"Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles"
About this Quote
Failure, for Jawaharlal Nehru, is not primarily a matter of outcomes but of fidelity. The measure of success lies in holding to an ethical compass: ideals that articulate purpose, objectives that focus action, and principles that govern means. Lose these and defeat becomes inevitable, even if immediate results look impressive. Keep them and setbacks become temporary, part of a longer arc that retains coherence and dignity.
That perspective grew out of the Indian struggle for independence and the precarious work of nation-building that followed. Nehru saw a new India as a democratic, secular republic animated by scientific temper and social justice. The nonaligned stance in foreign policy, the commitment to constitutionalism at home, and the faith in planning were not mere tactics; they were expressions of a guiding vision. Political turbulence, economic scarcity, and geopolitical shocks could batter a young state, but they did not amount to failure so long as the Republic kept faith with its lodestar values.
The admonition also warns against the corrosive pull of expediency. A movement or government can win elections, secure territory, or post impressive growth and yet be hollowed out by opportunism and contradiction. When means betray ends, when objectives drift without the ballast of principle, legitimacy erodes and the enterprise collapses from within. For Nehru, who navigated between Gandhian moral force and a modernist program of development, that tension was constant; the answer was not to abandon ideals in the name of realism but to make realism answerable to ideals.
There is a personal dimension as well. Individuals, like nations, face reversals and crises that tempt shortcuts. The word only is a provocation: external losses may sting, but the decisive defeat occurs when one abandons the values that give those efforts meaning. The counsel is both austere and bracing: aim high, act purposefully, and let principles govern the journey, because that is the only safeguard against true failure.
That perspective grew out of the Indian struggle for independence and the precarious work of nation-building that followed. Nehru saw a new India as a democratic, secular republic animated by scientific temper and social justice. The nonaligned stance in foreign policy, the commitment to constitutionalism at home, and the faith in planning were not mere tactics; they were expressions of a guiding vision. Political turbulence, economic scarcity, and geopolitical shocks could batter a young state, but they did not amount to failure so long as the Republic kept faith with its lodestar values.
The admonition also warns against the corrosive pull of expediency. A movement or government can win elections, secure territory, or post impressive growth and yet be hollowed out by opportunism and contradiction. When means betray ends, when objectives drift without the ballast of principle, legitimacy erodes and the enterprise collapses from within. For Nehru, who navigated between Gandhian moral force and a modernist program of development, that tension was constant; the answer was not to abandon ideals in the name of realism but to make realism answerable to ideals.
There is a personal dimension as well. Individuals, like nations, face reversals and crises that tempt shortcuts. The word only is a provocation: external losses may sting, but the decisive defeat occurs when one abandons the values that give those efforts meaning. The counsel is both austere and bracing: aim high, act purposefully, and let principles govern the journey, because that is the only safeguard against true failure.
Quote Details
| Topic | Failure |
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