Bengalis say when offered cod, we still have other fish to fry. - Shashi Tharoor

Who knows whence this creation had its origin?
He, whether He fashioned it or whether He did not,
He, who surveys it all from the highest heaven,
He knows — or maybe even He does not know. — Rig Veda, X.129 1
‘Maybe even He does not know!’ I love a faith that raises such a fundamental
question about no less a Supreme Being than the Creator of the Universe
Himself. Maybe He does not know, indeed. Who are we mere mortals to claim a
knowledge of which even He cannot be certain?

Much of the British conquest and expansion before 1857 took place against either benign, or not particularly oppressive, native rulers. The Maratha Peshwas, the Mysore rulers and the chess-playing Nawab of Oudh, to name three, were not accused of misgovernance: they were merely too powerful for colonial comfort or too rich to avoid attracting British avarice. (Indeed there were outstanding examples of good governance in India at the time, notably the Travancore kingdom, which in 1819 became the first government in the world to decree universal, compulsory and free primary education for both boys and girls.)

In debate he thought high and aimed low.