Quotes from various books I read

Quotes_from_books

# 1) If God was a banker - Ravi Subramanian

# 2) One Night @ the Call Center - Chetan Bhagat

# 3) The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

A shepherd may like to travel, but he should never forget about his sheep.

When you really want something, the universe always conspires in your favour.

The dunes are changed by the wind, but the desert never changes.

It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil. It's what comes out of their mouths that is.

The darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.

# 4) The Notebook -  Nicholas Sparks

With knowledge comes pain.

# 5) Half Girlfriend - Chetan Bhagat

Classes can wait. Love cannot.

# 6) Eleven Minutes - Paulo Coelho

Most interesting people always leave.

Life moves very fast. It rushes us from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.

Beauty, my dear, doesn't last.

Prostitution isn't like other businesses: beginners earn more and the more experienced earn less. Always pretend you're a beginner.

Loneliness is the worst of all sufferings, the worst of all tortures, the sense that no one else on the planet cared about them.

No one loses anyone, because no one owns any one.

The more you give, the more you get back.

The less I say, the more intelligent they think I am.

Considering the way the world is, one happy day is almost a miracle.

The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with.

Important meetings are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.

No one can know how to humiliate another person if they themselves have not experienced humiliation.

Human beings weren't made solely to go in search of wisdom, but also to plough the land, wait for rain, plant the wheat, harvest the grain, make the bread.

He was someone who, according to all the rules and norms, should have been able to shout out loud: l'm happy.

Original sin was not the apple that Eve ate, it was her belief that Adam needed to share precisely the thing she had tasted.

It's odd how, when you live in a city, you always postpone getting to know it and usually end up never knowing it at all.

# 7) Story of my life - Helen Keller

Fact and fancy look alike.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

Things seen are temporal, things unseen are eternal - Bible

Though right be worsted, wrong shall not triumph.

One painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.

# 8) Who Will Cry When You Die?(Life lessons from the Monk who sold his Ferrari) - Robin Sharma

The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us while we live.

Son, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries while you rejoice.

Be the change that you wish to see most in the world
- Mahatma Gandhi

Every second you dwell on the past you steal from your future.

Life's greatest setbacks reveal life's biggest opportunities.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed.

Those who don't make time for exercise must eventually make time for illness.

Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted.

Don't go in search of security. Pursue opportunities.

The person who chases 2 rabbits catch neither.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

A problem well stated is a problem half solved.

Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, virtue is doing it.

Smallest of actions is always better than the boldest of intentions.

The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become.

The more you are as a person, the less you need to prove yourself to others.

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail

Truth is a debit card - pay first and enjoy later. Lie is a credit card - enjoy first, pay later.

The road may be long, but our will is always strong.

Lies run sprints but the truth runs marathons!

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

# 9) SUCCESS THROUGH A POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE- Napoleon Hill and W.Clement Stone

Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit for those who have PMA.

Necessity is the mother of invention and the father of crime.

Day by day, in every way, through the grace of God, I am getting better and better.

You can do it if you believe you can.

You don't need to be ashamed to be a failure like Christopher Columbus.

It's better to "do something and pay nothing"  than to "pay dues and do nothing"

NOW is the time. NOW must be seized before it becomes yesterday.

Success must be continually practiced, or it will take wings and fly away.

A person  consciously reacts to that which to him is desirable, believable and attainable.

Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation .

Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more.

To guarantee success it is desirable that you try zealously to maintain physical, mental and moral health during the period of internal struggle.

Defeat may be a stepping stone or a stumbling block depending on whether your attitude is positive or negative.

# 10) A Century Is Not Enough - Sourav Ganguly

You will enjoy your holidays, only when there is pressure in your work.

A young man's mind is the engine of a new Rolls-Royce which has not recorded 10km. That engine is ready to hit any road fearlessly.

Heroes are made when you confront an uncomfortable situation head-on. Have you ever heard of a hero who sits at home, goes to office in the late afternoon after having slept for 10 hours and finally ends the day going for an evening show?

When the crunch moment arrived the general should not hide behind the bushes.

Champions take the challenging path.

# 11) The immortals of Meluha - Amish

# 12) Family wisdom - Robin Sharma

The tougher you are with yourself, the easier life will be on you. The stricter you're with yourself, the gentler life will be on you.

The behaviour that is rewarded is the behaviour that is repeated.

# 13) The Zahir - Paulo Coelho

Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose - and commit myself to - what is best for me.

