Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Emily St. John Mandel

Quote by Emily St. John Mandel

Work

The Glass Hotel

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Emily St. John Mandel
Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel is a Canadian-American writer born in Ontario, Canada, in 1979. Her works span various literary genres, including novels, short stories, and poetry. Mandel's writing is celebrated for its profound themes, rich imagination, and unique narrative techniques. more

You May Also Like

“Thus we are counseled at length to be careful about the company we keep, recognizing the simple fact that an unexamined lifestyle, in which we are immersed in the materialistic values and behavior of worldly friends, will get us nowhere. Only frustration and inanity will be the result. Shāntideva advises us to fight shy of those whose values are contrary to the Dharma—people he habitually refers to as “those who are like children” (in other words, in terms designed to stimulate feelings of concern rather than resentment). Thus Shāntideva prescribes solitude, a flight from the world—not of course in a puritanical, world-denying sense, but in a spirit of inner freedom. Tranquillity of mind, he says significantly, is “found by people who are happy to be free from worldly ties,” and who for that reason, “never turns . . . a backward glance” (8.4, 8.26). And he is lyrical in his celebration of retreat in the wilderness.”

“Most spiritual practises have been developed - and, in the past, were sustained - in community. But most of us do not live in community. Although my students and friends and I share many of these practices, we are only occasionally in proximity to one another. Doing a daily practice alone is difficult. It requires not so much a heroic discipline as a deep commitment to life, a willingness to dedicate our lives to something larger than ourselves.”