Rachel > Rachel's Quotes

“A man has to find a good woman, and when he finds her he has to win her love. then he has to earn her respect. then he has to cherish her trust. and then he has to, like, go on doing that for as long as they live. Until they both die. That's what it's all about. That's the most important thing in the world. That's what a man is, Yaar. A man is truly a man when he wins the love of a good woman, earns her respect, and keeps her trust. Until you do that, you're not a man.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“It's forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would've annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“But in a way you can say that after leaving the sea, after all those millions of years of living inside of the sea, we took the ocean with us. When a woman makes a baby, she gives it water, inside her body, to grow in. That water inside her body is almost exactly the same as the water of the sea. It is salty, by just the same amount. She makes a little ocean, in her body. And not only this. Our blood and our sweating, they are both salty, almost exactly like the water from the sea is salty. We carry oceans inside of us, in our blood and our sweat. And we are crying the oceans, in our tears.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“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.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“People say that love is the best thing in the world not power. But they are wrong. Love is the opposite of power and that's why we fear it so much.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Fanatics have the look of people who do not masturbate but who think about it almost all time.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“If we can't respect the way we earn it, money has no value. If we can't use it to make life better for our families and loved ones, money has no purpose.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“A young man didn't bring flowers or chocolates to the woman he loved: He brought her stories from the wider world, where men grappled with demons of desire, and monstrous injustice.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“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.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Fear dries a man’s mouth, and hate strangles him. That’s why hate has no great literature: real fear and real hate have no words.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“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. For I still love you with the whole of my heart, Prabaker. I still love you. And sometimes, my friend, the love that I have, and can’t give to you, crushes the breath from my chest. Sometimes, even now, my heart is drowning in a sorrow that has no stars without you, and no laughter, and no sleep.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Mistakes are like bad loves, the more you learn from, the more you wish they'd never happened.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“In the beginning we feared everything—animals, the weather, the trees, the night sky—everything except each other. Now we fear each other, and almost nothing else. No-one knows why anyone does anything. No-one tells the truth. No-one is happy. No-one is safe. In the face of all that is so wrong with the world, the very worst thing you can do is survive. And yet you must survive. It is this dilemma that makes us believe and cling to the lie that we have a soul, and that there is a God who cares about its fate. And now you have it.’ He”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Fanaticism is the opposite of love,’ I said, recalling one of Khaderbhai’s lectures. A wise man once told me—he’s a Muslim, by the way—that he has more in common with a rational, reasonable-minded Jew than he does with a fanatic from his own religion. He has more in common with a rational, reasonable-minded Christian or Buddhist or Hindu than he does with a fanatic from his own religion. In fact, he has more in common with a rational, reasonable-minded atheist than he does with a fanatic from his own religion. I agree with him, and I feel the same way. I also agree with Winston Churchill, who once defined a fanatic as someone who won’t change his mind and can’t change the subject.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“You can see, by what we have done with these two boys, that justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try to save them.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Qasim Ali said that night, his bark-coloured eyes softening on the two young men, ‘because justice is a judgement that is both fair and forgiving. Justice is not done until everyone is satisfied, even those who offend us and must be punished by us. You can see, by what we have done with these two boys, that justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try to save them.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“— Истината е, че не съществуват добри или лоши хора — рече той. — Доброта или злина притежават само делата им. Има добри дела или лоши дела. Хората са просто хора — онова, което ги свързва с доброто и злото, е онова, което вършат или отказват да вършат. Истината е, че един миг на истинска обич в сърцето на всеки — на най-благородния човек на земята, или на най-покварения — съдържа цялото предназначение, и процес, и смисъл на живота сред лотосовите гънки на неговата страст.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Anything that inhibits, impedes, or prevents this movement toward the Ultimate Complexity is evil. The wonderful thing about this definition of good and evil is that it is both objective and universally acceptable.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Prisons are the temples where devils learn to prey.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“Hell, no. I can’t stand politicians. A politician is someone who promises you a bridge, even when there’s no river.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

“This is why killing and stealing are wrong—not because a book tells us they are wrong, or a law tells us they are wrong, or a spiritual guide tells us they are wrong, but because if everyone did them we would not move toward the ultimate complexity that is God, with the rest of the universe.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram