Shruti Singhal > Shruti's Quotes

“Is your glass half empty or half full?" asked the mole.

"I think I'm grateful to have a glass," said the boy.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“We often wait for kindness...but being kind to yourself can start now.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“One of our greatest freedoms is how we react to things.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“Always remember you matter, you're important and you are loved, and you bring to this world things no one else can.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“The greatest illusion," said the mole, "is that life should be perfect.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“When things get difficult remember who you are.'
'Who am I?' asked the boy
'You are loved' said the horse”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“Sometimes I think you believe in me more than I do," said the boy
"You'll catch up," said the horse.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“We have such a long way to go," sighed the boy

"Yes, but look how far we've come," said the horse”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“My story will be over soon. But it’s not something to be sad about. Remembering those who went ahead. Remembering those who will follow after. And someday, we will meet all those people again, out beyond the horizon”
― Hiro Arikawa, Nana Du Ký

“If you really love someone,' Claudia continued, 'you have to be prepared to accept them as they are. Maybe you hope that one day they get a wake-up call and make the changes for their own reasons.”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“Research consistently shows that the risks to health outweigh the benefits of drinking alcohol. My argument is that the benefits to my mental health justify the risks.”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“How can you tell if someone is a vegan? Just wait ten minutes and they’ll tell you.”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“Fault! Asperger’s isn’t a fault. It’s a variant. It’s potentially a major advantage. Asperger’s syndrome is associated with organization, focus, innovative thinking, and rational detachment.”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“But why, why, why can't people just say what they mean?”
― Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

“Love comes like lightning, and disappears the same way. If you are lucky, it strikes you right. If not, you'll spend your life yearning for a man you can't have.”
― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

“I am buoyant and expansive and uncontainable--but I always was so, only I never knew it!”
― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

“Aren't we all pawns in the hands of time, the greatest player of them all?”
― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

“A situation in itself,” he said, “is neither happy nor unhappy. It’s only your response to it that causes your sorrow.”
― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

“I saw something I hadn't realized before: words wasted energy. I would use my strength instead to nurture my belief that my life would unfurl uniquely.”
― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

“You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behaviour, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“According to Buddhism, the root of suffering is neither the feeling of pain nor of sadness nor even of meaninglessness. Rather, the real root of suffering is this never-ending and pointless pursuit of ephemeral feelings, which causes us to be in a constant state of tension, restlessness and dissatisfaction. Due to this pursuit, the mind is never satisfied. Even when experiencing pleasure, it is not content, because it fears this feeling might soon disappear, and craves that this feeling should stay and intensify. People are liberated from suffering not when they experience this or that fleeting pleasure, but rather when they understand the impermanent nature of all their feelings, and stop craving them. This is the aim of Buddhist meditation practices. In meditation, you are supposed to closely observe your mind and body, witness the ceaseless arising and passing of all your feelings, and realise how pointless it is to pursue them. When the pursuit stops, the mind becomes very relaxed, clear and satisfied. All kinds of feelings go on arising and passing – joy, anger, boredom, lust – but once you stop craving particular feelings, you can just accept them for what they are. You live in the present moment instead of fantasising about what might have been. The resulting serenity is so profound that those who spend their lives in the frenzied pursuit of pleasant feelings can hardly imagine it. It is like a man standing for decades on the seashore, embracing certain ‘good’ waves and trying to prevent them from disintegrating, while simultaneously pushing back ‘bad’ waves to prevent them from getting near him. Day in, day out, the man stands on the beach, driving himself crazy with this fruitless exercise. Eventually, he sits down on the sand and just allows the waves to come and go as they please. How peaceful!”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“We did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“The romantic contrast between modern industry that “destroys nature” and our ancestors who “lived in harmony with nature” is groundless. Long before the Industrial Revolution, Homo sapiens held the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinctions. We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of life.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, From Animals into Gods: A Brief History of Humankind

“With the heart, you invest in another person. With your liver, you invest in yourself, and if you don’t love yourself, how can you love someone else?”
― Anita Nair, Alphabet Soup for Lovers