“Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for joy. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and joy you have not yet begun to live.”

To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.

The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived.

Before we can realize who we really are, we must become conscious of the fact that the person we think we are, here and now, is at best an impostor and a stranger.

For although God is right with us and in us and out of us and all through us, we have to go on journeys to find him.

We cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great.

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.

Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another.

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.

Violence is not completely fatal until it ceases to disturb us.

How can I be sincere if I am constantly changing my mind to conform with the shadow of what I think others expect of me?

But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.

The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

We are not converted only once in our lives but many times and this endless series of conversions and inner revolutions leads to our transformation.

Actions are the doors and windows of being. Unless we act, we have no way of knowing what we are.

In a world of noise, confusion and conflict it is necessary that there be places of silence, inner discipline and peace. In such places love can blossom.

Every story has an end, but every end is a new beginning.

We shall have to begin all over again. [Taft hoped that] the Senators might change their minds, or that the people might change the Senate; instead of which they changed me.

Maybe we could begin entwined – not whole – but one again.

The happy ending is that it is not ending.

I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.

My father told me ‘Name your price in the beginning. If it ever gets more expensive than the price you name, get out of there.’

It’s a win-win situation when you make your debut with a superstar like Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, or Sunny Deol. The audience walks in to watch the actors they idolise; they also end up noticing beginners like me.

I couldn’t experience an end with you, because you have always been a beginning to something new every day.