SAYINGS OF SIR M.VISVESVARAYA
On Garbage surrounding Nanjangud Temple: “God’s house must be clean, otherwise, God will just run away”
Reasons for long life, “Hard work, disciplined habits, modesty in living, contentment and cheerfulness”.
“It is better to serve like steel than rust and wither away like iron”.
“If your business is only to sweep a crossing, remember it is your duty to make that
crossing the best swept of the world.”
“Success in life depends on action, that is, on what you do, and not what you
Feel or think, and the price of success is hard work.”
“Science is a rising force, It is creating a new world about us. It needs to be watched and pressed into service, and in any case, it would be courting disaster to ignore it.”
Poverty is…. Curable like any disease. Ignorance, dependence, inefficiency, laziness, want of the spirit of enterprise are the real real causes of poverty.”
“Take care of the pieces well. The whole will take care of itself.”
“Nature never excuses lapses.”
“Investigate, educate and organize.”
“Industrialize or perish.”
“Courage, conviction and confidence.”
“If you buy what you do not need, you will need what you cannot buy”.
The finest task for an Engineer – “to survey, to plan, to suggest resources and material, assemble them for task in hand, implement and produce results.”
“Work does not kill a man, it is worry, irregularity and uncertainty that kill”.
Discussing collapse of a dam, M.V. remarked, “Nature never excuses lapses”.
“Destiny is not a passive agent that lies in the lap of the Gods, but is an active instrument that lies in your own hands to shape as you will”
“Investigate, educate and organise the country must progress, productive works and industries are the main avenues at present next to education for the advancement of the country”.
M.V. on setting up automobile industry in India
“It is difficult to get our countrymen to combine for any beneficent scheme like this so long as Govt. exercise control or power arbitrarily to regulate the establishment of industries and the supply of foreign material.”
When advised to take rest, M.V. said, “I do not want to die rusting, I prefer to burn out”
When a minister in Mysore state fixed an interview with Sri. M.V., but was unable come, called up next day M.V. said. “You have committed a double mistake, firstly by not keeping the engagement yesterday and secondly, by coming when you were not expected”.
When his nephew thanked M.V. for financial help, M.V. wrote,
“The best returns you can show for any help you have received from me in the past is by maintaining integrity, efficiency and generous disposition and a high character in every respect. I mention this to remind you that with age and circumstances, people are liable to change”.
“Problems of life, even acute problems, need not depress us, life is always a predicament and the world constitutes a challenge, but a challenge is an opportunity for all of us. A man whose only maxim is to seek pleasures and avoid pain, does not have the basis for a well deserved successful life.”
“I find life interesting. The whole truth is our people do not want to work hard. One reason why we are backward is that we are an insolent nation and somewhat self – willed. It is the work that keeps people fit”.
Quotes a French Author: “If India possesses a more fertile soil and was better endowed with mineral wealth, She would still languish in poverty. Slackness is the worse curse of the country”.
When he was Dewan in Mysore State, he was introduced to a person in a village capable of consuming food of 4 people in a single sitting MV asked “Does he also turn out the work of 4 people?”
“A person who spends more than he earns is a fool”.
Sir. M.V. was a blend of old and new. In business and Industry, he admired American and European methods, but in domestic matters he was 100% local. Till the end, he performed death anniversary of his parents with sincerity and devotion. Co-incidentally, he died on his father’s death anniversary.
WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT SIR M.V.
“Sir M. Visvesvaraya has had a long span of active life and throughout this period, service of the people to the best of his capacity has been his motto. Every field of activity, be it industry or administration or business, bears the indelible mark of his conscientious hard work.”
- Babu Rajendra Prasad
“Sir M. V. is a great engineer, a great patriot and a great statesman. Inspite of his eminence, he is still a humble man at heart. The whole idea of planning in this country started with him and the industrial progress made, owes its inspiration to his thoughts, though it may not always be in conformity with his ideas.”
- Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
“Sir M. Visvesvaraya is a DREAMER, THINKER AND A MAN OF ACTION’ not lost in the past but always thinking of the future, living an integrated life, bringing into existence and giving shape to dreams not for himself but for India and the people of India.”
- Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
“Sir M. V. is a pioneer in the field of imagination and successful execution. Every project executed by Sir M.V. stands as a living monument to his skill as a nation builder.”
- Swaran Singh
“Sir M.V’s life has been one of intense fruitful activity and service to the people. His services, as Statesman, Engineer and Economist, assume a place in Indian history. His achievements during the period of office in Mysore State are indeed too numerous to mention. It can truly be said that he was the person who laid the foundation for a prosperous and progressive future of the State.”
- His Highness Sri Jayachamaraja Wodeyar
“Sir M. Visvesvaraya – it is good to point out this in these days – is a man of incorruptible integrity and model of personal PURITY OF character. His simplicity and sense of correct behaviour are extraordinary, rising sometimes to an urbelieveble degree.”
- Bharata Ratna C. Rajagopalachari
“Sir M.V. called on the people of India to take a lesson from Japan and America, realising as he did, the fundamental importance of the application of science and up-to-date scientific methods to industry and to agriculture for the purpose of increasing the food .supply and raising the low standard of living.”
- Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar
“Sir M. V. believed in industrialization and indeed it was his foremost conviction that.by industrialization alone, the standard of living of the people can be raised. He was no respector of slogans and no worshipper of things of the past, merely because they are ancient. He believed in combining the best of our holy past with the best of the most modern civilised amenities.”
