Useful Quotes for UPSC Civil Services Mains Exam General Studies and Essay Papers

Here is a list of useful quotes for UPSC Mains General Studies Paper I, II, III, and IV as well as Essay
Paper, which aspirants can go through and include these in their relevant essay topics.

With the introduction of Essay Paper in the year 1992 in the UPSC Civil Services Exam by the
commission, it is now a known thing to every aspirant that how important is essay paper in assessing
one’s skills and abilities and the marks scored by a candidate in essay paper is also considered for
the final round (interview) in UPSC Exam.

Understanding the importance of Essay Paper in UPSC Civil Services IAS Exam, here we bring a list of
quotes quoted by famous personalities, which candidates can go through and include relevant
quotes in their essay topic in the UPSC Mains Exam.

Aristotle

“All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.”

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”

“No great mind ever existed without a touch of madness.”

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”

“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”

“The whole is greater than sum of its parts.”

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

“Compassion is the basis of morality.”

“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”

“One should use common words to say uncommon things.”

“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall
think.”

Bentham

“Rarest of all human quality is consistency.”

Bertrand Russell

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”

“If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more
than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.”

“Longing for love, search for knowledge and unbearable pity for the suffering of the mankind.”
“Not to be absolutely certain, is one of the essential things in rationality.”

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in modern world the stupids are cocksure while the
intelligent are full of doubt.”

“The hardest thing in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.”

“War does not determine who is right – only who is left.”

B R Ambedkar

“I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.”

“Life should be great rather than long.”

Benjamin Franklin

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”

“Either write worth reading or do something worth writing.”

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

“He that can have patience can have what he will.”

“If everyone is thinking alike then no one is thinking.”

“Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.”

“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”

“Lost time is never found again.”

“You may delay but time will not.”

Charles Dickens

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Confucius

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”

“Consideration for others is the basis of a good life and good society.”

“Don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

“Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow his own rice
and you will save his life.”

“Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.”

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

“It’s a universal law — intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill educated person
behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.”

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

Einstein

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”

“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”

“Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life
believing that it is stupid.”

“Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.”

“Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work.”

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”

“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the
university.”

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with
sticks and stones.”

“It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.”

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot
indeed.”
“If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism.”

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.”

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop
questioning.”

“Never memorize something that you can look up.”

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.”

“There are two ways to live your life. One is though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though
everything is a miracle.”

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”

“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”

“The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who
walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.”

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.”

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing
our thinking.”

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the
people who don’t do anything about it.”

“What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.”

“We all know that light travels faster than sound. That’s why certain people appear bright until you
hear them speak.”

“What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.”

“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a
second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”

“You never fail until you stop trying.”

Franklin Roosevelt

“The only thing we have to fear is the fear itself.”

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it
is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”
Gautam Buddha

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it
agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply
because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found
written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers
and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive
to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

“Doubt everything. Find your own light.”

“Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.”

“However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you
do not act on upon them?”

George Washington

“99% of failures come from people who make excuses.”

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”

“Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.”

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the
slaughter.”

“Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my
success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”

Henry David Thoreau

“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”

“Dreams are touchstones of our characters.”

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his
dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success
unexpected in common hours.”

“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.”

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”

“Things do not change, we change.”

“This world is but a convas for our imagination.”

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that
were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas
Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

Immanuel Kant

“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any
other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.”

“Dare to think!”

John F. Kennedy

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without
death.”

“A child miseducated is a child lost.”

“A journey to Thousand miles begins with one step.”

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth”

“Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.”

“Mankind must put an end to war – or war will put an end to mankind.”

“One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.”

“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger;
the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger–but recognize the opportunity.”

“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”

“To those whom much is given, much is expected.”

“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”

“The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of our planet.”

“Without debate, without criticism no administration and no country can succeed and no republic
can survive.”

“We need men who can dream of things that never were.”

Leo Tolstoy

“A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of
himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction.”
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

“To get rid of enemy one must love him.”

“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.”

Mahatma Gandhi

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your
thoughts and everything will be well.”

“A No uttered from deepest conviction is better than a YES merely uttered to please, or worse, to
avoid trouble.”

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.”

“God has no religion.”

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.”

“In doing something, do it with love or never do it at all.”

“In a gentle way you can shake the world.”

“My Life is My Message.”

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”

“Seven Deadly Sins. Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Science without humanity;
Knowledge without character; Politics without principle; Commerce without morality; Worship
without sacrifice.”

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

“The future depends on what you do today.”

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

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of
bread.”

“The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.”

“To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.”
“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most
of the world’s problems.”

“Your beliefs become your thoughts; Your thoughts become your words; Your words become your
actions; Your actions become your habits; Your habits become your values; Your values become your
destiny.”

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,
the ocean does not become dirty.”

“You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison
my mind.”

“A man is the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”

“Before you do anything, stop and recall the face of the poorest most helpless destitute person you
have seen and ask yourself, Is What I am about to do going to help him?”

Martin Luther King

“A right delayed is a right denied.”

“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”

“Darkness can’t drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can
do that.”

“Dante said that hottest place in hell is reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain
their neutrality.”

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever may
do you have to keep moving forward.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“In matter of conscience, the law of majority has no place.”

“It’s the action and not the fruit of the action which is important.”

“It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of
their fellow beings.”

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted,
or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that
all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job
well.”

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: “What are you doing for others?”

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.”

“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”

“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.”

“Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by
service.”

“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at
stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look
the other way.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe,nor politic, nor popular, but
he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

“Public opinion alone can keep a society pure and healthy.”

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but
he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“The time is always right to do the right thing.”

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”

“Victory attained by violence is tantamount to defeat, for it is temporary.”

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

“Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”

Mark Twain

“Classic – a book people praise but don’t learn.”

“God created war so that Americans would learn Geography.”

“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”

“I do not fear death, I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not
suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

“The best way to cheer up yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.”

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”

Plato

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”

Socrates

“By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become
a philosopher.”

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to
have.”

“Know thyself.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“There is only one good, knowledge and one evil ignorance.”

Tagore

“A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.”

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.”

“Everything comes to us that belong to us if we create the capacity to receive it.”

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”

Thomas A Edison

“5% of the people think; 10% of people think they think and the other 85% would rather die than
think.”

“Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.”

“Good fortune happens when opportunity meets preparation.”

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
“I never did a day’s work in my life, it was all fun.”

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave
up.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one
more time.

The most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think. It should be the primary
purpose of our public schools. The mind of a child is naturally active, it develops through exercise.
Give a child plenty of exercise, for body and brain. The trouble with our way of educating is that it
does not give elasticity to the mind. It casts the brain into a mold. It insists that the child must
accept. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than
observation.

“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.”

Thomas Paine

“Independence is my happiness; the world is my country; to do good my religion.”

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”

“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”

“Whatever is the right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as
well as to possess.”

Thomas Jefferson

“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who
never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.”

“Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.”

“I can’t live without books.”

“I am a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

“On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle stand like a rock.”

Hope, these famous quotes will be useful for IAS apsirants which they can use in the UPSC Mains
Exam of General Studies and Essay Papers. If candidates have any quotes to add to the list, it is
suggested to leave their suggestions in the below comment box.