Quotes from Letters from a father to his daughter – Jawaharlal Nehru

I had read this book of letters as a kid. I decided to re-read this book as I recently learned that this book has become a very popular classic. Due to my habit of reading multiple books at one go, currently, I am also listening to Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. And I could not help but draw similarities between these two books.

If you wanted to explain a heavy and quite deep book like Sapiens to a 10-year-old, you should read them - Letters from a father to his daughter. Yes, that’s right.

This isn’t our everyday letters asking about health, promising surprises on the meeting, and conveying undying love for the kid. These letters are very unique and frankly quite interesting for young kids who are beginning to understand the natural world around them. This compilation will spark their curiosity and provide them information that will inspire them to explore more without overburdening them.

The newly printed Hardback I have has illustrations that are one of the best I’ve seen so far, created by Ajantha Guhathakurtha.

When Indira Gandhi was a small girl of ten, she spent the summer in Mussoorie, while her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was in Allahabad. These letters were written during that time to teach her about the evolution of the earth, the stories of the beginning of animal and human life on earth, and the history of civilizations and world societies.

 Quite a priceless collection of 30 letters since they were written from one great Indian leader to another. Written in 1928, these letters remain relevant and vibrant and represent Jawaharlal Nehru's passion for people and nature. Their story was for him 'more interesting than any other story or novel that you may have read'.

Quotes from Letters from a father to his daughter – Jawaharlal Nehru

About Nature

• Imagine how fascinating it is! Every little stone that you see lying on the road or on the mountainside may be a little page in nature’s book and may be able to tell you something if you only knew how to read it.
• We cannot see the changes going on around us as they are slow and our lives are short. But nature goes on working and changing and making more perfect. It never stops or takes rest.
• The sun and the planets with their satellites form a happy family. This is called the solar system.

About Humankind

• The power of thought will make them really different from the animals. It will be real power which will make them stronger than the biggest and fiercest animal.
• The first great discovery that man probably made was that of fire.
• One thing is very curious. These savage men knew how to draw.
• Stories about terrible disasters in history must have been told to generations of children by those who survived and it and hence handed down from generation to generation.
• While explaining formation of races – the differences must have come in by the process of adaptation to their surroundings, or it may have been that some, like other animals, could adapt themselves more easily than others.
• People’s complexions are the result of the climate they live in. they have nothing to do with the worthiness or good ness or beauty of a person.
• Not to work oneself and live on the work of others is nothing to be proud of.
• We must take the good wherever we find it and try to remove the bad wherever it may be.
• About civilized men – or is it because a man with a gun is stronger than the man without a weapon and is therefore more civilized than him? Whether he is more civilized or not, the man who is weak dare not tell him that he is not or he might get shot!
• Fine buildings, fine pictures and books and everything that is beautiful are certainly signs of civilization. But an even better sign is a fine man who is unselfish and works with others for the good of all.
• Each man has got his special trade and does not know much or anything of other trades. This is called division of labor. Agriculture in old times introduced division of labor.
• Another interesting result of tilling land was that men began to settle down. Another great change that agriculture brought about was to make life easier.
• Kings or patriarchs and leaders forgot that they were really chosen by the people in order to organize and distribute the food and other things of the country among the people.
• Strange, is it not, that city after city should grow up and shelter men and women and children, and then gradually die away? And new cities grow where the old used to be and fresh crowds of people come and live in them. And they too die and leave no sign or trace behind.
• I have told you before that the idea of religion first came through the fear of the unknown.
• Do you even think about where the things you buy come from>
• Boys and girls and even grown-ups are often taught history in a peculiar way. History should tell us of the people of a country; how they lived, what they did, and what they thought. It should tell us of their joys and sorrows; of their difficulties and how they overcame them.
• We imagine that we are so important and little things worry us. But what are these little happenings in the ling history of the world? It does us god to read and learn something of these vast periods of history because we will not then worry about little things much.