Tomáš Gavlas

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”
― Henry David Thoreau

“I am sending you on a pilgrimage which will take you to secluded places. Into deep forests. To lakes and rivers. Along the ocean shores and across desert dunes. Into the heart of the jungle and to the summits of the highest cliffs. Into monasteries and their temples. You will depart so that you may face the most basic realities of life. You will walk towards those places alone, because there is room enough on the narrow path only for one.”
― Tomáš Gavlas, Karlaz: Cesta člověka

“The scenery of the world have been set up, and you arrive on scene like a marionette which is free to go only where the invisible strings from beyond the Snow Line allow it to go. No matter how far on earth you go, you cannot influence certain things. Whether you are fair- or dark-skinned, man or woman, young or old, healthy or sick is not important. It doesn’t make sense to waste time lamenting the things you cannot change. You don’t choose your parents and children, but you can decide how to treat them when they need your help.”
― Tomáš Gavlas, Karlaz: The Way of Freedom

“I barely understand people who spend years pondering unimportant things. They dedicate their time to fretting about superficialities, but the fact that death will soon rob them of everything, that they disregard. I am sad when I see the human heart which can be oversensitive to certain trifles, but at the same time be completely oblivious to its very own existence.”
― Tomáš Gavlas, Karlaz: The Way of Freedom