Forgiveness

Forgiveness characterizes the human race. It’s forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would’ve annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive. Shantaram, p. 370

Love Won't Die

You can’t kill love. You can’t even kill it with hate. You can kill in-love, and loving, and even loveliness. You can kill them all, or numb them into dense, leaden regret, but you can’t kill love itself. Love is the passionate search for a truth other than your own, and once you feel it, honestly and completely, love is forever. Every act of love, every moment of the heart reaching out, is a part of the universal good: its’ a part of God . . and it can never die. Shantaram, p. 740

The Good Earth

The soil you turn and the seed you sow are all you really have, when you live and work the Earth. And sometimes, much too often, there’ s nothing more than that – the silent, secret, heartbreaking joy God puts into things that bloom and grow – to help you face the fear of hunger and the dread of evil.  Shantaram p. 114

God is - Impossible . . .

There is no believing in God. We either know God, or we do not . . . I’m inclined to think that God is impossible to believe in, at least most of the notions of God that I’ve come across. . . . O, of course, naturally, God is impossible. That is the first proof that He exists. Shantaram, p. 194

Dreaming of . . .

A dream is the place where a wish and a fear meet. When the wish and the fear are exactly the same, we call the dream a nightmare. Shantaram, p. 150