Anglo-Indian writer Ruskin Bond is one of the most beloved children’s writer and poet. His short stories, poems, and novellas take the readers to a whimsical place full of nature’s bounty, mysticism, and surprise.
Bond’s love for nature is evident in his work, where he vividly writes about his life and experiences, that he had in the toy town of Mussoorie.
He shares about his youth, adventures, and life experiences, and uses them to create fictional stories for children and adults.
Some of his popular works include— The Room on the Roof, The Blue Umbrella, The Night Train at Deoli, A flight of Pigeons, and Rain in the Mountains.
If you aren’t familiar with his work then, we will offer you a glimpse of his work through— some of the famous Ruskin Bond Quotes.
About Ruskin Bond’s Family and Childhood:
As a child, Ruskin Bond mapped the length and breadth of the hill station of Mussoorie. In his novellas, he shares fascinating tales about abandoned bungalows, witch-owned hilltops, wildlife discoveries, and stories of rustic palaces and rajas he befriended.
Though Ruskin was lucky in the sphere of adventure, but he didn’t enjoy family life as other kids did. When he was only eight years old, his mother separated from his father and married a Punjabi Hindu.
It was a tough time for Bond, as his views about family and home, which offers a sense of security to a child, changed hereafter.
The fallout resulted in Ruskin’s shift to New Delhi, where his father was posted. Bond loved his father’s company and describes this period as his happiest time in life.
Sadly, this happiness didn’t last for long and his father passed away due to malaria, while he was deployed in Calcutta.
Bond who was only 10 years old at that time wrote that, his father’s sudden demise made him an orphan. Later, his guardianship was taken up by his mother and stepfather who lived in Dehradun.
His Achievements:
Ruskin Bond developed his love for writing in his early childhood because of his father, who used to read stories to him daily.
Consequently, Ruskin developed an interest in books and immersed himself into reading and writing. He won several writing competitions in his school including— the Irwin Divinity Prize and the Hailey Literature Prize.
Ruskin wrote one of his short stories called “Untouchable” at the age of sixteen in 1951. After completing his school education, he moved to his aunt’s home in the Channel Islands (U.K.) in 1951 to boost his career.
He stayed there for nearly 2 years and wrote his first novel “The Room on the Roof” for which he received the 1957 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.
In the year 1992, he received the Sahitya Akademi Award for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra. Then in 1999, he was honoured with the Padma Shri, followed by Padma Bhushan in 2014, which is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India.
Bond as a Nature writer, a Friend, and Companion to Old Souls:
Ruskin Bond’s books are a treat to children, old souls, and nature lovers. His stories are a window to his childhood and life spent in the mountains.
Bond mentions that having a rough childhood makes him understand children better. Since he too has experienced loneliness as a child, which came as a blow after his father’s demise.
The character Rusty, a little orphaned boy which is one of the pivotal characters in many of his short stories actually depicts Ruskin. Who through his character Rusty shares the highs and lows of his childhood, and the problems faced by children who have lost their parents.
Many of you must have read Ruskin Bond’s stories and novels as a child. So today let’s go into retrospect by reading some of the best Ruskin Bond Quotes that smell like nostalgia.
60 Ruskin Bond Quotes that Smell like Nostalgia
- “When all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.”
― Ruskin Bond, Scenes from a Writer’s Life
2. “One sure way to lose the world and everything in it, is to try grasping it.”
― A Book of Simple Living
3. “To be able to laugh and to be merciful are the only things that make man better than the beast”
― Ruskin Bond Quotes
4. “You don’t have to lie if you know how to withhold the truth.”
― The Room on the Roof
5. “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.”
Also Read: 55 Wholesome, Relationship Quotes on Trust
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Writing and Art:
6. “Some of us are born sensitive. And if, on top of that, we are pulled about in different directions (both emotionally and physically), we might just end up becoming writers. No, we don’t become writers in schools of creative writing. We become writers before we learn to write. The rest is simply learning how to put it all together.”
7. “People often ask me why my style is so simple. It is, in fact, deceptively simple, for no two sentences are alike. It is clarity that I am striving to attain, not simplicity.
Of course, some people want literature to be difficult and there are writers who like to make their readers toil and sweat. They hope to be taken more seriously that way. I have always tried to achieve a prose that is easy and conversational. And those who think this is simple should try it for themselves.”
― Best Of Ruskin Bond
8. “Book readers are special people, and they will always turn to books as the ultimate pleasure. Those who do not read are the unfortunate ones. There’s nothing wrong with them; but they are missing out on one of life’s compensations and rewards. A great book is a friend that never lets you down. You can return to it again and again and the joy first derived from it will still be there.”
― Ruskin Bond Quotes
9. “Some of us are born sensitive. And if, on top of that, we are pulled about in different directions (both emotionally and physically), we might just end up becoming writers.”
― Ruskin Bond Quotes
Also Read: 50 Best Pregnancy Quotes to Celebrate the Joy of New Moms
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Nature:
10. “The sunlight, penetrating the gaps in the tall trees, plays chess on the gravestones, shifting slowly and thoughtfully across the worn old stones. The wind, like a hundred violins, plays perpetually in the topmost branches of the deodars.”
― The Lamp is Lit: Leaves from a Journal
11. “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.”
12. “The rain swirls over the trees and roofs of the town, and the parched earth soaks it up, exuding a fragrance that comes only once in a year, the fragrance of quenched earth, the most exhilarating of all smells.”
― Delhi Is Not Far
13. “I never cease to wonder at the tenacity of water – its ability to make its way through various strata of rock, zigzagging, back-tracking, finding space, cunningly discovering faults and fissures in the mountain, and sometimes traveling underground for great distances before emerging into the open. Of course, there’s no stopping water. For no matter how tiny that little tickle, it has to go somewhere.”
― Ruskin Bond Quotes
14. “And when the rains were over and it was October and the birds were in song again, I could lie in the sun on sweet-smelling grass and gaze up through a pattern of oak leaves into a blind-blue heaven. And I would thank my God for leaves and grass and the smell of things, the smell of mint and myrtle and bruised clover, and the touch of things, the touch of grass and air and sky, the touch of the sky’s blueness.”
― Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas
15. “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.”
― Best Of Ruskin Bond, Ruskin Bond Quotes
16. “But the trees seemed to know me. They whispered among themselves and beckoned me nearer. And looking around, I noticed the other small trees and wild plants and grasses had sprung up under the protection of the trees we had placed there.
The trees had multiplied! They were moving. In one small corner of the world, Grandfather’s dream was coming true and the trees were moving again.”
― Rusty, the Boy from the Hills
17. “The tree made its first move, the first overture of friendship. It allowed a leaf to fall.”
― Ruskin Bond Quotes
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Happiness:
18. “The first condition of happiness is that a man must find joy in his work. Unless the work brings joy, the tedium of an aimless life can be soul-destroying. Something”
― Tales of Fosterganj
19. “Happiness is an elusive state of mind not to be gained by clumsy pursuit. It is given to those who do not sue for it: to be unconcerned about a desired good is probably the only way to possess it.”
― The Lamp is Lit: Leaves from a Journal
20. “Happiness 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.”
― A Little Book of Life
21. “Happiness is a mysterious thing, to be found somewhere between too little and too much.”
― A Book of Simple Living
22. “A good monk would know that contentment is easier to attain than happiness, and that it is enough.”
― A Book of Simple Living: Brief Notes from the Hills
23. “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.”
― Delhi Is Not Far, Ruskin Bond Quotes
24. “For the most time I’ve followed instinct rather than intelligence, and this has resulted in a modicum of happiness.”
― Ruskin Bond Quotes
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Courage and Strength:
25. “Sometimes the weak will last for years, while the strong will suddenly collapse and die.”
― Delhi Is Not Far
26. “That man is strongest who stands alone!”
― The India I Love
27. “All glory comes from daring to begin.”
― Scenes from a Writer’s Life
28. “The past is always with us, for it feeds the present.”
― A Town Called Dehra
29. “It’s courage, not luck, that takes us through to the end of the road.”
― Ruskin Bond Quotes
Also Read: 40 Remarkable George Bernard Shaw Quotes
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Hinduism:
30. “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 lose its unique character in the ruthless urban advance.”
― Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas
31. “I feel drawn to little temples on lonely hilltops. With the mist swirling round them, and the wind humming in the stunted pines, they absorb some of the magic and mystery of their surroundings and transmit it to the questing pilgrim.”
― Landour Days: A Writer’s Journal
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Dreams:
32. “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.”
― Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas
33. “It’s fine to dream, provided we can deal with the reality when we wake up”
― Looking for the Rainbow: My Years with Daddy
34. “When we are young, we can put up with a great deal of discomfort in order to follow a dream. If, after thirty-five years, I’m still doing my own thing, it’s because I haven’t forgotten the dream. Let no man take your dream away. It will sustain you to the end.”
― Room On The Roof; Vagrants In The Valley
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Existence:
35. “…for every time I see the sky I’m aware of belonging to the universe than to just one corner of the earth.”
― Ruskin Bond
36. “The world keeps on changing, but there is always something, somewhere, that remains the same.”
― Ruskin Bond Quotes
37. “I don’t want to rot like mangoes at the end of the season, or burnout like the sun at the end of the day. I cannot live like the gardener, the cook and water-carrier, doing the same task every day of my life… I want to be either somebody or nobody. I don’t want to be anybody.”
― The Room on the Roof
Also Read: 50 Brutally Honest Charles Bukowski Quotes on People, Love, Women, Art, Sadness & Death
Ruskin Bond Quotes On his Love for Walking:
38. “I have never been a fast walker, or a conqueror of mountain peaks, but I can plod along for miles. And that’s what I’ve been doing all my life—plodding along, singing my song, telling my tales in my own unhurried way. I have lived life at my own gentle pace, and if as a result I have failed to get to the top of the mountain (or of anything else), it doesn’t matter, the long walk has brought its own sweet rewards; buttercups and butterflies along the way. Ruskin Bond Landour, March 2005 ”
― Roads to Mussoorie
39. “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 Quotes
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Death:
40. “Death moves about at random, without discriminating between the innocent and the evil, the poor and the rich. The only difference is that the poor usually handle it better.”
― Landour Days: A Writer’s Journal
41. “Until death comes, all is life.”
― A Little Night Music
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Vision:
42. “Well, it often happens that people with good eyesight fail to see what is right in front of them. They have too much to take in, I suppose. Whereas people who cannot see (or see very little) have to take in only the essentials, whatever registers most tellingly on their remaining senses.”
― Night Train at Deoli and Other Stories
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Money and Morals:
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”
― Best Of Ruskin Bond
44. “Money often costs too much.’ —Ralph Waldo Emerson”
― A Little Book of Life
45. “It is supposed to be in very bad taste to discuss a person behind his back; and to discuss a dead person behind his back is most unfair, for he cannot even retaliate.”
― Best Of Ruskin Bond, Ruskin Bond Quotes
Also Read: Karma Quotes: Collection of 90 Best Quotes on Karma
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Love, Life and Moments:
46. “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.”
47. “Nothing is insignificant; nothing is without consequence in the intricate web of life. ”
― Funny Side Up, Ruskin Bond Quotes
48. “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.”
― Roads to Mussoorie, Ruskin Bond Quotes
49. “What is nostalgia, after all, but an attempt to preserve that which was good in the past?”
― Roads to Mussoorie
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Mountains:
50. “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.”
― Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas
51. “I believe that mountains do affect one’s personality, if one can remain among them long enough; and if Sunil had grown up in the hills instead of in a refugee township, I have no doubt he would have been a completely different person.”
― Ruskin Bond Quotes
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Children:
52. “Unlike the adults, the children didn’t have to pretend. They were full of praise for the umbrella. It was so light, so pretty, so bright a blue! And it was just the right size for Binya. They knew that if they said nice things about the umbrella, Binya would smile and give it to them to hold for a little while—just a very little while! Soon”
― The Blue Umbrella
53. “For better or worse, we are all shaped by our parents.”
― Lone Fox Dancing: My Autobiography
Also Read: 100 Best Osho Quotes on Love, Life Religion and Philosophy
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Tigers:
54. “A tiger is a tiger; he has his dignity to preserve even though he isn’t aware of it!”
― Time Stops at Shamli & Other Stories
55. “The tiger is the very soul of India, and when the last tiger has gone, so will the soul of the country.” ― Ruskin Bond Quotes
Ruskin Bond Quotes On Loneliness & Lessons Learned in Life:
56. “There is a distinction to be made between aloneness and loneliness.”
― The Writer on the Hill: The Very Best of Ruskin Bond
57. “Well, we are equals, in our fear as in our loneliness.”
― A Book of Simple Living: Brief Notes from the Hills
58. “The kindest people are often those who have come through testing personal tragedies.” ― The Whistling Schoolboy and Other Stories of School Life
59. “I do not mind difficulties, as long as they are new difficulties.” ― Delhi Is Not Far
60. “It’s safer in the jungle than in the town.” ― The Train Journey, Ruskin Bond Quotes
If you liked Ruskin Bond Quotes, then you might also enjoy:
- 22 Valuable Life Lessons & Inspirational Quotes from The Monk who Sold His Ferrari
- 10 Tell Tale Signs of Energy Vampires + Tips to deal with Energy Vampires
- 10 Reasons why one Chooses to be a Lone Wolf in a Society that chases Groups
- 15 Major Signs of Toxic Parents & How to Identify them
- 20 Psychological Quotes from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
- Carl Sagan Quotes from his book ‘Pale Blue Dot’ & ‘Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors’
