Important quotes for Mains , can be used for GS and Essay paper.
“The death of dogma is the birth of morality.”
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.”
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
Worry is like a rocking chair, it moves, but takes you no where
“Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage”
“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”
“A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”
“There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for.”
“Man must be disciplined, for he is by nature raw and wild..”
“The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.”
“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
“The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
“Courage is knowing what not to fear.”
“In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill… we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.”
“Excellence” is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice.
We do not act “rightly” because we are “excellent”,
in fact we achieve “excellence” by acting “rightly”.”
“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”
“What is the use of a beautiful house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”
On Climate Change :-
“We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone is arguing over where they’re going to sit”
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“Nature shrinks as capital grows. The growth of the market cannot solve the very crisis it creates.”
On Polluters Pay Principle:-
“People ‘over-produce’ pollution because they are not paying for the costs of dealing with it.”
Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans
The Earth does not belong to us: we belong to the Earth
“Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom – and lakes die.”
“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.”
To be continued….
Recent Posts
Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.