ESSAY MATERIAL

Essay Topic: Education

“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela

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

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” Margaret Mead

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

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Aristotle

Education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think ~ Aristotle

Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

Education is a bridge from misery to hope

🎓Education alone has the power to tackle all the world’s problems.

“Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man.” Swami Vivekananda

Education that does not mould the character is absolutely worthless. – Mahatma Gandhi

To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to the society – Theodore Roosevelt

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” – Martin Luther King

“You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.” ― Brigham
Young

"If you want to change the world, start with children" ~ Nelson Mandela

🎓Ultimately, education in its real sense is the pursuit of truth. It is an endless journey through knowledge
and enlightenment...A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

The Highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony
with all existence ~ Rabindranath Tagore

One child , One Teacher , One Book , One Pencil Can Change the world ~ Malala Yousafzai

An Investment in knowledge pays the best interest ~ Benjamin Franklin

Essay Topic: Science and Religion

“All thinking men are atheists.” Ernest Hemingway

“The notion that Science and Spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.” Carl
Sagan

“Science without Religion is lame and Religion without Science is blind” Einstein

“What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” Christopher Hitchens

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

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.
(Voltaire)

Essay Topic: Democracy

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Churchill

“The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so much dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a
citizen in a democracy” Montesquieu

“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” Abraham Lincoln

“There cannot be daily democracy without daily citizenship.” Ralph Nader

” I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.” Mahatma
Gandhi

“Democracy is not law of the majority but protection of the minority.” Albert Camus

“In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power, but carries the ultimate responsibility.”
Norman Cousins

Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.” - Thomas Jefferson

“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” – Plato

“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” -John F. Kennedy
“People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.”- Alan
Moore.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will
of the majority is supreme.” – Aristotle

Essay Topic: Materialism/Consumerism/Environment

The Earth does not belong to us: we belong to the Earth

“The world has enough for everyone’s need but not enough for everyone’s greed.” Mahatma Gandhi

Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.

Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth... these are one and
the same fight. (Ban Ki-moon)

The pace at which people are taking to digital technology defies our stereotypes of age, education,
language and income. (Narendra Modi)

The choices that we make today will define our collective future. Let us all join together to beat
plastic pollution and make this planet a better place to live. (Narendra Modi)

The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. (Robert Swan)

Essay Topic: Women

Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong, it’s about changing the
way the world perceives that strength. (G.D. Anderson)

Women’s freedom is the sign of social freedom. (Rosa Luxemburg

To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant
moral power, then woman is immeasurably superior man’s superior. (Mahatma Gandhi)

I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.
(B.R. Ambedkar)

Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of
reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance. (Kofi Annan)
Essay Topic: Peace/Justice

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” William Gladstone

“Peace and Justice are two sides of the same coin.” Eisenhower

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” Mahatma Gandhi

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all
other courts. (Mahatma Gandhi)

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from
those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed – Eisenhower

The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.”

“There was never a bad peace or a good war.”

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. (Mark Twain

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

War does not decide who is right but who is left.”

When diplomacy ends, War begins. (Adolf Hitler)

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

• Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu

(Let the whole world be prosperous and peaceful)

The fact that societies are becoming increasingly multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multi-religious is
good. Diversity is a strength, not a weakness. (Antonio Guterres)

Essay Topic: Corruption

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in remaking the world but in remaking ourselves -
Mahatma Gandhi

Confucius - Righteousness is the foundation stone of peace and good governance.

Buddha - Dharma is the foundation stone of good governance

The worst disease in the world today is corruption. And there is a cure: transparency

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

Essay Topic: Caste

The caste system is opposed to the religion of the Vedanta. Caste is a social custom,

and all our great preachers have tried to break it down. —Swami Vivekananda

Caste is not just a division of labour, it is a division of labourers. (B. R. Ambedkar)

Essay Topic: Hunger

Hunger is actually the worst weapon of mass destruction. It claims millions of victims each year."

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

Essay Topic: Health

Mental health is a continuum, and people may fall anywhere on the spectrum. (Amy Morin)

Essay Topic: Privacy

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety.”

Essay Topic: Globalization

It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity. (Kofi
Annan)

Essay Topic: Free Speech

Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. – Voltaire

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and
enhances the freedom of others. (Nelson Mandela)

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

Essay Topic: Social media

The more social media we have, the more we think we’re connecting, yet we are really
disconnecting from each other. (J.K. Rowling)

Social media is reducing social barriers. It connects people on the strength of human values, not
identities. (Narendra Modi)

What is interesting is the power and the impact of social media... So we must try to use social
media in a good way. (Malala Yousafzai)

Social media isn’t a one-way broadcast; it’s a multiway opportunity for dialogue. (Clara Shih)

Conclusion Phrases

Gandhiji’s Talisman

•Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina (May all be Happy)

Sarve Santu Niramaya (May all be without disease)

//Sarve Bhadrani Pashyantu (May all have well-being)

Maa Kaschit Dukh Bhagh Bhavet (May none have misery of any sort)//

• Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

(Whole world is one family)

(Asato ma Sadgamaya) From unrighteousness to righteousness

(Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya) From darkness to light

(Mrityorma Amritgamaya) From mortality towards immortality

• Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava – [Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Vivekananda]

All religions are equal. - first used by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930 in Harijan
Ram rajya: ideal village = self sufficient village republic, decentralisation

Eshwar- Allah tero naam sabko sanmati de bhagwan : his favourite bhajan

Seva Parmo Dharma

Service, in our Indian ethos, is the ultimate duty

Satyamev Jayate

Ahimsa Parmo Dharma

Peer parai: sensitivity for all living creatures

Swacchta hi seva

Theory of trusteeship

Seven social sins

Talismaan

Sarvodaya, antodaya, gramodaya

Quotes by Mahatma Gandhi

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

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

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”

“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.”

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

“The good man is the friend of all living things.”

“Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true

democratic spirit.”

“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

“Violent means will give violent freedom.”

“There is higher courts than courts of justice and that is conscience.”

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

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

"Our greatness lies not so much in changing the world as in changing ourselves".

"Our earth is not a inheritance from our ancestors, but a loan from future generations."
"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve
most of the world’s problems."