Quotes from Ruskin Bond

Keep an open mind. Different books, different faiths, often say the same thing.

Feeling down and out? Lift up your head and shout— 'It's a great day!

As a boy, reading was my religion. It helped me to discover my soul. Later, writing helped me to record its journey.

It was a cold morning and the girl had a shawl thrown across her shoulders. Her feet were bare and her clothes were old but she was a young girl, walking gracefully and with dignity.

Have you been in love before?' 'Many times. But this is the first time.

I had always considered it an admirable thing to break away from security and respectability. Of course, it is easier for a man to do this. A man can look after himself, he can do without neighbours and the approval of the local society. A woman, I reasoned, would do anything for love provided it was not at the price of security; for a woman loves security as much as a man loves independence.

When she saw me, she smiled. She was pleased that I remembered her. I was pleased that she remembered me. We were both pleased and it was almost like a meeting of old friends.

The world might be more beautiful without the human presence; but then, who would appreciate it?

Some memories are best left untouched.

Eighteen, and in control of my own destiny. For that man is strongest who stands alone.

in order to survive anywhere in today's world, you need to have a pretty good sense of humour.

let nature reign, let freedom sing.

The human voice often shatters the beauty of the most tender passions; and when we left Simla next day, and Maureen and Sunil used all the stock cliches to express their love, I was a little disappointed. But the poetry of life was in their bodies, not in their tongues.

As Grandfather used to say, 'In a crowd, everyone plays follow-the leader, even when they don't know who's leading.

When I awoke on the verandah I saw a grey morning, smelt the rain on the red earth, and remembered that I had to go away.

On my way back to the town I took a short cut through the forest. A swarm of yellow butterflies drifted across the path. A woodpecker pecked industriously on the bark of a tree, searching for young cicadas. Overhead, wild duck flew north, on their way across Central Asia, all traveling without passports. Birds and butterflies recognize no borders.

All men are my friends. I have only to meet them.' In these hills, where life still moves at a leisurely and civilized pace, one is constantly meeting them.   The

And the last puff of the day-wind brought from the unseen villages the scent of damp wood-smoke, hot cakes, dripping undergrowth, and rotting pine-cones. That is the true smell of the Himalayas, and if once it creeps into the blood of a man, that man will at the last, forgetting all else, return to the hills to die. —Rudyard Kipling

You know, the way love can change a fellow, is truly frightful to contemplate.' Wodehouse

Great Stories for Children

People often ask me why my style is so simple. It is, in fact, deceptively simple, for no two sentences are alike. It is clarity that I am striving to attain, not simplicity.

The god Shiva released the waters of Goddess Ganga from his locks, and she sped towards the plains in the tracks of Prince Bhagirath's chariot.

Pari Tibba.' I was charmed by the name—Fairy Hill.

Now that their journey was almost over, they become more aware of their weariness and their aches, and the town which had been their home seemed suddenly strange and heartless, as though it did not recognize them anymore.