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Important Quotes for UPSC Mains 2025 Exam

Important Quotes for UPSC Mains 2025 serve as powerful tools to enrich your essay and answers. Read on to learn some famous quotes for UPSC Mains 2025 exam.
authorImageDeeksha Dixit19 Jun, 2025
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Important Quotes for UPSC Mains 2025

 

Important Quotes for UPSC Mains 2025: In the UPSC Mains examination, using relevant quotes can greatly improve your answers and essays. Whether it’s an essay, ethics paper, or GS answer, a relevant quote adds intellectual depth, demonstrates wide reading, and showcases your ability to think critically. Quotes make your writing more engaging and impactful, helping you stand out in the competition. Read on to learn the benefits of using quotes in UPSC Mains essay and theme-wise quotes for UPSC Mains 2025.

Benefits of Using Quotes in UPSC Mains 2025

Quotes are famous statements or phrases by great personalities on a certain issue. By using quotes in the UPSC Mains exam, you can catch the attention of the evaluator, showcasing that you have well understood the demand of the topic. Here are several advantages of using inspirational quotes for UPSC Mains 2025:
  • Adds Credibility: Quotes from well-known personalities or authoritative sources give credibility to your arguments.
  • Enhances Persuasiveness: By quoting respected figures in your content, you can make your answers and essay more convincing.
  • Increases Engagement: Quotes can break the monotony of text and make your essay more interesting to read. They provide a change of pace and keep the evaluator engaged.
  • Shows Depth of Knowledge: Using quotes demonstrates your familiarity with a wide range of sources and your ability to connect different ideas. It reflects your in-depth understanding of the subject.
  • Improves Presentation: A well-placed quote can improve the overall presentation of your essay. It can serve as a powerful opening or closing statement, leaving a lasting impression on the evaluator.

Enrich UPSC Essay with Quotes

While quotes in UPSC offer many benefits, you must avoid using irrelevant or too many quotes, as it can be counterproductive. The idea of using quotes for UPSC Mains is to enhance the quality of your content. Here are a couple of examples of how to use quotes in your essay to enrich it:
 Example 1: For an essay on education, you might include a quote like , "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." – Nelson Mandela. This quote can introduce a discussion on the transformative power of education and its role in societal development.  
Example 2:  For an essay on the Indo-China or Indo-Pak relationship, you may use the famous quote by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, "You can change our friends but not neighbours." Then, discuss challenges, treaties, and India’s efforts to make peace with its neighboring countries.

Theme wise Quotes for UPSC Mains 2025

UPSC Essays are usually based on several themes, and sometimes direct quotes are given in the essay topics. Therefore, it becomes essential to be familiar with quotes for essay writing in UPSC. Here are theme-wise quotes for UPSC Mains:

Quotes for UPSC Mains on Governance and Policy

For topics related to Indian Polity and Governance, you can use the following quotes:
Category Quote and Author
Administration "If Ethics is poor at the top, the behaviour is copied down the organisation" - Robert Noyce
"Dharma is the foundation of good governance" - Buddha
"A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity" - Dalai Lama
Governance Righteousness is the foundation stone of peace and good governance - Confucius
If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools. - Plato
Power and Corruption "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power" - Abraham Lincoln
"When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful" - Malala Yousafzai
"Corruption is the true enemy to development" - Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj
Democracy "I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong" - Mahatma Gandhi
"Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy" - B. R. Ambedkar
"The ballot is stronger than the bullet" - Abraham Lincoln

Quotes for UPSC Mains on Social Issues

Here are a few quotes for UPSC Mains on society and social issue topics:
Topic Quotes
Caste System
  • " 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
  • "There is no caste in blood." — Edwin Arnold
Population Issues
  • "The problem of the growing food shortage cannot be solved without in many cases a simultaneous effort to moderate population growth." — U Thant, former UN Secretary-General
  • "If we don’t halt population growth with justice and compassion, it will be done for us by nature, brutally and without pity — and will leave a ravaged world." — Nobel Laureate Henry W. Kendall
Women Empowerment
  • "When women do better economies do better." — Christine Lagarde
  • "A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman." — Melinda Gates
Poverty and Inequality
  • "Poverty is the worst form of violence." — Mahatma Gandhi
  • "As long as poverty, injustice, and gross inequality exist in our world, none of us can truly rest." — Nelson Mandela
  • "In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of." — Confucius

Quotes for UPSC Mains on Ethics

You can also use Ethics quotes for UPSC Mains 2025. Here are some inspirational quotes:
Topic Quotes
Truth
  • "If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything." — Mark Twain
  • "The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is." — Winston Churchill
Conscience
  • "Conscience is a man's compass." — Vincent van Gogh
  • "Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it." — Albert Einstein
Integrity
  • "Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." — Samuel Johnson
  • "Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not." — Oprah Winfrey
Peace and Tolerance
  • "The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace." — Mahatma Gandhi
  • "Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding." — Mahatma Gandhi
  • "In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher." — Dalai Lama

Quotes for UPSC Mains on Miscellaneous Topics

Quotes can be used on topics like climate change, science, education, etc.
Topic Quotes
Environment
  • "Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth... these are one and the same fight." — Ban Ki-moon
  • "We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it." — Jay Inslee
Science and Technology
  • " Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective." — Brian Greene
  • "The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow." — Bill Gates
  • "Our technology has exceeded our humanity." — Albert Einstein
Social Media and Society
  • " People are sheep. TV is the shepherd." — Jess C Scott
  • "What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish." — W.H. Auden
  • "Social media is reducing social barriers. It connects people on the strength of human values, not identities." — Narendra Modi
Education
  • Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family - Kofi Annan
  • Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learnt in school - Mahatma Gandhi
  • Learning gives creativity. Creativity leads to thinking. Thinking provides knowledge. Knowledge makes you great - APJ Abdul Kalam
Economic Growth and Development
  • "If conservation of nature goes wrong, nothing else will go right." — M.S. Swaminathan
  • "GDP measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." — Robert F. Kennedy
  • "Economic growth without investment in human development is unsustainable and unethical." — Amartya Sen

In essence, whether in essays, ethics, or GS papers, using the right quote at the right place can impress the examiner and strengthen your arguments. So, learn and use quotes wisely to make your answers more impactful and memorable.

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Important Quotes for UPSC Mains 2025 FAQs

Is using quotes necessary in the UPSC Essay?

No, it's not necessary, but using relevant quotes can enrich your essay and make it more impactful.

How to use quotes in UPSC Mains 2025?

Use quotes to support your arguments, introduce topics, or conclude sections effectively.

Where to use quotes in UPSC Mains?

Quotes can be used in essays, introductions, conclusions, or to substantiate key points in your answers.

How many quotes should be used in the UPSC Essay?

Use a few well-chosen quotes to enhance your essay without overwhelming the content.

Can I start my UPSC Mains essay with a quote?

Yes, starting your essay with a relevant quote can create a strong first impression and set the tone for your argument. Just ensure it aligns with the theme of the essay.
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