“The language of young men is pull down and destroy; but an old man speaks of conciliation.”

You do not know me,’ said Tortoise. ‘I am a changed man. I have learned that a man who makes trouble for others makes trouble for himself.

Procrastination is a lazy man’s apology.

A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.

There is nothing to fear from someone who shouts.

Do not be in a hurry to rush into the pleasures of the world like the young antelope who danced herself lame when the main dance was yet to come.

What a man does not know is greater than he.

It is the story that owns and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is the mark on the face that sets one people apart from their neighbors.

One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.

When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.

It has always been quite apparent to me that no important story can fail to tell us something of value to us.

Every generation must recognize and embrace the task it is peculiarly designed by history and by providence to perform.

A coward may cover the ground with his words but when the time comes to fight he runs away.

Wisdom is like a goatskin bag; every man carries his own.

The damage done in one year can sometimes take ten or twenty years to repair.

Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then know that something is after its life.

My weapon is literature.

I think there is no difference between the language of Shah Rukh Khan and Hafiz Saeed.

I ache and long and feel in a language older than ours; one without words or phrases, consisting only of melancholy.

Never make fun of someone who speaks broken English. It means they know another language.

My thought process is in Malayalam. So, every time I have to work outside Malayalam, the process is a little stressful. I have to translate my Malayalam thoughts into English and back to Tamil.

The idea of justice – even just dreaming of justice – is revolutionary. The language of human rights tends to accept a status quo that is intrinsically unjust – and then tries to make it more accountable.

Language was invented to ask questions.

It is aurora borealis when your eyes are shut. It is beyond what our language can convey or comprehend.

Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question.