To thoughtful natures, events are like depth charges: the surface is calm, but the shock spreads further.

The political entanglement which encompassed me on all sides in Tibet rendered it difficult for me to make geographical discoveries, but it stimulated my ambition. Therefore I remember with particular warmth and sympathy all those who, in virtue of their temporary power in the world, sought to raise obstacles in my way.

I often heard this melodious hymn again in days of hardship, and it always affected me painfully. Not as the reproachful warning clang of church bells ringing for service, when I pass a church door without going in, but because the men sang the hymn only when they were out of spirits and considered our position desperate. It seemed as though they would remind me that defeat awaited me, and that this time I had aimed too high.

Oh, hon, it's the little courtesies that make life bearable, I find, wouldn't you agree?

He himself was almost never bored, and there was no man with whom it would have been a greater mistake to suppose that silence meant displeasure.

لم أكتفِ بعد من الضحك علي الحماقة البشرية