Great Throughts Treasury

"There is a great reward for the eye observing and listening ear."

"There people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside."

"There will always be those who take upon themselves to defend God, like the Supreme Being is the basis of all being was something weak and in need of support. These people walk by a widow and corroded by leprosy begging for some pais, passing indifferently were living nomadically street children in rags and think, That's how it is in the world. But if you are going to feel the slightest breach to God, it is quite another matter. Blush on the face, literally clog them, they spit angry words. The intensity of their indignation is astounding. Their bitterness scares."

"There?s sunlight and shade, spots and patterns of color, your mind is elsewhere?so you don?t make out what is right in front of you."

"There's no boot. No boot? No. That makes me sad. I ate it. You ate the boot? Yes. Was it good? No. Were the cigarettes good? No. I couldn't finish them. I couldn't finish the boot."

"This Son is a god who walked, a pedestrian god?and in a hot place, at that?with a stride like any human stride, the sandal reaching just above the rocks along the way; and when He splurged on transportation, it was a regular donkey. This Son is a god who died in three hours, with moans, gasps and laments. What kind of a god is that? What is there to inspire in this Son? Love, said Father Martin."

"This story has a happy ending."

"There's nothing like the unimaginable to make people believe."

"These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart."

"These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy...walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, 'Business as usual.' But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening."

"There's no peace like the peace of an inner courtyard on a sunny day."

"They are golden calf lovers. They kneel before the cows, the priest chimed in."

"They were dead; I could no longer deny it. What a thing to acknowledge in your heart! To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures to people the tree of your life and give it new branches. To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches. To lose your mother, well, that is like losing the sun above you."

"This book was born as I was hungry. Let me explain."

"Things did not turn out as it should have, but what can you do? They have to accept life as it comes, and as far as possible, have to make the best of it."

"Tiptoe to the water?s edge. They show their raiments."

"This was all a bit much for me. The tone was right?loving and brave?but the details seemed bleak. I said nothing. It wasn?t for fear of angering Mr. Kumar. I was more afraid that in a few words thrown out he might destroy something that I loved. What if his words had the effect of polio on me? What a terrible disease that must be if it could kill God in a man."

"Time is an illusion that only makes us pant."

"Time and sunshine healed a sore, but the process was slow, and new boils appeared if I didn't stay dry."

"Those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly we are not the same afterwards."

"This tiny habitation on wheels, with bit parts of the living room, the washroom, and the fireplace, is a pathetic admission that human life is no more than this: an attempt to feel at home while racing towards oblivion. He"

"Time is an illusion that only makes us pant. I survived because I forgot even the very notion of time."

"Those who carry a knife and a pear are never afraid of the dark."

"To be drunk on alcohol is disgraceful, but to be drunk on water is noble and ecstatic."

"To be a castaway is to be caught up in grim and exhausting opposites."

"To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one?s life away."

"To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures to people the tree of your life and give it new branches."

"To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation"

"To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity."

"Trees were not hard, irritable things, but discreetly orgasmic beings moaning at a level too deep for our brutish ears. And flowers were quick explosive orgasms, like making love in the shower."

"To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches."

"To say something about fear. This life is the only real enemy. Only fear can defeat life. Clever, insidious enemy, then I know. Not included honesty, mercy, knows no law, no decency, did not give mercy. The man attacked the weakest point, infallibly, you can easily find it. Always starts in the brain. One moment they relaxed, confident, happy feel. Then I fear, doubt Jerseys quiet, sneaking into our brains like a spy. Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief try to reject. But unbelief poorly armed foot soldiers. Doubt can easily take care of. The man starts anxious. It comes to reason, to fight for us. Calms down. The reason is equipped with the latest military technology. But despite the astonishment of many higher-order tactics and indisputable victory of rationality Spreads. We feel that weakened volatile. Anxiety varies terror. Fear then turns completely to the body, which knows that a terrible wrong. The lungs had flown like a bird in the overlooked intestines like a snake. Now the slump dead language, like a possum, jaw and galloping in one place. The deaf ears. Our muscles begin to shake as if it were malaria and the knees are shaking it as if dancing. And the same thing happens with the rest of the body. Every part of us, the best way for him, falls apart. Only your eyes work well. Always accompanied by proper attention to fear. We Hasty decisions. Last oust allies: hope and confidence. And we'll beat ourselves. The fear is, after all, just a feeling, triumphed over us."

"To shriek and to slam the door shut repeatedly?with a deafening clang each time?until the keeper, notified by a visitor, hurried over to remedy the situation. A herd of roe-deer in a European zoo stepped out of their corral when the gate was left open. Frightened by visitors, the deer bolted for the nearby forest, which had its own herd of wild roe-deer and could support more. Nonetheless,"

"To prosper, a zoo needs parliamentary government, democratic elections, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, rule of law and everything else enshrined in India's Constitution. Impossible to enjoy the animals otherwise. Long-term, bad politics is bad for business."

"To my mind, faith is like being in the sun. When you are in the sun, can you avoid creating a shadow? Can you shake that area of darkness that clings to you, always shaped like you, as if constantly to remind you of yourself? You can?t. This shadow is doubt. And it goes wherever you go as long as you stay in the sun. And who wouldn?t want to be in the sun?"

"Two blind people in two separate lifeboats meeting up in the Pacific?the coincidence seems a little far-fetched, no?"

"We are a nation of engineers who aspire to be recognized."

"Was it the forgetfulness of old age or personal incapacity that made the man able to say please but not thank you?"

"Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger."

"We are of course also allowed to doubt. But we must go on. Choose doubt as a philosophy of life as well as a means of transport chosen stagnation."

"We are cynical about our own species, but less so about animals, especially wild ones. We might not shelter them from habitat destruction, but we do tend to shelter them from excessive irony."

"We are all born like Catholics, aren't we?in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?"

"We believe what we see...What do you do when you?re in the dark?"

"We commonly say in the trade that the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man."

"We are random animals. That is who we are, and we have only ourselves, nothing more-there is no greater relationship. Long before Darwin, a priest lucid in his madness encountered four chimpanzees on a forlorn island in Africa and hit upon a great truth: We are risen apes, not fallen angels."

"We must do the same with death in our lives: resolve it, give it meaning, put it into context, however hard that might be."

"We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success. We fight to the very end. It is not the question of courage. It is something constitutional, an ability to let go. It maybe nothing more than life-hungry stupidity."

"We?re all busy. Meditating monks in their cells are busy. That?s adult life, filled to the ceiling with things that need doing. (It seems only children and the elderly aren?t plagued by lack of time?and notice how they enjoy their books, how their lives fill their eyes.) But every person has a space next to where they sleep, whether a patch of pavement or a fine bedside table. In that space, at night, a book can glow. And in those moments of docile wakefulness, when we begin to let go of the day, then is the perfect time to pick up a book and be someone else, somewhere else, for a few minutes, a few pages, before we fall asleep."

"We fight and fight and fight. We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success. We fight to the very end. It's not a question of courage. It's something constitutional, an inability to let go. It may BE Nothing more Than Life-the stupidity of hungry."

"We were, literally and figuratively, in the same boat."