We humans have 2 great problems: the first is knowing when to begin, the second is knowing when to stop.

We are old enough to act and face consequences of our actions.

God does not play dice with the universe; everything is interconnected and has meaning.

I feel the way a warrior must feel after years of training: he doesn't remember the details of everything he learned, but he knows how to strike when the time is right.

We all want someone to be beside us to discuss books, interviews, films or even share a sandwich with because there isn't enough money to buy one each.

Mediocrity and anonymity are the safest choice, if you opt for them, you'll never face any major problems in life.

A warrior of light knows that he has much to be grateful for. He was helped in his struggle by the angels; celestial forces placed each thing in its place, thus allowing him to give his best. That is why, at sunset, he kneels  and gives thanks for the Protective Cloak surrounding him.

I will just have to lick my wounds and leave.

Fundamental questions of life will never be answered, but we can, nevertheless, still go forward.

Sky is blue even when it is grey, because the colour is still there above the clouds.

Love: I am the wind and I cannot enter windows and doors that are shut.

Love is disease no one wants to get rid of. Those who catch it never try to get better, and those who suffer donot wish to be cured.

# 14) Hippie - Paulo Coelho

Speak with others but do not seek to persuade them. Never allow others to believe in your words or become your disciples, for when this occurs, they no longer believe in what their hearts tell them, which in truth is the only source to which they must listen.
Walk hand in hand, drink and be merry with life, but keep your distance such that one never relies on the other - our fall is part of the journey and we all must learn to rise again on our own

# 15) The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Stopped reading in the middle)

It is dreadfully hard for a man who's suffered harm when everyone starts to look upon him as though they were his benefactors.

People must be looked after in every respect as though they were children, and some as though they were patients.

Where important matters are concerned, if you disagree with me I shall act as duty instructs me.

If there are no God, it will be necessary to invent him.

Enslave us if you will, but feed us.

There is nothing more seductive than the freedom of his conscience, but there is nothing more tormenting for him, either.

Peace of mind and even death are dearer to man than free choice and the cognition of good and evil.

There are three powers, only three powers on earth that are capable of eternally vanquishing and ensnaring the consciences of those feeble mutineers, for their happiness - those powers are: miracle, mystery and authority.

Man  doesn't seek God so much as miracles.

Each of us is guilty before the other for everything.

Great is the strength of character that I discern in you, for you were not afraid to serve the truth in such an affair, where you ran the risk of bearing, for the sake of your sense of what is right, the general contempt of all.

Once I had embarked upon that road, all that followed later was not only without difficulty, but even joyous and merry.

Go, declare what you have done. It will all pass, the truth alone will remain. Your children will understand when they grow up how much magnanimity there was in your great resolution.

The Lord is not in strength, but in truth.

No man gains wisdom from another's woe.

Men like to see the fall of a righteous man and to see his disgrace.

All is like an ocean, all flows and contiguous, and if you touch it one place it will reverberate at the other end of the world.

The righteous man shall depart, but his light remains.

Much knowledge soon makes one old.

I have lost a treasure such as you have never possessed, and you cannot judge me now.

Since that day much water had flowed under the bridge.

Fools exist for the profit of the clever man.

# 16) Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

The choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.

Dead lovers are the toughest rivals.

Sometimes the lion must roar, just to remind the horse of his fear.

Fate has evey power over us, but two. Fate cannot control our free will, and fate doesn't lie.

The truth is that there are no good men, or bad men. It is the deeds that have goodness or badness in them.

The burden of happiness can only be relieved by the balm of suffering.

I don't know what frightens me more, the power that crushes us Or our endless ability to endure it.

Every virtuous act has some dark secret in its heart, and every risk we take contains a mystery that can't be solved.

There is a difference between a criminal and a man who committed crimes. The difference lay in motive and the means.

Sooner or later, fate put us together with all people, one by one, who show us what we could, and shouldn't, let ourselves become.

We concentrate our laws on how much crime is in the sin, rather than how much sin is in the crime.
For me (Lord Abdul Khader Khan), the opposite is true. The most important thing is the amount of sin that is in the crime.

Sin is a measure of evil.

Tendency toward complexity, it is the way universe works.

The universe, began in almost absolute simplicity, and it has been getting more complex for about 15 billion years. It is moving toward some kind of ultimate complexity. And that final complexity, that thing we are all moving to, is what I choose to call God.
Anything that enhances, promotes, or accelerates this movement toward the Ultimate Complexity is good. Anything that inhibits, impedes or prevents this movement toward the Ultimate Complexity is evil.

Men reveal what they think when they look away, and what they feel when they hesitate. With women, it is the other way around.

I love you with all my heart. You do what God should do: you give me a reason to live. You give me a reason to love the world.

It is better to have a weapon and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Everything you ever sense, in touch or taste or sight or even thought, has an effect on you that's greater than zero. Somethings, like the background sound of a bird chirping as it passes your house in the evening, or a flower glimpsed out of the corner of an eye, have such an infinitesimally small effect that you can't detect them. Some things, like triumph and heart break, and some images, like the image of
yourself reflected in the eyes of a man you've just stabbed, attach themselves to the secret gallery and they change your life forever.

If we envy someone for all right reasons, we're half way to wisdom.

Fanaticism is the opposite of love.
A wise man has more in common with a rational, reasonable-minded Jew or Christian or Buddhist or Hindu or atheist than he does with a fanatic from his own religion.

Fanatic is someone who won't change his mind and can't change the subject - Winston Churchill.

At first, when we truly love someone, our greatest fear is that the loved one will stop loving us. What we should fear and dread, of course, is that we won't stop loving them, even after they're dead and gone.

Fate gives all of us three teachers, three friends, three enemies and three great loves in our lives.
But these twelve are always disguised, and we can never know which one is which until we've loved them, left them, or fought them.

We are strictly forbidden to describe the features of the Prophet, or to talk about him as someone who is seen. This was the Prophet's own wish, so that no man or woman would adore him, or take any of their devotions away from God.

Love is a one-way street. Love, like respect, isn't something you get, it's something you give.

Heroes only come in three kinds: dead, damaged or dubious.

Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting.

May be it's not possible to break laws without boasting about it to someone.

Everything has its cause and it's meaning. Every life, every love, every action and feeling and thought has its reason and significance: it's beginning and the part it plays in the end.
Nothing in any life, no matter how well or poorly lived, is wiser than failure or clearer than sorrow. And in the tiny, precious wisdom that they give to us, even those dread and hated enemies, suffering and failure, have their reason and their right to be.

The only kingdom that makes any man a king is the kingdom of his own soul. The only power that has any real meaning is the power to better the world.

There is no man, and no place, without war. The only thing we can do is choose a side, and fight. That is the only choice we get - who we fight for, who we fight against. That is life.

Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting.

It is always a fool's mistake, to be alone with someone you shouldn't have loved.

# 17) IKIGAI, The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life - Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles

Principle of ichariba chode - treat everyone like a brother, even if you have never met them before.

For many, helping others might be an ikigai strong enough to keep them alive.

# 18) Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

# 19) Random Quotes

God, grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Train till your idols become your rivals.

If you want to be #1, work like you are #2

Time heals almost everything. Give time a little time.

A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds.

Like a hammer in search of nails.

Nothing changes until something changes.

Your dream company and its dream job would suck as soon as you get it.

No matter how much brainstorming you do to identify the root cause of a defect. For your boss, you are the root cause.

Do not take advice from someone you would not want to switch places with.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
-Benjamin Franklin

Best things in life are not things.

Don't give advice unless it comes from personal experience.

A boat is safe in the harbour. But this is not the purpose of a boat.
- Paulo Coehlo

Fear is temporary regret is permanent.

Don't count the days; make the days count.

If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize.
- Muhammad Ali

At present respect your time, or time will disrespect you in future.

Mind: A beautiful servant, a dangerous master

You may be stupid but I'm used to that.

Things you own end up owning you.

People QUIT their bosses, not their companies.

Security is the enemy of convenience, and vice versa.

You can only know a good wine if you have first tasted a bad one.

The family that prays together stays together.

Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.

Even suicide is committed but I am single.

There's too many people on this earth. We need a new plague.

The difference between the ideal way and the almost ideal way is the difference between the lightning and the lightning bug
- Mark Twain

After the game King and Pawn goes to the same box.

Freedom from risk is actually freedom to become poor.

A gardener may water the plant daily but fruits grow only in the season. Have patience, everything is destined to happen at its own time.

There is no traffic when you go the extra mile.

Do daily what others do occasionally.

“Boss never gives a damn about feedback. But juniors always worry about it. That is why he is boss and they are juniors.”

It's the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.

May my haters live long enough to see my success.

Success is a bastard failure is an orphan.