Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.

Our responsibility is no longer to acquire, but to BE.

I think it's possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.

I wondered why people consider escapism so bad, even the escapism on display right then. At first it might appear unseemly, but in the end its lack of pretension gives it its own sort of beauty.

You can't deny what you've learned; you can't deny your travels; you can't deny the nature of your life.

Self-revelation is a cruel process. The real picture, the real you never emerges. Looking for it is as bewildering as trying to know how you really look. ﻿Ten different mirrors show you ten different faces.

Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, power to retell it, to rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.

Difficulties can't be eliminated from life. Individuals will always have them, countries will always have them...The only thing is to accept them, if possible, overcome them, otherwise to come to terms with them. It's all right to fight, yes, but only when it's possible.

Peace is not just the absence of violence, peace is when the flowers bloom.

The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.

To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.

Without courage, you cannot practice any other virtue. You have to have courage - courage of different kinds: first, intellectual courage, to sort out different values and make up your mind about which is the one which is right for you to follow. You have to have moral courage to stick up to that - no matter what comes in your way, no matter what the obstacle and the opposition is.

Difficulties, opposition, criticism — these things are meant to be overcome, and there is a special joy in facing them and in coming out on top. ﻿It is only when there is nothing but praise that life loses its charm and I begin to wonder what I should do about it.

You need someone to see what you've done, to read it and to understand it and to appreciate what's gone into it.

The most important lesson that man can learn from life, is not that there is pain in this world, but that it is possible for him to transmute it into joy.

To use the past to justify the present is bad enough—but it’s just as bad to use the present to justify the past.

One best book is equal to hundred good friends, but one good friend is equal to a Library.

People can be extraordinarily resilient and show extraordinary grace and humour even in moments of tribulation. I've always found that it's much easier for people who are not terribly, badly off to lose hope and to be pessimistic. I suppose that when you are in a really serious situation, you have to be present, you have to think about it, there's not much scope for self-pity.

Long overdue wisdom from my Culture - moving forward, will be a constant source of my curated content. 

VIKRAM SETH

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