Baba's Quotes & Sayings

Ali Baba protects the lovers! Gives them the luck of bandits, and no guilt, for love fills certain people and expands them beyond all laws; there is no time, no place for regrets, hesitations, cowardices. Love runs free and reckless, and all the gentle trickeries perpetrated to protect others from its burns-those who are not the lovers but who might be the victims of this love's expansion. — Anais Nin

There is only one caste ... the caste of humanity. There is only one religion ... the religion of love. There is only one language ... the language of the heart. — Sathya Sai Baba

He loathed Jimmy Carter, whom he called a "big-toothed cretin." In 1980, when we were still in Kabul, the U.S. announced it would be boycotting the Olympic Games in Moscow. "Wah wah!" Baba exclaimed with disgust. "Brezhnev is massacring Afghans and all that peanut eater can say is I won't come swim in your pool. — Khaled Hosseini

India is the second biggest defence procurer in the world after the U.S. — Baba Kalyani

Squinting in the darkness Anya could just make out a strange curving symbol scratched into the bark. Baba Zosia scored a line through it, disfiguring the symbol. Anya felt something in the air change and give, like the forest had let out a breath it had been holding around them. Something like static pricked the back of her neck as Baba Zosia cut her finger and smeared blood on the tree. The strange symbol melted into the bark, healing the tree to appear like nothing had been carved on it to begin with. Lifting her hands towards the campsite Baba Zosia started to chant softly in the complicated language of the tribe. Magic thrummed through the air, making Anya's own flare and itch under her skin. She rubbed her arms to stop it. Around her a breeze picked up and the campground, with its tracks in the mud and stains from the fires all melted away until there was nothing but autumn leaf litter and debris in its place. It looked like it hadn't been disturbed for years. — Amy Kuivalainen

Magic carpet rides, rune magic, Ali Baba and visions of the Holy Mother, astral travel and the future in the dregs of a glass of red wine. Buddha. Frodo's journey into Mordor. The transubstantiation of the sacrament. Dorothy and Toto. The Easter Bunny. Space aliens. The Thing in the closet. The Resur-rection and the Life at the turn of a card ... I've believed them all at one time or another. Or pretended to. Or pretended not to.
And now? What do I believe right now?
'I believe that being happy is the only important thing,' I told him at last.
Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the hear. Bitter. Sweet. Alive. — Joanne Harris

The body will shine if the character is fine; service of man and worship of God will preserve its charm. — Sathya Sai Baba

When you tell the children tales of the Baba Yaga on a cold winter's night, you might remember to mention that whether or not the witch is wicked often depends on who is telling the story. — Deborah Blake

However great an intellectual may be, however great one may be as a scholar or a man of learning, one has also to acquire humanness. Without humanness, scholarship and intellectual eminence are of no value. — Sathya Sai Baba

Man's sense of values is so degraded that he does not revere the Geetha, as much as he values and scans the pages of the daily newspaper. This is to be attributed to sheer ignorance and perversity, or pitiable fate. — Sathya Sai Baba

People should remain unaffected by what others may say. A true man is one who overcomes the ups and downs of life with fortitude. One should not recoil before reverses of fortunes. One should bravely face them and overcome them. — Sathya Sai Baba

A lamp kept on mound illumines the area; if kept in a pit, it is as if it were not. A virtue that is practised is a lamp that shines for all; good thoughts and good deeds have a way of influencing others. The gems of wisdom, the light of intuitive experience should not be kept away from fellow - men. They have to be shared, even at the cost od one's life. That was the lesson Jesus taught and symbolised. — Sathya Sai Baba

Education must award self-confidence, the courage to depend on one's own strength. — Sai Baba

That's exactly what I'll do, I thought to myself. After dinner, I'm going to ask Big
Brother to teach me how to read this map. With Aunt Baba still in Tianjin, there's
obviously nobody looking out for me. I'll just have to find my own way. — Adeline Yen Mah

