Stefan Jonasson

“I can’t read books anymore,” I hear him say. “When I was a boy I read a lot, but then I stopped with the war.” He hesitates again. “It takes only one sentence to blow up a village. Two sentences to destroy the world.”
― Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, Hotel Silence

“WE ARE A RIVER Our life has not been an ascent
up one side of a mountain and down the other.
We did not reach a peak,
only to decline and die.
We have been as drops of water,
born in the ocean and sprinkled on the earth
in a gentle rain.
We became a spring,
and then a stream,
and finally a river flowing deeper and stronger,
nourishing all it touches
as it nears its home once again. Don’t accept the modern myths of aging.
You are not declining.
You are not fading away into uselessness.
You are a sage,
a river at its deepest
and most nourishing.
Sit by a riverbank sometime
and watch attentively as the river
tells you of your life.”
― William Martin, The Sage's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for the Second Half of Life

“Believe this difficult truth. Showing respect in the face of disrespect, love in the face of hate, trust in the face of betrayal, and serenity in the face of turmoil, will teach your children more than all the moral lectures by all the preachers since the dawn of time.”
― William Martin, The Parent's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents

“We need to calculate the damage caused by the people who profit from war and make them pay for it,” I hear her continue. “That way they would understand that war is much more expensive than peace. In any case, the only language they understand is money,” she adds.”
― Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, Hotel Silence