India has known the innocence and insouciance of childhood, the passion and abandon of youth, and the ripe wisdom of maturity that comes from long experience of pain and pleasure; and over and over a gain she has renewed her childhood and youth and age.

There is a trade off - as you grow older you gain wisdom but you lose spontaneity.

You take all the experience and judgment of men over 50 out of the world and there wouldn't be enough left to run it.

Any attempts at autobiography before the age of eighty seem pretty self-involved to me. There are a lot of smart middle aged people but not many wise ones.

With age does come experience and that can be a virtue if it is sensibly used. By being willing to put past differences behind us and move forward together, we honour the freedom and democracy once won for us at so great a cost.

Wisdom is the daughter of experience.