[Cat] found a complete set of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, with little tabs of paper sticking out. The were scrawled over with the witch's comments to herself, "Fun!" "Try this, but with exploding feathers!" and "Gotta love him
deeply sick. — Gregory Maguire

No bird casts the seed on land to grow food for itself, nor do beasts plough and enclose fields claiming - this is mine, this is for my children and children's children -. — Sathya Sai Baba

The Complexities Of Life Caused By Bad Government Leaderships And Parental Mistakes Can Make A Child More Matured Than Their Age. It Happened To Me And It Is Still Happening To So Many Children World Wide. Most Especially, In Africa Where I Come From. This Is Why You See So Many African's Do All Sorts Of Bad Deeds For Surfacing And Surviving To Keep Body And Soul Together. — Baba Tunde Ojo-Olubiyo

Holy crap!" he said. "That's a big dog." "Yes," said Baba. "But a small dragon. — Deborah Blake

Everyone's God is One. — Sai Baba

If you strive to find your Self by using your mind, you will strive and strive in vain, because the mind cannot give you the Truth. You are that Self. All else is illusion of the mind's creation. — Sathya Sai Baba

I am indebted to the following colleagues for their advice, assistance, or support: Dr. Alfred Lerner, Dori Vakis, Robin Heck, Dr. Todd Dray, Dr. Robert Tull, and Dr. Sandy Chun. Thanks also to Lynette Parker of East San Jose Community Law Center for her advice about adoption procedures, and to Mr. Daoud Wahab for sharing his experiences in Afghanistan with me. I am grateful to my dear friend Tamim Ansary for his guidance and support and to the gang at the San Francisco Writers Workshop for their feedback and encouragement. I want to thank my father, my oldest friend and the inspiration for all that is noble in Baba; my mother who prayed for me and did nazr at every stage of this book's writing; my aunt for buying me books when I was young. Thanks go out to Ali, Sandy, Daoud — Khaled Hosseini

In the middle of the night, she'd woken up with a memory of her grandmother's voice ringing in her ears. "When it happens," the older woman had said, holding on to Jenna's hand with surprising strength for someone with one foot in the grave, "and it will, don't stay in the cities. She can find you in the city. Too many eyes and whispering tongues that no one can see. Run to the woods, far away from everything and everyone you ever knew. Run, girl, run as far and as fast as you can. — Deborah Blake

The fact is I like Mumbai less and less. My son says, 'Baba, let's go for a drive', and I tell him, 'Where's the fun of a drive in this place?' You get caught in a million traffic jams, and you spend time cooped in your car with all that mad cacophony around you. — Om Puri

Sacrifice, so that you may be saved. You have to sacrifice, not a bleating sheep or a horse or a cow, but your animality, the bestial lust and greed, hate and malice. Sacrifice these and you earn the heaven of unflinching peace. — Sathya Sai Baba

LOVE ALL SERVE ALL AND THAT'S THE WAY TO BE LOVED BY ALL — Sai Baba

The learned man's life itself shines as the message for mankind. — Sai Baba

Naughty children have to be protected. Even if it's just from themselves. — Marika McCoola

True education consists in the cultivation of the heart. — Sai Baba

God is Infinite and His Shadow is also infinite. The Shadow of God is the Infinite Space that accommodates the infinite Gross Sphere which, with its occurrences of millions of universes, within and without the ranges of men's knowledge, is the Creation that issued from the Point of Finiteness in the infinite Existence that is God. — Meher Baba

We can't leave just like that." Cat was appalled. "Where can we find you if we need you again?"
[Baba Yaga] "You can't. Listen, Little Drear, I hate saying good-byes. I have a good strategy for avoiding them."
"What's that?" asked Anton.
"I eat my guests. — Gregory Maguire

Were it not for the mind change of Sai devotees the world would already have fallen into complete chaos. The deterioration of mind and man has been very rapid and abrupt, even precipitous during the last fifteen years. That the world is not in total destruction is due to the change of mind of Sai devotees and to Sai's grace. — Sathya Sai Baba

