Jawaharlal Nehru Quotes

Truth springs from argument amongst friends.

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of ignorance.

I tend to solicit opinions from all those around me. I like to hear opinions and the rationale behind it from everybody in the room. Perhaps it's the result of going to law school and using the Socratic method.

Do we have to talk in order to agree or agree in order to talk?

I've led a school whose faculty and students examine and discuss and debate every aspect of our law and legal system. And what I've learned most is that no one has a monopoly on truth or wisdom. I've learned that we make progress by listening to each other, across every apparent political or ideological divide.

That's what we're missing. We're missing argument. We're missing debate. We're missing colloquy. We're missing all sorts of things. Instead, we're accepting.

I will listen to any argument put to me.

Logic and fact keep interfering with the easy flow of conversation.

Ignorance never settles a question.

I must remind the right honorable gentleman that a monologue is not a decision.

We can calm down our argument a little so that we can learn what it is that we are actually arguing about.

There are truths to be discovered, but they are complex and many-sided; the best way to get to them is by engaging contrary ideas in a manner approximating dialogue.

When I am contradicted it arouses my attention, not my wrath. I move toward the man who contradicts me: he is instructing me. The cause of truth ought to be common to both of us.

Conflict is the pursuit of truth.

I talk to business; I talk to labor. I talk to everybody.

On the one hand, we may tell the truth, regardless of consequences, and on the other hand we may mellow it and sophisticate it to make it humane and tolerable.

Conscience is better served by a myth.

Right and wrong are not the product of census.

It is better to will the good than to know the truth.

You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?" "It's the difference between what's right and what you can rationalize." "Must be a human thing." "Exactly.

Murdering someone would surely prove that you are capable of killing, but it wouldn't be the most reasonable way to understand why you shouldn't do it.

Consensus demands communication.

I think it's much more important to know the truth than it is to make money on it.

Besides reasoning about matters of fact, men also make moral judgements.

Whatever the field under discussion, those who engage in debate must not only believe in each other's good faith, but also in their capacity to arrive at the truth.