Quotes from Nine Lives

William Dalrymple ·  284 pages

Rating: (5.4K votes)


“I grew up in extreme poverty,’ said Hari Das. ‘Like me, my father was a day labourer, who also did theyyam during the season. Today theyyam can bring in much
more than labouring – in a good season, after expenses, maybe Rs 10,000 a month – but in those days earnings were very meagre; maybe only Rs 10 and bag of rice
for a single night.
‘I lost my mother when I was three years old. She had some small injury – a piece of metal pierced her foot – but it went septic, and because she couldn’t afford a
real doctor she saw a man in the village instead. He must have made it worse. Certainly he failed to cure her. She died quite unnecessarily; at least that is what I feel.”
― William Dalrymple, quote from Nine Lives


“because we have two legs and travelling on foot is the right speed for human beings. Walking sorts out your problems and anxieties, and calms your worries. Living from day to day, from inspiration to inspiration, much of what I have learned as a Jain has come from wandering. Sometimes, even my dreams are of walking.”
― William Dalrymple, quote from Nine Lives


“I lost my mother when I was three years old. She had some small injury – a piece of metal pierced her foot – but it went septic, and because she couldn’t afford a
real doctor she saw a man in the village instead. He must have made it worse. Certainly he failed to cure her. She died quite unnecessarily; at least that is what I feel.”
― William Dalrymple, quote from Nine Lives


“At its purest, Jainism is almost an atheistic religion, and the much venerated images of the Tirthankaras in temples represent not so much a divine presence as a profound divine absence. I”
― William Dalrymple, quote from Nine Lives


“Then I went down to the banks of the Yamuna River and said a prayer, asking for the strength to become a Baul and never to give up and go back home and submit to my father. With that prayer on my lips, I threw my sacred thread into the river. ‘For me, that ended for ever my identity as a Brahmin. That very day I changed my name. I had been Dev Kumar Bhattacharyya – any Bengali knows that that is a Brahmin name, with all the privileges that go with it. But a Baul has to name himself as a Das – a slave of the Lord – so I became simple Debdas Baul. The Brahmins had rejected me, so I rejected them, just as I rejected their whole horrible idea of caste and the divisions it creates. I”
― William Dalrymple, quote from Nine Lives



“The water moves on, a little faster than before, yet still the great river flows. It is as fluid and unpredictable in its moods as it has ever been, but it meanders within familiar banks.”
― William Dalrymple, quote from Nine Lives


“Then we were both lectured by our guruji. He told us clearly what was expected of us: never again to use a vehicle, to take food only once a day, not to use Western medicine, to abstain from emotion, never to hurt any living creature. He told us we must not react to attacks, must not beg, must not cry, must not complain, must not demand, must not feel superiority, must learn not to be disturbed by illusory things.”
― William Dalrymple, quote from Nine Lives


About the author

William Dalrymple
Born place: in Scotland, The United Kingdom
Born date March 20, 1965
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“It's the kind of leather seat that pulls you in, begs to to relax against it.”
― Allen Zadoff, quote from Boy Nobody


“SHUT UP!” I yelled all the way down the hall. “FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, JUST SHUT YOUR STUPID NOSY MOUTH!”
― James Patterson, quote from Just My Rotten Luck


“See, that's the problem with putting too much stock in the old days. You remember all the GOOD stuff, but you forget about the time you got spanked by your best friend's mom.”
― Jeff Kinney, quote from Old School


“His green eyes were dark and dilated, and they locked with mine. I saw him then - the man, but also the animal that lived below the surface.”
― Meredith Wild, quote from Hardline


“Will power is the answer. Will power. No white bread, no Nestle's Crunch bars... I flinched and felt the last of the bars melting in my pockets.

На все вопросы ответ один — сила воли! Исключительно сила воли. Никаких булок, никаких шоколадных плиток… Я моргнул и почувствовал, как последняя из шоколадок тает у меня в кармане.”
― Ray Bradbury, quote from Death Is a Lonely Business


Interesting books

The Not So Secret Emails Of Coco Pinchard
(2.7K)
The Not So Secret Em...
by Robert Bryndza
Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
(11.8K)
Without You, There I...
by Suki Kim
I Love Dick
(7.3K)
I Love Dick
by Chris Kraus
A Spool of Blue Thread
(65.6K)
A Spool of Blue Thre...
by Anne Tyler
Asylum
(1.7K)
Asylum
by Amy Cross
Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind
(1K)
Evolve Your Brain: T...
by Joe Dispenza

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.