Love is the reflection of God's unity in the world of duality. It constitutes the entire significance of creation. — Meher Baba

Man's many desires are like the small metal coins he carries about in his pocket. The more he has the more they weight him down. — Sathya Sai Baba

Practise any one of the human values. Prema (love) is the basis for all the values. Action with love is right conduct. Speak with love and it becomes truth. Thinking with love results in peace. Understanding with love leads to non-violence. For everything love is primary. Where there is love there is no place for hatred. — Sathya Sai Baba

When you kill a man, you steal a life," Baba said. "You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see? — Khaled Hosseini

It's the adventure, the adrenaline-flowing, risk-taking in outdoor activities that attracts me. — Baba Kalyani

Go." Granmare pointed at the door. "Let me work in peace."
Balthazar didn't look back when he left.
"Now, my dear," the witch turned to her, "let me give you what that foolish boy paid for."
"He's not foolish," Arianne said. For giving a drop of his blood, the least she could do was defend the annoying oaf. "He's going out of his way to help me, so if there's anyone foolish here it's me."
"My, my, my." Granmare Baba gasped, spreading her hand at the center of her chest. "You have a mouth on you. I will so enjoy watching what happens to you when the time comes."
A chill went down Arianne's back. She'd almost been afraid to ask, "What do you mean?"
Granmare Baba only smiled her yellow toothy smile before she went about putting things together in a large cauldron that seemed to have magically appeared in the center of the round room. — Kate Evangelista

Human life is precious, sublime and meaningful. But by involvement in purely worldly pursuits, the greatness of human birth is forgotten. Without human values, life is meaningless. When there is purity in thought, word and deed, human values are practised. The unity of the three H's is essential. 'Heart, Head and Hand. ' But today this unity is absent among people, with the result that men are becoming inhuman. — Sathya Sai Baba

The end of knowledge is wisdom The end of culture is perfection The end of wisdom is freedom The end of education is character. And character consists of eagerness to renounce one's selfish greed. — Sai Baba

Alas, Abdullah and Pari, Baba Ayub's days of happiness came to an end. — Khaled Hosseini

Tapas is not a penance, it's a mental training to develop will power — Baba Hari Dass

Ram Dass, Krishna Dass, we all spoke through interpreters. There were good interpreters there, educated people in India speak English but Maharaji was the One, the Baba, Holy Man, mendicant, he didn't speak English. We talked to him and it was hard to know him, he was an ancient holy man and I was a 21 year old seeker. So I never knew what was going on, I mean I don't really know what's going on now, my guess work is a little better perhaps. — Surya Das

The future belongs to the common man with uncommon determination. — Baba Amte

It is when you experience another's suffering as your own that your human values is manifested. — Sathya Sai Baba

It's better to see God in everything than to try to figure it out. — Neem Karoli Baba

Pure love is the chief manifestation of education. — Sai Baba

Chewie gave a bone-scented sigh and rubbed his jowl affectionately against her leg. "I can't tell you what to do, Beka. I can just tell you that I would be very sorry if you weren't my Baba. I've kind of gotten used to having you around."

Beka blinked back unexpected emotion. "Thanks, Chewie. That's really sweet."

He was quiet for a moment, and then said. "You know what's really sweet? S'mores, that's what." He gazed up at her with an innocent expression. "Just sayin'. — Deborah Blake

She is also my only friend - apart from Emily Pagett, who reminds me of Baba in The Country Girls (Edna O'Brien, Hutchinson, 1962), in that she often spreads lies about me - but which I tolerate, because she also tells me gossip about other people, which is fascinating. Even if it's also not true. I recognize that ultimately you have make your own amusement. — Caitlin Moran

None but the Creator has knowledge of the future; If anyone says he knows it, do not believe him! - Baba Musafir (d. 1714), a Naqshbandi Sufi saint, speaking about the war of succession among Aurangzeb's sons — Audrey Truschke

