Quotes from Ruskin Bond

Many people—car drivers anyway—think I'm a little eccentric. So be it. I probably am eccentric! But having come to the Himalayan foothills forty years ago in order to enjoy walking among them, I am not about to stop now, just because everyone else has stopped walking. The hills are durable in their attractions, and my legs have proved durable too, so why should we not continue together as before?

The adventure is not in arriving, it's in the on-the-way experience. It is not in the expected; it's in the surprise. You

No one rules the world forever, the gods grow jealous. If someone is constantly successful or too powerful - be it Alexander or Napolean or Hitler - the gods will eventually destroy him.

In times of crisis, it's wonderful what the imagination will do.

Keep right on to the end of the road, Keep right on to the end. If your way be long, let your heart be strong, So keep right on round the bend.'   By

So on we tramped, three small dots on a big mountain, mere specks, beings of no importance. In creating this world, God showed that he was a great mathematician; but in creating man, he got his algebra wrong. Puffed up with self-importance, we are in fact the most dispensable of all his creatures.

I decided that one day I would have to break journey there, spend a day in the town, make inquiries, and find the girl who had stolen my heart with nothing but a look from her dark, impatient eyes.

Listen to the night wind in the trees, Listen to the summer grass singing; Listen to the time that's tripping by, And the dawn dew falling. Listen to the moon as it climbs the sky, Listen to the pebbles humming; Listen to the mist in the trembling leaves, And the silence calling.

It's safer in the jungle than in the town.

And the earth itself. It smells different in different places. But its loveliest fragrance is known only when it receives a shower of rain. and then the scent of the wet earth rises as though it would give something beautiful back to the clouds. A blend of all the fragrant things that grow upon it.

Trees make you feel younger. And the older the tree, the younger you feel. Whenever

She did not know it then, that some of the moving force in our life are meant to touch us briefly and go there way.

Typewriters and computers were not designed with steep mountain slopes in mind. On one occasion last autumn I did carry my typewriter into the garden, and I am still trying to extricate a couple of acorns from under the keys, while the roller seems permanently stained from some fine yellow pollen dust from the deodar trees. But armed with pencils and paper, I can lie on the grass and write for hours. Provided there are a couple of cheese-and-tomato sandwiches within easy reach.

when all the wars are done, a butterfly will still be beautiful. Ruskin

But only yesterdays are truly splendid … And there are other singers, sweeter than I, to sing of tomorrow. I can only write of today, of Pipalnagar, where I have lived and loved.

Crows are the world's great survivors. They are capable of living at any height and in any climate; as much at home in the back streets of Delhi as on the heights of Tungnath. Another

The deodar enjoys the company of its own kind: Where one deodar grows, there will be others. A walk in a deodar forest is awe-inspiring -- surrounded on all sides by these great sentinels of the mountains, you feel as though the trees themselves are on the march.

If, by telling a lie, one can make someone happy, why not tell the damn lie?

We don't have to circle the world in order to find beauty and fulfilment. After all, most of living has to happen in the mind. And, to quote one anonymous sage from my trivet, "The world is only the size of each man's head.

Five more miles to go! We climb through rain and snow, A river to cross— A mountain to pass— Now we've four more miles to go!   The

And I knew that as long as I responded, in both a physical and mystical way, to the natural world-sea, sun, earth, moon and stars-I would never feel lonely upon this planet.

There's nothing like home-grown vegetables for bringing two people together. Red roses for young lovers. French beans for longstanding relationships!

I suppose Hinduism comes closest to being a nature religion. Rivers, rocks, trees, plants, animals and birds, all play their part, both in mythology and in everyday worship. This harmony is most evident in these remote places, where gods and mountains co-exist. Tungnath, as yet unspoilt by a materialistic society, exerts its magic on all who come here with open mind and heart.

Is this what it feels to be God?