FLOWERS OF STARDUST Quotes

“Most knowledge is uncertain, and our ability to fool ourselves is phenomenal. Considering the ease with which we delude ourselves, it is healthy to be sceptical about our certainties.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“For human beings, hope is a necessary illusion. The more unbearable and extreme the misery of the present life, the greater is the need for the pretence. That is why hope is persistent.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“One cannot credit human beings with the wisdom needed to avert a global disaster: we haven't displayed any until now.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“When we employ the rhetoric of war, make incessant preparations for war, compete for superiority and supremacy in weaponry, the outcome cannot be peace.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“A drooping twist of his mouth had replaced the slightly mischievous smile. One could discern in his eyes, an uncertainty, a vacancy, a slowly creeping sense of certain death. Our words of reassurance were hollow and devoid of confidence: he ignored them. His bouts of sobbing became more frequent, but he didn't leap back to normality as he did earlier: he withdrew into a flat sullenness. It was as if he was bereft of all emotions, and there was nothing to express. There was just that waiting for death.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“As long as women are dependent on men, the exploitation would continue. Women should perhaps stop looking at themselves through the looking glass of the male mind. I do not know why many women still consider marriage and children as the ultimate fulfilment of their lives: that is precisely the mindset taken advantage of by men.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“The world of reflection and abstraction is far away from the world of sights, smells and sounds. We straddle both the worlds; both are essential.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“You can't change people's minds: most minds harden before encountering diverse ideas. After their minds are ossified, people spend the rest of their lives seeking corroboration of their opinions: the mind's doors are closed and bolted from inside. Like a house that allows entry only to known guests, the mind welcomes only concepts that validate the conclusions and opinions it has already formed.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“Life becomes a long lesson when there is an unending reappraisal of how we see the world and ourselves.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“As we stretch the boundaries of the known, there is also a growing awareness of the vast unknown. So is there an end to mystery?”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“Man's savagery is unmatched. Compared to his savagery, the cruelty of the animal world looks almost benign.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“The human population is the worst pollutant.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“Today is yours; you can claim it. Tomorrow is not yours: time and other unknown forces have snatched it from you.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“The past is an extinct species; the present, a living, moving, changing spirit.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“Our relationships with things and people define us. You need to watch a person in his relationships to determine what kind of a person he is.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“I believe that ideas too evolve like species.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“It is a sobering fact that instead of being the purpose and the pinnacle of life, we are merely the instruments to achieve its continuity.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“My writing is like the flower growing on the pavement: some may pass by without noticing it; someone may crush it; a hungry goat may eat it.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“You have to endure your pain. You cannot inflict it on anyone; you cannot transmit it; you cannot share it. That is the nature of physical pain. It takes you into your body, reminding you that you have a body that needs your care.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“There is a landscape and an atmosphere inside: narratives waiting to unfold; moods to live through; feelings that enliven; thoughts that illuminate; memories; nostalgia; dreams; hopes; uncertainties; insecurities; fears; desires; passions; obsessions; the occasional calm; the turbulences; peace; joy. The journey within could be as exciting as a journey to an undiscovered world. There is a universe waiting to be known.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“The gateway to living in the present is sensory activity. It is what keeps you rooted in the present.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“In a world so invested in effort, it is difficult to embrace the idea of not trying hard.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“When we question the universe, we interrogate it in terms that we understand. We have made those terms; we have invented the framework of questioning. When we receive answers from the universe, the answer is in terms of our invention. They are valid within that framework.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“The universe is neither particularly malevolent nor benevolent to human beings: it is blissfully indifferent. It has no specific interest in us.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“In any case, the belief that one can bring about changes in another or influence the course of life or events by writing a book is a fantasy in which some writers get imprisoned. Because they are so invested in their fantasies and roles as messiahs, they fail to notice how ridiculously pompous and vain they would appear to others.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“At times I wonder, what stuff are we made of? Is it cells? Is it atoms? Just organic matter? Or is there anything more to us? Is there any stuff in us that survives us?”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“Awareness is thought watching itself, thought slowing down, thought finding a new rhythm, a new harmony, a new place for itself. It is a flower at the heart of stardust.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“The 'self', which is nothing but thought, cannot contemplate its dissolution and invents the fiction of immortality, eternity. Who has ever seen or known eternity! It is a projection, just a fanciful notion. What we know is that everything is ephemeral, everything passes, and everything changes its form.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“Thinking is a strange process. Just because we are thinking, we assume there exists an entity generating those thoughts. But there is no thinker behind those thoughts. The thinker is an illusion created by thoughts.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST

“The eternal life is a chimaera...No one has come back from the dead to speak of eternal life.”
― KRISHNA MURTHY ANNIGERI VASUDEVA RAO, FLOWERS OF STARDUST