Selfless service alone gives the needed strength and courage to awaken the sleeping humanity in one's heart. — Sai Baba

Well there were other Maharajis, so Neem Karoli Baba was his technical name, like there are a thousand Lamas called Rinpoche. — Surya Das

Your friends today attach themselves not to you but to your purse or to some advantage they can gain through your father's kindness. When your purse is empty or when your father is no longer in power, they bid you good-bye. — Sathya Sai Baba

God, if you think, God you are. Dust if you think, dust you are. As you think, so you become. Think God, be God. — Sathya Sai Baba

I have been thinking," her father said, turning to Sudha, breaking the silence for the second time. "The restaurant where we will have the wedding reception. There is a bar?" "All restaurants have bars, Baba." "I am concerned about Rahul. He has no control when it comes to - " He paused, searching for the word he wished to use. "When it comes to that." Sudha shut her eyes, thinking she might cry. All this time she had been waiting for her parents to acknowledge Rahul's drinking, but hearing her father say it now, after what had just happened, was too much. — Anonymous

If my strength is technology, financial structuring is my son's skill. — Baba Kalyani

God alone is real, nothing matters but love for God. — Meher Baba

At the root of all this is purity. Where there is purity there love grows. When purity and love come together, there is bliss. — Sathya Sai Baba

What I saw next stopped me dead in my tracks. Books. Not just one or two dozen, but hundreds of them. In crates. In piles on the floor. In bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling and lined the entire room. I turned around and around in a slow circle, feeling as if I'd just stumbled into Ali Baba's cave. I was breathless, close to tears, and positively dizzy with greed. — Jennifer Donnelly

It's a divine art to be cheerful. — Meher Baba

If you are convinced of God's existence then it rests with you to seek Him, to see Him and to realize Him. Do not search for God outside of you. God can only be found within you, for His only abode is the heart. — Meher Baba

Revealing what's in your soul is like using the telephone. You can't expect to reach anyone if the line is cut. People think they're being put on hold when they call God, but actually the line is out. "Why doesn't God just repair the line himself? I asked Baba.
"Because he's not the one who cut it," Baba said. "If you begin right now to communicate what's really in you heart, you will be repairing the line bit by bit, until you and spirit are on speaking terms again. — Deepak Chopra

Just think you are the greatest. Where's the harm in thinking like that? It is not for pride you do it, but for bringing the best out of you. There is nothing wrong. — Meher Baba

I know. I know. But he's always buried in those books or shuffling around the house like he's lost in some dream." "And?" "I wasn't like that." Baba sounded frustrated, almost angry. Rahim Khan laughed. "Children aren't colouring books. You don't get to fill them with your favourite colours. — Khaled Hosseini

What do we lose by another's good fortune? Let us celebrate with them, or strive to emulate them. That should be our desire and determination. — Sathya Sai Baba

Sow flowers to make a garden bloom around you,
The thorns you sow will prick your own feet.
Arrows shot at others
Will return to hit you as they fall.
You yourself will come to teeter on the lip
Of a well dug to undermine another.
Though you look at others with contempt,
It's you whose body will be reduced to dust.
Humanity is all one body;
To torture another is simply to wound yourself.
[ ... ]Make your path straight now, by the bright light of day;
For pitch darkness will come without warning. — Rahman Baba

It has been well said that the food one consumes determines one's thoughts. By eating the flesh of various animals, the qualities of these animals are imbibed. How sinful is it to feed on animals, which are sustained by the same five elements as human beings! This leads to demonic tendencies, besides committing the sin of inflicting cruelty on animals. — Sathya Sai Baba

Through endless time God's greatest gift is continuously given in silence. But whenmankind becomes completely deaf to the thunder of His Silence God incarnates as Man. — Meher Baba

Human values should predominate in men's thoughts. Human life has no meaning without these values. — Sathya Sai Baba

The objective of education should be impressed on the children's minds. The academic education of today is shallow and useless because it has no value orientation. — Sai Baba

