“I believe in nature and humanity and am here to serve the common people of Pakistan. There is a great deal of suffering in this country and I’m here to help.”

Beware of those who attribute petty instructions to God.

It is my principle never to accept any donations from any government or any foreign funded organisation.

I want to create awareness amongst the common people of Pakistan and I generally appeal to the Pakistani people living here and abroad for help and they provide me with the necessary resources.

It is because of my principle that people continue to give.

My religion is humanitarianism, which is the basis of every religion in the world.

I do this work for the common people and part of that work is creating a general awareness of such problems as they exist because my work is beyond class, religion and creed.

People have become educated, but have not become human.

One time there was a student at Punjab University in Lahore who came down with cancer and his friend came to me for help. I stood outside on the street in Lahore and asked the people in that city for help. Within four or five hours, I received more than 40 million rupees [more than US $670,000].

People know that I have adopted four principles in living my life: simple living, punctuality, hard work and prudence.

The common people don’t believe this kind of religion [of islamic fundamentalists] because first and foremost they want to solve their basic problems, including human rights and economic.

You have to care for all beings created by God…My mission is to help any person in need.

No religion is higher than humanity

The basic problem affecting the Pakistan today is human rights. Islamic fundamentalists have no roots among the common people and while they are pushing hard for religious fundamentalists to take hold, the common people still seek change through humanitarian and common human rights law.

The attitude of the Pakistani people is very good. Whenever I release any statement or deliver any kind of speech, they respond favourably.

I’m most proud of the ambulance service. This is emergency work. Many times Edhi ambulances are the first to arrive and save people’s lives. I’m very proud of this.

As much as I love the whole pirate kind of thing, the quality suffers.

I hope to get you to think differently about suffering and pain, to convince you that animals matter, and to argue that anyone serious about ending domination and hierarchy needs to think critically about bringing animals into consideration.

Those who sit at their work and are therefore called ‘chair workers,’ such as cobblers and tailors, suffer from their own particular diseases …

So then it comes back to whether the suffering and cruelty is justified by its place in a tradition that has deep roots in the culture. At present, the view in Catalonia apparently is that it does not.

The spirit I had caught gave me insight into the suffering of others, made me gravitate toward those whose feelings were like my own, made me sit for hours while others told me of their lives, made me strangely tender and cruel, violent and peaceful.

It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together.

I once heard some idiot on the radio saying that all great art has suffering as its dominant theme, and that the greatest artists are only able to create because they suffer immensely in their own lives. What a bunch of bullshit.

Anything was better than nothing. Half-full was better than empty. Ignorance was the lowest form of humiliation and suffering.