Quotes from Heinrich Harrer

We have a saying in Tibet: If a problem can be solved there is no use worrying about it. If it can't be solved, worrying will do no good.

My friend Kurt Maix once described this diffidence as Fear's friendly sister, the right and necessary counterweight to that courage that urges men skyward, and protects them from self-destruction.

On we went over low-lying passes till we came to the source of the Brahmaputra, which the Tibetans call the Tsangpo.

Um dos sinais da verdadeira amizade é o facto de esta não se modificar, aconteça o que acontecer. A amizade e a disponibilidade de nos ajudarmos mutuamente continua até ao fim das nossas vidas.

We turned a corner and saw, gleaming in the distance, the golden roofs of the Potala, the winter residence of the Dalai Lama and the most famous landmark of Lhasa.

We had learned on the North Face of the Eiger that men are good and the earth on which we were born is good.

One cannot reach the fifth storey of the Potala without starting at the ground floor.

On October 7, 1950, the enemy attacked the Tibetan frontier in six places simultaneously.

Floating down the river, I could not keep my eyes off the Potala; I knew the Dalai Lama was on the roof looking at me through his telescope. On

As in every peasant's house, one finds an altar in every tent; it usually consists of a simple chest on which is set an amulet or a small statue of the Buddha. There is invariably a picture of the Dalai Lama.

We were now in full spring. March had come and on the fourth of the month began the New Year Festival—the greatest of all Tibetan feasts, which lasts for three weeks.

But I have at least learned to contemplate the events of life with tranquillity and not let myself be flung to and fro by circumstances in a sea of doubt.

Sempre invejei os tibetanos pela simplicidade da sua fé pois toda a minha vida tenho procurado respostas. Embora tenha aprendido a forma de meditar enquanto vivi na Ásia, a resposta final para o enigma da vida nunca me foi revelada. Mas aprendi pelo menos a contemplar os eventos da vida com tranquilidade e a não permitir que as circunstâncias me façam derivar de um lado para o outro num mar de dúvidas.

If You Loved This, You Might Like … Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama Dalai Lama, Bstan-'Dzin-Rgy

The haste of Europeans has no place in Tibet. We must learn patience if we wished to arrive at the goal.

We were told that the name Dalai Lama is not used in Tibet at all. It is a Mongolian expression meaning "Broad Ocean." Normally the Dalai Lama is referred to as the "Gyalpo Rimpoche," which means "Precious King." His parents and brothers use another title in speaking of him. They call him "Kundün," which simply means "Presence." The

A child, indeed, but the heart of the concentrated faith of thousands, the essence of their prayers, longings, hopes. Whether it is Lhasa or Rome—all are united by one wish: to find God and to serve Him.

We have a saying in Tibet: If a problem can be solved there is no use worrying about it. If it can't be solved, worrying will do no good.

All our dreams begin in youth.

Wherever I live, I shall feel homesick for Tibet. I often think I can still hear the cries of wild geese and cranes and the beating of their wings as they fly over Lhasa in the clear, cold moonlight. My heartfelt wish is that my story may create some understanding for a people whose will to live in peace and freedom has won so little sympathy from an indifferent world.

In the time between the two wars, a British colonial officer said that with the invention of the airplane the world has no secrets left. However, he said, there is one last mystery. There is a large country on the Roof of the World, where strange things happen. There are monks who have the ability to separate mind from body, shamans and oracles who make government decisions, and a God-King who lives in a skyscraper-like palace in the Forbidden City of Llhasa.

I lacked the advice and guidance of experienced counsellors and so wasted many years before I realised that one must not pursue several aims at the same time.

There are times when visible poverty has its advantages.

There were only three names on the map of the region we had brought with us, but we now filled in more than two hundred.