The Influence of Hindu Philosophy

on Thinkers throughout the Ages

I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it,

Inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them,

Possessing everything, but possessed by nothing.

Apollonius Tyaneus, first century CE

Greek thinker and traveler

 

Among all nations, during the course of centuries and throughout

the passage of time, India was known as the mine of wisdom and the

fountainhead of justice and good government, and the Indians were

credited with excellent intellect, exalted ideas, universal maxims, rare

inventions, and wonderful talents.

Qadi Sa’id, 1029–1070

Arab Muslim scientist of Cordova, Moorich

 

It does not behoove us, who were merely savages and barbarians

when the Indians and Chinese people were civilized and learned,

to dispute their antiquity.

Voltaire, 1694–1778

French author and philosopher

 

The motion of the stars calculated by the Hindus before some 4500

years vary not even a single minute from the tables we are using today.

[Cassine and Meyer tables used in the nineteenth century]

Jean-Sylvain Bailly, 1736–1793

French astronomer

 

The Sanskrit language is of wonderful structure, more perfect than

the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely

refined than either.

Sir William Jones, 1746–1794

British jurist and Indologist

 

In the whole world, there is no study, except that of the original Vedas,

so beneficial and so elevating as that of Upanishads. It has been the

solace of my life; it will be the solace of my death. They present the fruit

of the highest knowledge and wisdom.

Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788–1860

German philosopher

 

The Indian teaching teaches to speak truth, love others, and to

dispose trifles.

The East is grand—and makes Europe appear the land of trifles.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803–1882

American poet and philosopher

 

In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmological

philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, in comparison with which our

modern world and the literature seem puny and trivial.

Henry David Thoreau, 1817–1862

American poet and philosopher

 

If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly

endowed with all the wealth, power, and beauty that nature can bestow,

in some parts a very paradise on earth, I should point to India.

Friedrich Max M. Muller, 1823–1900

Renowned German scholar and Indologist

 

Tolstoy not only read the Vedas but also spread their teachings in Russia.

He included many of the sayings of the Vedas and the Upanishads in

his collections.

Alexandra Shifman on Leo Tolstoy, 1828–1910

Russian author and philosopher

 

India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech,

the mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive

materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

Mark Twain, 1835–1910

American author and humorist

 

The Indian way of life provides the vision of the natural, real way

of life. On the face of India are the tender expressions, which carry

the Creator’s hand.

George Bernard Shaw, 1856–1950

Irish author and literary critic

 

If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living

men have found a home, from the earliest days when man began the

dream of existence, it is India.

Romain Rolland, 1866–1944

French author

 

The history of India for many centuries had been happier, less fierce, and

more dreamlike than any other history. In these favorable conditions, they

built a character—meditative and peaceful and a nation of philosophers

such as could nowhere have existed except in India.

H. G. Wells, 1866–1946

Sociologist, historian, and author

 

When I read the Bhagavad Gita and reflect about how God created

this universe, everything else appears superfluous.

Albert Einstein, 1879–1955

German scientist and humanist

 

India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of

Europe’s languages; she was the mother of our philosophy; mother,

through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the

Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the

village community, of self-governance and democracy; Mother India is

in many ways the mother of us all.

Prof. Will Durant, 1885–1981

American author and historian

 

It is already becoming clear that a chapter, which had a Western

beginning, will have an Indian ending, if it is not to end in the selfdestruction

of the human race.

Arnold Joseph Toynbee, 1889–1975

British historian

 

India conquered and dominated China culturally for twenty centuries

without having to send a single soldier across her border.

Hu Shih, 1891–1962

Former Chinese ambassador to the United States

 

[The Bhagavad Gita] is one of the clearest and most comprehensive

summaries of the perennial philosophy ever to have been done.

Aldous Huxley, 1894–1963

English novelist

 

Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over

all previous centuries.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1904–1967

American nuclear physicist (father of the atom bomb)

 

About a thousand of their [the Jews’] forefathers fled from Palestine to

India after the destruction of the second temple in 135 CE, and were

welcomed by the Hindu ruler of the time, who allowed them to settle

wherever they pleased. The governing factor in politics was dharma

(righteousness), rather than any panth (denomination).

Geoffrey Moorhouse, 1931–

Travel author

 

Says Swami Vivekananda, “Like the gentle dew that falls unseen

and unheard, and yet brings into blossom the fairest of roses, has

been the contribution of India to the thought of world.”

NOTE: Adapted from the slide show “Mera Bharat Mahan,”

presented by Indiatimes (www.indiatimes.com).

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