“no-one would want to go through a traumatic experience but when youve survived something life-shattering and risen above it, you achieve a kind of serenity.”

“The mountains were so wild and so stark and so very beautiful that I wanted to cry. I breathed in another wonderful moment to keep safe in my heart.”

“getting angry and harbouring bitterness doesnt help anybody, least of all the angry bitter person.”

“I wished I could paint this ineffable beauty but I had never been artistic. I hadnt even packed a camera, and my phone was out of charge. It didnt matter. I just breathed in the feeling, savouring ...”

“We found a smooth inviting boulder under a vast banyan tree, and sat in companionable silence. There unexpectedly, on that rock, I saw the secret of contentment. True happiness is only ever possibl...”

“... how could Britain operate in India for 300 years and take so little back from it in terms of understanding?”

“Ever have a dream so real you felt you could reach out and touch it?”

“The nearest thing we have to a defence against [the gods] (but there is no real defence) is to be very wide awake and sober and hard at work, to hear no music, never to look at earth or sky, and (a...”

“Today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day.”

“It was like waking from a nightmare to a worse nightmare.”

“There was a sad fellow over on a bar stool talking to the bartender, who was polishing a glass and listening with that plastic smile people wear when they are trying not to scream.”