Quotes from Ruskin Bond

Ram Bharosa says he will never forget the smile she gave him when she left the shop. She

I am most at home in small places—Shamli and Saharanpur; Darjeeling and Dehra; Karnal and Kasauli; Meerut and Mussoorie….These are the places I know best, and where I have found my friends and heroes, and my stories.

The umbrella was like a flower, a great blue flower that had sprung up on the dry brown hillside".

No life is more, or less, important or interesting than another—much of it, after all, is lived inside our heads.

It isn't time that's passing by, it is you and I. It

I have made no attempt at chronology. My writing hasn't changed much over the years. That's because I haven't changed. I am still the impractical dreamer that I was sixty years ago, when I decided that writing would be my vocation and my profession. I do not suffer from writer's block. I have only to sit down at my desk for the words to come tumbling on to my writing pad. And if an ant moves across my desk, I shall record its transit.

Botanists have done their best to intimidate and confuse the nature lover. But we should not allow ourselves to be discouraged; we have as much right to the enjoyment of wild flowers as they. So I will disregard the botanist and I will go looking for the pretty flower that I have named Merry Heart. It is always nodding and dancing in the breeze. It is a happy flower, deserving of a happy, light name.

Lord, give me a quiet mind, That I might listen; A gentle tone of voice, That I might comfort others; A sound and healthy body, That I might share In the joy of walking And leaping and running; And a good sense of direction So I might know just where I'm going!

When I'm writing there's nobody watching me. Today, it's hard to find a profession where you're not being watched!

Tungnath's lonely eminence gives it a magic of its own. To get there (or beyond), one passes through some of the most delightful temperate forest in the Garhwal Himalaya. Pilgrim, or trekker, or just plain rambler such as myself, one comes away a better person, forest-refreshed, and more aware of what the world was really like before mankind began to strip it bare. Duiri

Some people become an integral part of our lives; others are ships that pass in the night. Short stories, in fact. My

But my animals are real animals, and they behave as animals usually do. It's really the humans who do strange things. Animals are predictable. Humans, never.

Little one, don't be afraid of this big river. Be safe in these warm arms for ever. Grow tall, my child, be wise and strong. But do not take from any man his song. Little one, don't be afraid of this dark night. Walk boldly as you see the truth and light. Love well, my child, laugh all day long, But do not take from any man his song. 16

Some night sounds outside my window remain strange & mysterious. Perhaps they are the sounds of the trees themselves, stretching their limbs in the dark, shifting a little, flexing their fingers, whispering to one another.

Once you have lived with mountains for any length of time you belong to them, and must return again and again. Nearly

These great trees of the mountains, I feel they know me well, as I watch them & listen to their secrets, happy to rest my head beneath their outstretched arms.

flute music in the mountains is always enchanting.

The world is only the size of each man's head.

Every other man is a piece of myself, for I am a part of mankind.

It has bloomed again, This flower that I thought dead. In one moment of despair And pain, I'd trampled it in the ground Upon this barren plain. Little did I know That it would rise again, This flower that I thought dead. My soul would need A surer weapon than despair To crush a thing so bright, so fair.

Puffed up with self-importance, we are in fact the most dispensable of all his creatures.

Once you have lived with mountains, there is no escape. You belong to them.

After all, most of living has to happen in the mind.

We remember only what we want to remember.