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About this quote

What does it mean?
Remembering past successes can provide hope and clarity during difficult historical periods.
In plain terms
Thinking about past good times helps during hard times.
What can you take from it?
Historical perspective can alleviate current despair.

Where it applies

  • national crises
  • personal hardship
  • historical analysis

Putting it to work

  • using history in speeches
  • memorials

Questions to consider

  • How does history inspire you?
  • What past moment helps you now?

Another view

Idealizing the past can sometimes ignore current realities.

More from Indira Gandhi

  1. India wants to avoid a war at all costs but it is not a one-sided affair, you cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.

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  2. You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.

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  3. A nation's strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others.

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