Hounds and hearthstones, girl, haven't you ever heard a story about Koschei? He's only got the one. Act one, Scene one: pretty girl. Act one, Scene two: pretty girl gone! — Catherynne M Valente

If the partridge didn't call at the wrong moment, Neither the hunter nor the falcon would know of it. It follows from this point also, That everyone's voice betrays him. — Rahman Baba

Gibreel, the tuneless soloist, had been cavorting in moonlight as he sang his impromptu gazal, swimming in air, butterfly-stroke, breast-stroke, bunching himself into a ball, spreadeagling himself against the almost-infinity of the almost-dawn, adopting heraldic postures, rampant, couchant, pitting levity against gravity. Now he rolled happily towards the sardonic voice. 'Ohe, Salad baba, it's you, too good. What-ho, old Chumch.' At which the other, a fastidious shadow falling headfirst in a grey suit with all the jacket buttons done up, arms by his sides, taking for granted the improbability of the bowler hat on his head, pulled a nickname-hater's face. 'Hey, Spoono,' Gibreel yelled, eliciting a second inverted wince, 'Proper London, bhai! Here we come! Those bastards down there won't know what hit them. Meteor or lightning or vengeance of God. Out of thin air, baby. — Salman Rushdie

The steel door of the incinerator went up and the muted hum of the eternal fire became a red roaring. The heat lunged out at them like a famished beast. Then Rahel's Ammu was fed to it. Her hair, her skin, her smile. Her voice. They way she used Kipling to love her children before putting them to bed: We be of one blood, though and I. Her goodnight kiss. The way she held their faces steady with one hand (squashed-cheeked, fish-mouthed) while she parted and combed their hair with the other. The way she held knickers out for Rahel to climb into. Left leg, right leg. All this was fed to the beast, and it was satisfied.
She was their Ammu and their Baba and she had loved them Double. — Arundhati Roy

Joke I read somewhere: They say that God is the innermost dweller of all. Well I hope He likes enchiladas - cause that's what He's getting! Love delights and glorifies in giving, not receiving. — Meher Baba

Be discriminating when dispensing charity. In the name of charity or philanthropy, we tend to do injustice to one's country. — Sathya Sai Baba

Listening to them, I realized how much of who I was, what I was, had been defined by Baba and the marks he had left on people's lives. My whole life, I had been "Baba's son." Now he was gone. Baba couldn't show me the way anymore; I'd have to find it on my own. The thought of it terrified me. — Khaled Hosseini

soon after we arrived in the U.S., Baba started grumbling about American flies. He'd sit at the kitchen table with his flyswatter, watch the flies darting from wall to wall, buzzing here, buzzing there, harried and rushed. "In this country, even flies are pressed for time," he'd groan. — Khaled Hosseini

The finding of God is the coming to one's own self. — Meher Baba

The world is not a burden; we make it a burden by our desires. When the desires are removed, the world is as light as a feather on an elephant's back. — Baba Hari Dass

Many a treasure besides Ali Baba's is unlocked with a verbal key. — Henry Van Dyke

Even if she hadn't slaughtered Baba Yellowlegs, Manon would have killed her just for that spell she'd used to freeze her feet. Etching some foul spell with the man's blood.
And now she was going to die.
Wind-Cleaver pressed against the queen's blade. But Aelin held her ground and hissed, I'm going to rip you to shreds. — Sarah J. Maas

What do you envy?"
Liam gestured around the Airstream. "All this. You travel around the country , no roots, no ties, having all sorts of adventures and meeting new people. It must be nice not to constantly have folks tugging at you, expecting you to solve all their problems for them, knowing everything about you down to whether you wear boxers or briefs."
Baba raised an eyebrow, and he flushed a little.
"Briefs. But that's not my point. — Deborah Blake

