Quotations

"I could have taken the easy life and just done classical, but I felt very strongly about the album, my first pop album, the first time that I'd fused so many influences. I was very proud when it was in the charts in 25 countries at once."

— Vanessa-Mae, Singaporean-English violinist, born October 27, 1978

"How can you become old in spirit? Only by carrying the past, isn't it? If you carry sixty years of burden with you, you're sixty years old. If you don't carry anything, you're like a newborn.

The physical body may develop limitations, but the way you are has no limitations. It simply has no limitations. You are this many years old or that many years old simply because you carry that many years of garbage with you."

— Jaggi Vasudev, Indian mystic, born 1957

"You cannot choose a Guru. Deepen your longing and the Guru will choose you."

— Jaggi Vasudev, Indian mystic, born September 3, 1957

"The hen that you are, how will you know what deceptive ways Grace will descend. It is Grace that brought you here and it is Grace that will deliver: I prefer the hen that looks up to the sky than an eagle that flies but always looking down. How high is not the question, but how intense is your longing for the sky. May you always be in Grace."

— Jaggi Vasudev, Indian mystic, born 1957

"A materialistic person is ruthless with other people but kind to himself. A spiritual person is ruthless with himself but kind to everybody else."

— Jaggi Vasudev, Indian yogi and mystic, born September 3, 1957

"What does it mean to become a Buddha? “Bu” means “Buddhi,” the intellect. One who is above his intellect is a Buddha."

— Jaggi Vasudev, Indian mystic, born September 3, 1957

"Yogis are not against pleasure. It is just that they are unwilling to settle for little pleasures. They are greedy."

— Jaggi Vasudev, Indian mystic, born September 3, 1957

"I am not interested in sending people to heaven. I am interested in making people in such a way that, even if they go to hell, nobody can make them suffer. That's freedom, isn't it? "I want to go to heaven, I want to go to heaven," is a huge bondage.

Suppose you land in the wrong place. Suppose someone hijacked your airplane on the way to heaven. He didn't crash it; he just landed it in the wrong place. You're finished, aren't you? You're always living with something that can be taken away from you by somebody or something. True liberation is when nobody can take away anything from you."

— Jaggi Vasudev, Indian yogi mystic, born September 3, 1957

"Don't uncork what you can't contain."

— Suzanne Vega, American singer, born 1959

"Wrestling is ballet with violence."

— Jesse Ventura, American wrestler and politician, born July 15, 1951

"To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better."

— Giuseppe Verdi, Italian opera composer, died January 27, 1901

"You may have the universe if I may have Italy."

— Giuseppe Verdi, Italian opera composer, born October 9, 1813

"Even Michelangelo got paid for doing the Sistine Chapel. To those artists who say they're doing it for the love of art, I say: Get real."

— Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer, born December 2, 1946

"Almost nothing need be said when you have eyes."

— Tarjei Vesaas, Norwegian poet, born August 20, 1897