Top 160 Ruskin Bond Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Happiness is a mysterious thing, to be found somewhere between too little and too much.”

— Ruskin Bond

2. “It’s courage, not luck, that takes us through to the end of the road.”

— Ruskin Bond

3. “To be able to laugh and to be merciful are the only things that make man better than the beast.”

— Ruskin Bond

4. “It is always the same with mountains. Once you have lived with them for any length of time, you belong to them. There is no escape.”

— Ruskin Bond

5. “There is money to be made in the market place, but under the cherry tree there is rest.”

— Ruskin Bond

6. “The India I Love, does not make the headlines, but I find it wherever I go – in field or forest, town or village, mountain or desert – and in the hearts and minds of people who have given me love and affection for the better part of my lifetime.”

— Ruskin Bond

7. “Live long, my friend, be wise and strong. But do not from any man his song.”

— Ruskin Bond

8. “Bad times are good times to prepare for better times.”

— Ruskin Bond

9. “Yesterday, I was sad, tomorrow i may be sad again, but today i know that i am happy. I want to live on and on, delighting like a pagan in all that is physical; and i know that this one lifetime, however long, cannot satisfy my heart.”

— Ruskin Bond

10. “Live close to nature and your spirit will not be easily broken, for you learn something of patience and resilience. You will not grow restless, and you will never feel lonely.”

— Ruskin Bond

11. “The past is always with us, for it feeds the present.”

— Ruskin Bond

12. “The more you write, the better you will write! So – keep at it!”

— Ruskin Bond

13. “But the trees seemed to know me. They whispered among themselves and beckoned me nearer...”

— Ruskin Bond

14. “When the earth gave birth to this tree, There came no sound: A green shoot thrust In silence from the ground. Our births don’t come so quiet – Most lives run riot – But the bud opens silently, And flower gives way to fruit. So must we search For the stillness within the tree, The silence within the root.”

— Ruskin Bond

15. “I have come to believe that the best kind of walk, or journey, is the one in which you have no particular destination when you set out.”

— Ruskin Bond

16. “Hapiness is as exclusive as a butterfly, and you must never pursue it. If you stay very still, it may come and settle on your hand. But only briefly. Savour those moments, for they will not come in your way very often.”

— Ruskin Bond

17. “As a boy, reading was my religion. It helped me to discover my soul. Later, writing helped me to record its journey.”

— Ruskin Bond

18. “Until death comes, all is life.”

— Ruskin Bond

19. “But men are cutting down the trees without replacing them. For every tree that’s felled, we must plant two. Otherwise, one day there’ll be no forests at all, and the world will become one great desert.”

— Ruskin Bond

20. “Yes, I’d love to have a garden of my own – spacious, and full of everything that is fragrant and flowering. But if I don’t succeed, never mind – I’ve still got the dream.”

— Ruskin Bond

21. “And when all the wars are done,′ I said, ’a butterfly will still be beautiful.”

— Ruskin Bond

22. “I write a story in my head. I see the story like a movie.”

— Ruskin Bond

23. “Don’t be afraid of the dark, little one, The earth must rest when the day is done. The sun may be harsh, but moonlight – never! And those stars will be shining forever and ever, Be friends with the Night, there is nothing to fear, Just let your thoughts travel to friends far and near. By day, it does seem that our troubles won’t cease, But at night, late at night, the world is at peace.”

— Ruskin Bond

24. “Enough for me that you are beautiful: Beauty possessed diminishes. Better a dream of love Than love’s dream broken; Better a look exchanged Than love’s word spoken. Enough for me that you walk past, A firefly flashing in the dark.”

— Ruskin Bond

25. “The tree made it’s first move, the first overture of friendship. It allowed a leaf to fall.”

— Ruskin Bond

26. “You don’t have to lie if you know how to withhold the truth.”

— Ruskin Bond

27. “Once you have lived with mountains, there is no escape. You belong to them.”

— Ruskin Bond

28. “It isn’t time that’s passing by, it is you and I. It.”

— Ruskin Bond

29. “That man is strongest who stands alone!”

— Ruskin Bond

30. “And the earth itself. It smells differently in different places. But its loveliest fragrance is known only when it receives a shower of rain. And then the scent of wet earth rises as though it were giving something beautiful back to the clouds – a blend of all the fragrant things that grow in it.”

— Ruskin Bond

31. “A Quiet Mind Lord, give me a quiet mind, That I might listen; A gentle tone of voice, That I might comfort others; A sound and healthy body, That I might share In the joy of walking And leaping and running; And a good sense of direction So I might know just where I’m going!”

— Ruskin Bond

32. “We must love someone. We must keep loving, all our days, Someone, anyone, anywhere Outside our selves; For even the sarus crane Will grieve over its lost companion, And the seal its mate. Somewhere in life There must be someone To take your hand And share the torrid day. Without the touch of love There is no life, and we must fade away.”

— Ruskin Bond

33. “To return to my own trees, I went among them often, acknowledging their presence with a touch of my hand against their trunks.”

— Ruskin Bond

34. “The best kind of walk, and this applies to the plains as well as to the hills, is the one in which you have no particular destination when you set out.”

— Ruskin Bond

35. “When I write I just keep a waste paper basket handy in case I am experiencing a block.”

— Ruskin Bond

36. “But he could not return; he was afraid of what lay ahead, he dreaded the unknown, but it was easier to walk forwards than backwards.”

— Ruskin Bond

37. “I knew I was free; that I had always been free; held back only by my own weakness, lacking impulse and the imagination to break away from an existence that had become habitual for years.”

— Ruskin Bond

38. “The world keeps on changing, but there is always something, somewhere, that remains the same.”

— Ruskin Bond

39. “To the inhabitants of the pond, the pond was the world; and to the inhabitants of the world, the world was but a muddy pond.”

— Ruskin Bond

40. “Hinduism comes closest to being a nature religion. Rivers, rocks, trees, plants, animals, and birds all play their part, both in mythology and everyday worship. This harmony is most evident in remote places like this, and I hope it does not loose its unique character in the ruthless urban advance.”

— Ruskin Bond

41. “Cold weather doesn’t care if your coat is old or new.”

— Ruskin Bond

42. “The umbrella was like a flower, a great blue flower that had sprung up on the dry brown hillside”.”

— Ruskin Bond

43. “It’s easy to rob a greedy man, because he deserves to be robbed; it’s easy to rob a rich man, because he can afford to be robbed; but it’s difficult to rob a poor man, even one who really doesn’t care if he’s robbed.”

— Ruskin Bond

44. “Once you have lived with mountains for any length of time you belong to them, and must return again and again. Nearly.”

— Ruskin Bond

45. “The world is only the size of each man’s head.”

— Ruskin Bond

46. “What is nostalgia, after all, but an attempt to preserve that which was good in the past?”

— Ruskin Bond

47. “On the open road there are no strangers. You share the same sky, the same mountain, the same sunshine and shade. On the open road we are all brothers. The.”

— Ruskin Bond

48. “One sure way to lose the world and everything in it, is to try grasping it.”

— Ruskin Bond

49. “I am a storyteller from a personal viewpoint. When I run out of people I invent ghosts. I don’t believe in ghosts. Never saw one.”

— Ruskin Bond

50. “I don’t travel so much now, I get tired.”

— Ruskin Bond