“The people who influence us most are not those who buttonhole us and talk to us, but those who live their lives like the stars in heaven and the lilies in the field, perfectly simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mould”

“Those of us who do not live forever do not like change perhaps as much as those of you who do.”

“Let us live happily, without hate amongst those who hate. Let us dwell unhating amidst hateful men.Let us live happily, in good health amongst those who are sick.Let us dwell in good health amidst ailing men.Let us live happily, without yearning for sensual pleasures amongst those who yearn for them.Let us dwell without yearning amidst those who yearn.Let us live happily, we who have no impediments. We shall subsist on joy even as the radiant gods.”

“Since we live in the heads of those who remember us, we lose control of our lives and become who they want us to be.”

“Our lives are a battlefield on which is fought a continuous war between the forces that are pledged to confirm our humanity and those determined to dismantle it; those who strive to build a protective wall around it, and those who wish to pull it down; those who seek to mould it and those committed to breaking it up; those who aim to open our eyes, to make us see the light and look to tomorrow [...] and those who wish to lull us into closing our eyes”

“It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us.”