... a nation is not to be judged by its weaklings

There is good and bad everywhere--but a nation is not to be judged by its weaklings called the wicked, as they are only the weeds which lag behind, but by the good, the noble, and the pure who indicate the national life-current to be flowing clear and vigorous.

Letter to the Maharaja of Khetri. Written from America in 1894. Complete Works, 6.249.

Those who think themselves too high ...

What you call majority is mainly composed of fools and people of ordinary intellect. Those who have brains to think for themselves are few, everywhere. These few people with brains are the real leaders in everything and in every department of work. The majority are guided by them as with a string, and that is good, for everything goes right when they follow in the footsteps of these leaders. Those who think themselves too high to bend their heads to anyone are fools, and they bring on their own ruin by acting on their own judgment.

Conversation: Saturday, January 22, 1898. Recorded in Bengali by Surendra Nath Sen in his private diary. Complete Works, 5.333.

శ్రీ కౌముది ఆగస్ట్ 2010