“Any discussion of money and success would be lacking if I did not state that money is neither good nor bad. In the hands of good people, money can build places of healing, worship, and learning. In the hands of bad people, money can create destruction, disease, and death.”

“I believed that I would become a counsellor to the Thembu king,”

“Whether you flounder or flourish is always in your hands—you are the single biggest influence in your life. Your journey begins with a choice to get up, step out, and live fully.”

“If you are born poor its not your mistake, But if you die poor its your mistake.”

“My writing is like those little carved baskets made in prisons...”

“Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure that it is leaning against the right building.”

“Children inherit the qualities of the parents, no less than their physical features. Environment does play an important part, but the original capital on which a child starts in life is inherited from its ancestors. I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul. Polak and I had often very heated discussions about the desirability or otherwise of giving the children an English education. It has always been my conviction that Indian parents who train their children to think and talk in English from their infancy betray their children and their country. They deprive them of the spiritual and social heritage of the nation, and render them to that extent unfit for the service of the country. Having these convictions, I made a point of always talking to my children in Gujarati. Polak never liked this. He thought I was spoiling their future. He contended, with all the vigour and love at his command, that, if children were to learn a universal language like English from their infancy, they would easily gain considerable advantage over others in the race of life. He failed to convince me. I do not now remember whether I convinced him of the correctness of my attitude, or whether he gave me up as too obstinate. This happened about twenty years ago, and my convictions have only deepened with experience. Though my sons have suffered for want of full literary education, the knowledge of the mother-tongue that they naturally acquired has been all to their and the country’s good, inasmuch as they do not appear the foreigners they would otherwise have appeared. They naturally became bilingual, speaking and writing English with fair ease, because of daily contact with a large circle of English friends, and because of their stay in a country where English was the chief language spoken.”

“Las decepciones amorosas, generalmente tienen el efecto de conducir a los hombres a la bebida, y a las mujeres a la ruina; y esto, porque la mayoría de la gente nunca aprende el arte de transmutar sus emociones más fuertes en sueños de carácter constructivo.”

“Can I trust God? Trust is an essential ingredient to surrender. You won’t surrender to God unless you trust him, but you can’t trust him until you know him better. Fear keeps us from surrendering, but love casts out all fear. The more you realize how much God loves you, the easier surrender becomes.”

“Dios nunca nos prometió una travesía suave, pero sí nos prometió una llegada segura”

“Put your trust in God and take responsibility for your attitudes and actions, and stop blaming others. If you are not happy, I suggest you look inward before you look around you to find something or someone to blame.”

“So many preachers,” she said, “get off onto one thing and ride it like a hobbyhorse. Some get off on women’s dress. That’s all they ever preach about—and dressing one way or the other will not get you to heaven, or send you to hell. You need to preach Jesus, get the people saved and filled with the Holy Ghost, and let the Lord tell them what to do. “Don’t fight other denominations. Don’t fight fellow Christians,” she advised. “Just preach Jesus, the Cross, the Blood, and the Resurrection. I’ve learned God will meet people I never thought He’d reach, because their hearts are hungry. I don’t preach against anything. I preach for something.”

“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.”

“Breaking cycles of dependency, establishing cordial relationships between people of differing economic means, and reestablishing sound values and principles in our society can serve only to strengthen the fabric of our nation, which is what any government should want to do and which clearly promotes the general welfare.”

“The size and height of the tree determines how heavily the ground will shake when it falls. The cassava tree falls and not even the pests in the forest are aware. The baobab tree falls and the whole forest looks empty! Such is human life!”