R.K. Narayan > Quotes

“A man who preferred to dress like a permanent tourist was just what a guide passionately looked for all his life. You may want to ask why I became a guide or when. I was a guide for the same reason as someone else is a signaler, porter, or guard. It is fated thus. Don’t laugh at my railway associations. The railways got into my blood very early in life. Engines with their tremendous clanging”
― R.K. Narayan, The Guide

“We are a flawed, weak species, he gently reminds us in these pages, focusing his attention, clearly and without sentiment, on those who will stoop low, those who will stop at nothing. What makes us care for such frequently pathetic characters is that they, like most of the rest of us, are strivers, driven by hopes for a slightly better life.”
― R.K. Narayan, Malgudi Days

“Even when you realize that the one before you is an enemy and must be treated sternly, do not hurt with words.”
― R.K. Narayan, The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic

“But you are not my wife. You are a woman who will go to bed with anyone who flatters your antics. That’s”
― R.K. Narayan, The Guide

“It’s often said that God made man in His own image, it’s also true that man makes God in his own image.”
― R.K. Narayan, A Tiger for Malgudi

“He then explained his new philosophy, which followed the devastating discovery that Love and Friendship were the veriest illusions. He explained that people married because their sexual appetite had to be satisfied and there must be somebody to manage the house. There was nothing deeper than that in any man and woman relationship.”
― R.K. Narayan, The English Teacher

“The gods grow jealous of too much contentment anywhere, and they show their displeasure all of a sudden.”
― R.K. Narayan, Malgudi Days

“You know why I am here?" asked the headmaster.
Swaminathan searched for an answer: the headmaster might be there to receive letters from boy's parents; he might be there to flay Ebenzars alive; he might be there to deliver six cuts with his cane every Monday at twelve o'clock. And above all why this question?”
― R.K. Narayan, Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher: Introduction by Alexander McCall Smith

“I am up against the system, the whole method & approach of a system of education which makes us morons, cultural morons, but efficient clerks for all your business and administrative offices. This education had reduced us to a nation of morons; we were strangers to our own culture and camp followers of another culture, feeding on leavings & garbage...”
― R K Narayan

“But if you could read my thoughts, you would be welcome to come in
and listen to the story of my life. At least, you could slip your arm through
the bars and touch me and I will hold out my forepaw to greet you, after
retracting my claws, of course. You are carried away by appearances - my
claws and fangs and the glowing eyes frighten you no doubt. I don't blame
you. I don't know why God has chosen to give us this fierce make-up, the
same God who has created the parrot, the peacock, and the deer, which
inspire poets and painters. I would not blame you for keeping your distance
— I myself shuddered at my own reflection on the still surface of a pond
while crouching for a drink of water, not when I was really a wild beast, but
after I came under the influence of my Master and learnt to question, 'Who
am I?' Don't laugh within yourself to hear me speak thus. I'll tell you about
my Master presently.”
― R. K. Narayan A Tiger for Malgudi

“Those who believe in destiny and those who drift without such beliefs are alike the worst among men; only those who act and perform what is right for their station in life are worthy of praise. Man”
― R.K. Narayan, The Mahabharata

“The unbeaten brat will remain unlearned,”
― R.K. Narayan, The Guide

“When one is seized with a passion to understand one’s self, one has to leave behind all normal life and habitual modes of thought.”
― R.K. Narayan, A Tiger for Malgudi

“He(Samuel, known as 'the Pea') was as apprehensive, weak and nervous about things as Swaminathan was. The bond between them was laughter. They were able to see together the same absurdities and incongruities in things. The most trivial and unnoticeable thing to others would tickle them to death.”
― R.K. Narayan, Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher: Introduction by Alexander McCall Smith

“Knowledge, like food, must be taken within limits. You must know only as much as you need, and not more.”
― R.K. Narayan, A Tiger for Malgudi

“The sun set beyond the sea, so says the poet—and when a poet mentions a sea, we have to accept it. No harm in letting a poet describe his vision, no need to question his geography.”
― R.K. Narayan, The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic

“Then there was Mani, the Mighty Good-For-Nothing. He towered above all the other boys of the class. He seldom brought any books to the class, and never bothered about homework. He came to the class, monopolized the last bench, ans slept bravely. No teacher ever tried to prod him.”
― R.K. Narayan, Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher: Introduction by Alexander McCall Smith

“Every minute becomes a yesterday and is lost forever.”
― R. K. Narayan

“At this moment, let us not forget that my authority has been challenged not by a warrior but by a monkey!”
― R.K. Narayan, The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic

“In a few months I was a seasoned guide. I had viewed myself as an amateur guide and a professional shopman, but now gradually I began to think of myself as a part-time shop-keeper and a full-time tourist guide.”
― R.K. Narayan, The Guide

“Seorang perempuan yang sifatnya jahat tidak pantas diperlakukan sebagai seorang perempuan. [Ramayana Mahabharata, hal. 33]”
― R.K. Narayan

“everyone is acting a part all the time, knowingly or unknowingly.”
― R.K. Narayan, A Tiger for Malgudi

“I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing in this world can be hidden or suppressed. All such attempts are like holding an umbrella to conceal the sun.”
― R.K. Narayan, The Guide

“The sun set beyond thesea, so says the poet - and when a poet mentions a sea, we have to accept it; no harm in letting a poet describe his vision, no need to question his geography.”
― R. K. Narayan

“But there is this peculiarity about heat: it appears to affect only those that think of it.”
― R.K. Narayan, The Very Best of R. K. Narayan Timless Malgudi

“I returned from the village. The house seemed unbearably dull. But I bore it. "There is no escape from loneliness and separation...." I told myself often. "Wife, child, brothers, parents, friends.... We come together only to go apart again. It is one continuous movement. They move away from us as we move away from them. The law of life can't be avoided. The law comes into operation the moment we detach ourselves from our mother's womb. All struggle and misery in life is due to our attempt to arrest this law or get away from it or in allowing ourselves to be hurt by it. The fact must be recognized. A profound unmitigated loneliness is the only truth of life. All else is false.”
― R.K. Narayan, The English Teacher

“Sebutir benih yang bertunas di bawah kaki pohon induknya tetap berada di situ sampai ia dipindahkan..Setiap manusia, kalau sudah tiba saatnya, harus pergi dan mewujudkan potensi masing-masing dengan caranya sendiri. [Ramayana-Mahabharata, hal. 28]”
― R.K. Narayan

“Swaminathan had never thought that this story contained a moral. But now he felt that it must have one since the question paper mentioned it.”
― R.K. Narayan, Swami and Friends

“if you threw a stone into a gutter it would only spurt filth in your face.”
― R.K. Narayan, Malgudi Days

“A film of the novel, called simply Guide, was released in 1965, produced by and starring Dev Anand, directed by Vijay Anand, and with Waheeda Rehman as Rosie”
― R.K. Narayan, The Guide