I promised myself that I would talk to her before the summer was over, but schools reopened, the leaves reddened, yellowed, and fell, the rains of winter swept in and wakened Baba's joints, baby leaves sprouted once more, and I still hadn't had the heart, the dil, to even look her in the eye. — Khaled Hosseini

he wasn't smart enough to be a gangster or a politician, which is any dacoit's ultimate goal. We — Baba Rampuri

Baba's words and actions have lit the lamp of love in the hearts of devotees and they will always remember him for the good things he has done. — Sathya Sai Baba

Truth is man's nature; to be untrue is to be false to one's nature. dharma (Right Action) is the practical application in real life of the ideal of truth. Shanthi (Peace) is the result of Dharma and Preme (Love) is the sffulgence of Shanthi. — Sathya Sai Baba

I watched Baba's car pull away from the curb, taking with it the person whose first spoken word had been my name. — Khaled Hosseini

Concern for one?s own welfare and prosperity should not blind one to one?s social obligations or spiritual destiny?.A society in which the individuals are concerned only about material welfare will not be able to achieve harmony and peace. — Sathya Sai Baba

Day gazed out at the sky, where a shooting star was winging across the heavens. "I stepped in between Jenna and the hex. I wasn't even thinking; it was just instinctive."
"Of course it was." Barbara gazed at him fondly. "You may think you have changed, but your gallantry was never just for show; it's part of who you are. — Deborah Blake

I had the option of building a career in the U.S. Many of my friends who went at the time did not come back, but for me, building the family business and being with family was worth it. I became a general manager within four months, as I used my education to improve productivity and output. — Baba Kalyani

Women are concerned about the purity and welfare of the community. ? While the father's love was related to mundane desires, the mother's love was related to spiritual concerns. — Sathya Sai Baba

Liam's lips tightened. "She's only a little girl. She doesn't know anything about swords. What if she cuts herself? It's sharp, right?"
"Of course it is sharp, Liam. What would be the point ot having a sword that wasn't? — Deborah Blake

I chose a man and he chose me
You should have simply let it be
I chose a man and he chose you
Now this choice you both shall rue
You stole mine so I'll steal yours
Each mother's child that she adores
From every generation born
The first new child she will mourn
This curse unbroken now shall be
Down into eternity
Unless you find the pathway through
And solve the riddle with this clue
A rose's cry at rock enchanted
The sun's bright ray where none is slanted
A magic key to a gift divine
True love must merge when stars align — Deborah Blake

The Avatar is a child to the children, a boy to the boys, a man among men, a woman among women, so that the Avatar?s message might reach each heart and receive enthusiastic response as Ananda. It is the compassion of the Avatar that prompts His every action. — Sathya Sai Baba

Anya had never seen a house uglier house than Baba Yaga's. It was made entirely of mouldy bones in the same interlocking design as a log cabin. A thorny garden grew as high as the fence and skulls, bleached white by the sun, capped each fence post. Two enormous scaly chicken legs came out on either side of the house. Anya snorted in amusement and disgust. Yvan, she noticed, had turned an interesting shade of grey. — Amy Kuivalainen

In the U.S., we didn't have scale, and without scale, it's difficult to operate. — Baba Kalyani

If we are pure at heart, we would not wish one person well and not another. We should see there is no difference between one person or another. Then our pure thoughts can be evenly spread between all people. Sunshine can reflect on clean water but not on dirty water. God's light will be reflected by those persons with a pure heart. — Baba Hari Dass

The shiny black nose of a fox appears through her door before the rest of it steps tentatively across the wooden floor to where she's cooking. A pile of children's clothes lie discarded in a corner of the room. The fox knows what she is cooking and holds back a shudder. There are some things even foxes know better than to eat. — Amy Kuivalainen

We passionately set up a programme that we call the Indian gun programme. I challenged Colonel Bhatia, who heads our defence business, that let's build an Indian gun. There's a belief that Indian companies aren't capable of this, and we want to prove them wrong, as we did in components. — Baba Kalyani

You can't teach a hunter it's wrong to kill. — Baba Hari Dass