- Sir A. Ramaswami Mudaliar
“By his own personal example and by the issue of circular instructions and otherwise, Sir M. V. inculcated in Government servants the importance of working hard, observing regular hours of office attendance, receiving complaints and grievances of the public at specified times, and so on. A number of manuals were issued to regulate and standardise the work and procedures of Government Offices.
In whatever he said, Sir M. V. ardently believed; he has not attempted to preach to others what he had not practised in his own life. With him, as was the case with Gandhiji, the spoken and written word is the expression of burning convictions. He is an integrated personality.”
- Pradhana Siromani N. Madhava Rao
“Sir M. V’s courtesy, earnestness, cool and collected objectivity and above all his imaginative vision stamped him at once in my eyes as one of the noblest sons of India.”
- C.D. Deshmukh
“Sir M. V. made use of statistics to show that the per capita income of India, in relation to the incomes of various western countries, was grievously low and said that our root problem was the eradication of poverty. He argued that this was not merely essential but was also practicable; and he added that it could only be done if we took stock of our affairs in a sober manner, prepared an economic plan and operated that plan: In such a process Government had a crucial role to pay.”
- H.V.R. Iyengar
“Sri. M.V. is India’s greatest builder of dams. The country is filled with the wonderful monuments of his engineering skill. In the near future it may come to pass that this engineering genious be remembered as Henry Ford of India.
- ‘The People’ (A London Daily)
I should like to say that in my broad experience, I have rarely met a man for whom I had a deeper respect not only for his moral character and his ideals and earnest patriotism, but also for his engineering skill.
- His Highness Sri Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, 1884-1940
“Sir M. Visvesvaraya, a realist and a man of action prodigious energy, guided by the vision of a great, prosperous and renascent India. He is an Engineer, an economist, a writer and humanist – all in the superlative degree, and all in one. He was a living embodiment of plain living and high thinking.”
- Prof. M. S. Thacker
Sir M. V often quotes with approval an extract from a daily paper which greatly impressed him. “Nature is a huge banking concern with an inexhaustible store of health, strength, happiness, good- temper, clear wits and bright eyes. To those who call most frequently upon her, she is in kindliest mood. Hurry up to her headquarters 10 miles away and she will allow you to draw on your account with her as lavishly as you require.”
- B.V. Narayana Reddy
“Three things, those who worked with Sir M. Visvesvaraya could learn from him each day; SCRUPULOUS PUNCTUALITY, METICULOUS PRECISION, UNTIRING EFFORT TO DO A THING WELL. An equally important quality which one got the opportunity to notice, sometimes, was his careful attention to detail. “
- Rajaseva Prasakta M. Venkatesha lyengar
“Sir M. Visvesvaraya was one of the noblest sons of the country. A patriot, an Engineer of eminence, an ardent industrialist and a far sighted administrator; he had rendered yeoman service to the country in many capacities over a period of 75 years, ever seeking fresh opportunities to serve, in the true spirit of a Karmayogi.
Sir M.V. has said, “Natural intelligence and capacity may be higher or low, but they have to be further developed by forethought, industry and will power to obtain their due reward.” “Success in any profession or trade is due largely to the capacity, individuality, integrity and foresight of the person who undertakes it. Man’s success in life depends on man’s own exertions.”
- K. C. Reddy
“Sir M. Visvesvaraya’s personality and his public services evoke love, respect and admiration in a grateful people who bless him for what he was and what he had done and the manner of it. He is a world figure, a most eminent Indian and undoubtedly the greatest Mysorean who ever lived.
It is said in ancient Indian lore that an ocean can be compared only with itself and the Himalayas with themselves and with no other. Sir M. Visvesvaraya can be compared only with himself, for there is no other like him. He is a rare combination of ancient Hindu Bhishma and modern American Ford.”
- P. Kodanda. Rao
From his early distinguished career as an Engineer in Mysore State, Dr. Visvesvaraya was obsessed with the dream of an industrialised India, a vision he shared with Jamsetji Tata. It comes to few men to devote three-quarters of a century or more to a single cause, and the country owes a deep dept of gratitude to this grand old man whose contribution to the economic regeneration of India has not been sufficiently recognised.
I knew Dr. Visvesvaraya well during his 28 years of membership of the Board of the Tata Iron and Steel Company, from 1927 to 1955. Throughout he pressed for a bold expansion of this and other industries and the creation of new ones. The rapid industrial development in the country after Independence largely fulfilled Dr. Visvesvaraya’s vision and it is good to know that he lived long enough to see the realisation of his long standing dream. Today, as never before, India needs men like Dr. Visvesvaraya, with single-minded purpose, undeterred by obstacles, difficulties of setbacks, and extending interest in his exemplary life to inspire others dedicated to the economic growth of our country to follow his example.
- J.R.D. Tata
More to come ….
Sir VISVESVARAYYA IS A GREAT MAN WITH EXCELLENT VISION AND NOBLE MIND. PRESENT DAY INDIA BADLY NEEDS ONE LIKE HIM TO MOTIVAYE AND GUIDE THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE COUNTRY.
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sir m v was so creative and constuctive and man of actions . the people of that day have supported him to make his dreams and thinkings come true .remembering him on his birthday . happy birth day .
Sir MV is true role model for the nation and especially for all the Engineering faternity .This is Great job done by IEI is releasing this wonder website .As one must know that he was great person to emulate .(A cusp of Indian Bhisma & american Henry ford)