. Every word is a gem, every line treasure trove of wisdom!
September 2, 2021
A great book about a gem of a person and a citizen of India.
The book covers Shri Palkhivala's eloquent words and thoughts on a myriad of topics ranging from politics, finance, economics, bureaucracy, India, globalisation, constitution, imminent personalities of the last century, union budgets, taxation, and life.
Some of the gems shared in this book are
* The rishis were fully aware of the ultimate reality which postulates that the boundary lines are superfluous, and the points of contact are real between the realms of the living and the non-living.. Plants share the emotions of humans; and steel feels fatigue as much as animals. Harmony and unity - not dichotomy and divergence - is the ultimate reality.
* 'Distributive justice' can never get off to a start when there is nothing to distribute.
* A nation which will not let its industry retain sufficient funds to provide for obsolescence will itself soon become obsolescent.
* Prayers have a higher purpose in life - what better way to come closer to our creator? I don't ask anything from God - if at all I do, it is to make me live a life according to Zarathustra's will...I am content. Where is the place for more? My thanksgiving to Him would be in my being worthy of His kindness. If I could live the way He has asked us humans to, I would think of it as a way of repaying His kindness.
* To question the enduring relevance of Sardar Vallabhai Patel to India today is like questioning the relevance of the sun to the solar system.
The author has done a great job in compiling these thoughts of the great personality.
The book covers Shri Palkhivala's eloquent words and thoughts on a myriad of topics ranging from politics, finance, economics, bureaucracy, India, globalisation, constitution, imminent personalities of the last century, union budgets, taxation, and life.
Some of the gems shared in this book are
* The rishis were fully aware of the ultimate reality which postulates that the boundary lines are superfluous, and the points of contact are real between the realms of the living and the non-living.. Plants share the emotions of humans; and steel feels fatigue as much as animals. Harmony and unity - not dichotomy and divergence - is the ultimate reality.
* 'Distributive justice' can never get off to a start when there is nothing to distribute.
* A nation which will not let its industry retain sufficient funds to provide for obsolescence will itself soon become obsolescent.
* Prayers have a higher purpose in life - what better way to come closer to our creator? I don't ask anything from God - if at all I do, it is to make me live a life according to Zarathustra's will...I am content. Where is the place for more? My thanksgiving to Him would be in my being worthy of His kindness. If I could live the way He has asked us humans to, I would think of it as a way of repaying His kindness.
* To question the enduring relevance of Sardar Vallabhai Patel to India today is like questioning the relevance of the sun to the solar system.
The author has done a great job in compiling these thoughts of the great personality.
April 17, 2023
The book is a collection of quotes by Nani Palkhivala. I finished the book in one sitting and his words left an impression of a man who could think in time, and implanted word-pictures into the reader or listerners mind to get his point across.
A few of my favourites quotes from the book:
Knowledge is the only instrument of production which is not subject to diminishing returns
Facts are stubborn things, and they have the impertinence to stare you in the face
Buddhi is a state where knowledge and experience has ripened into wisdom
Let us act in conformity with the words of the buddhi - ‘we have not inherited this earth from our forefathers but have borrowed from our children’
In the affairs of nations, as in the affairs of men, there is a providential margin of error: you may take wrong turns at the crossroads, misuse time, take gold for dross and dross for gold, and yet somehow stumble along to your destination. But the margin and period of permissible error need to be carefully watched. You overstep them at your own peril.
A few of my favourites quotes from the book:
Knowledge is the only instrument of production which is not subject to diminishing returns
Facts are stubborn things, and they have the impertinence to stare you in the face
Buddhi is a state where knowledge and experience has ripened into wisdom
Let us act in conformity with the words of the buddhi - ‘we have not inherited this earth from our forefathers but have borrowed from our children’
In the affairs of nations, as in the affairs of men, there is a providential margin of error: you may take wrong turns at the crossroads, misuse time, take gold for dross and dross for gold, and yet somehow stumble along to your destination. But the margin and period of permissible error need to be carefully watched. You overstep them at your own peril.
January 5, 2022
Not good enough
February 25, 2022
Loved the book !
Read
July 19, 2024Good Book
March 8, 2018
Good quotes, no doubt at all.
At times, you feel out of context. A brief description about the scenario or the context, would have helped in makes lot more sense of the words Mr Nani A. Palkhivala has said.
Would recommend to read a book on Mr Palkhivala before you read this book.
At times, you feel out of context. A brief description about the scenario or the context, would have helped in makes lot more sense of the words Mr Nani A. Palkhivala has said.
Would recommend to read a book on Mr Palkhivala before you read this book.
June 6, 2016
Superb!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews