A holy day, after all, is a day for considering everything you otherwise think too little about. Pico Iyer More Quotes by Pico Iyer More Quotes From Pico Iyer None of the things in life - like love or faith - was arrived at by thinking; indeed, one could almost define the things that mattered as the ones that came as suddenly as thunder. Pico Iyer like-love things-in-life thinking Lonely Places, then are the places that are not on international wavelengths, do not know how to carry themselves, are lost when it comes to visitors. They are shy, defensive, curious places; places that do not know how they are supposed to behave. Pico Iyer wavelength shy lonely Death undoes us less, sometimes, than the hope that it will never come. Pico Iyer sometimes I like the way that American has become a kind of spiritual home even for people who have never seen it. American dreams are strongest of all in the hearts of people who have only seen America in their dreams. I think it's refreshing and reviving to go around the world and see how America still occupies this special place. Pico Iyer spiritual dream home One curiosity of being a foreigner everywhere is that one finds oneself discerning Edens where the locals see only Purgatory. Pico Iyer purgatory curiosity eden Movement is a fantastic privilege but it ultimately only has meaning if you have a home to go back to. Pico Iyer privilege movement home Suffering is a privilege. It moves us toward thinking of essential things and shakes us out of complacency. Calamity cracks you open, moves you to change your ways. Pico Iyer suffering moving thinking I do think it’s only by stopping movement that you can see where to go. And it’s only by stepping out of your life and the world that you can see what you most deeply care about… and find a home. Pico Iyer stopping home thinking You rebel against your parents until you become them. One day you look in the mirror and you see your father's face. Pico Iyer parent mirrors father Comedy is nothing more than tragedy deferred. Pico Iyer catchy comedy tragedy For me the first great joy of traveling is simply the luxury of leaving all my beliefs and certainties at home, and seeing everything I thought I knew in a different light, and from a crooked angle. Pico Iyer luxury light home Yes, we know more than ever before, and it's a wonder that we get to inhabit a world full of driverless cars and 3D printers. But that doesn't mean that we know any more about the essential things in life - love, faith, death - and it would be dangerous to assume we did. The only thing that gets us through sometimes is a proper, humbled sense that we don't have a clue, we can't be sure what's going to happen next and life will always be much larger than our ideas of it. Pico Iyer love-life mean ideas A lack of affiliation may mean a lack of accountability, and forming a sense of commitment can be hard without a sense of community. Displacement can encourage the wrong kinds of distance, and if the nationalism we see sparking up around the globe arises from too narrow and fixed a sense of loyalty, the internationalism that's coming to birth may reflect too roaming and undefined a sense of belonging. Pico Iyer distance loyalty mean Travel, for me, is a little bit like being in love, because suddenly all your senses are at the setting marked “on. Pico Iyer being-in-love littles love-is I take very seriously the sense of our living these days in a global neighborhood. And the first sensible thing to do in such circumstances, as well as one of the most rewarding things, is to go and meet the neighbors, find out who they are, and what they think and feel. So travel for me is an act of discovery and of responsibility as well a grand adventure and a constant liberation. Pico Iyer responsibility adventure thinking From the beginning, I've stressed that home is something internal, invisible, portable, especially for those of us with roots in many physical places; we have to root ourselves in our passions, our values and our deepest friends. My home, I've always felt, lies in the songs and novels that I love, in the wife and mother that I'm never far away from, in the monastery to which I've been returning for 25 years. Pico Iyer mother song lying I began thinking about why am I constructing almost a shadow father or ghost father in my head into Graham Greene in response to the father who created me? What's going on here? I think a part of my sense is it's every boy's story. When we are kids, we imagine that to define ourselves or to find ourselves means charting your own individuality, making your own destiny and actually running away from your parents and your home and what you grew up with. Pico Iyer home running father I think people's minds are going to have to assimilate in the sense that all the world is international now. The whole world has gone global. I think cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles are the models of our future. Pico Iyer san-francisco cities thinking The Dalai Lama says that when a Catholic and a Buddhist speak, the Buddhist becomes a deeper Buddhist and the Catholic becomes a deeper Catholic. Pico Iyer buddhist catholic speak What is fascinating about a place like Los Angeles airport is that it is lots and lots of people, many of whom have saved up all their lives and channeled all of their energies toward coming to the promised land of abundance and plenty - the American Dream. But as soon as they arrive here they get a crash course in the American reality. Pico Iyer airports dream reality
