290 Quotes by Pico Iyer

Even as we fret about the changes our progress wreaks in the air and on the airwaves, in forests and on streets, we hardly worry about the change it is working in ourselves, the new kind of soul that is being born out of a new kind of life. Yet this could be the most dangerous development of all, and the least examined. “ -Pico Iyer.

Sitting still as a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it;.

It so often happens that somebody says ‘change your life’ and you repaint your car rather than re-wire the engine.

So much of our lives takes place in our heads – in memory or imagination, in speculation or interpretation – that sometimes I feel that I can change my life by changing the way I look at it.

You don’t get over the shadows inside you simply by walking away from them.

Yes, I love that word “absorption” because I think that’s my definition of happiness. I think all of us know we are happiest when we forget ourselves, when we forget the time, when we lose ourselves in a beautiful piece of music or a movie or a deep conversation with a friend or an intimate encounter with someone we love. That’s our definition of happiness.

Like the moon on the water, in a way. When you confront a Zen master, what you’re really seeing are not his limitations but yours.

If you are not happy, act the happy man. Happiness will come later. If you are in despair, act as though you believe. Faith will come afterwards.

None of the things in life – like love or faith – was arrived at by thinking; indeed, one could almost define the things that mattered as the ones that came as suddenly as thunder.