“Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one, is a life diminished.”

“A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.”

“No, if there's any ultimate redemption, it would be because I passed though your life without scarring you, and did not diminish who you are.”

“If you don’t have a dog--at least one--there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.”

“If just once you were depressed for no reason, you have been so all your life without knowing.”

“Once you had read the Psychopathology of Everyday Life, you knew that everyday life was psychopathology.”

“The task is to learn how to enjoy everyday life without diminishing other people's chances to enjoy theirs.”

“The dog had no name. For a dog to have a name someone must have him and someone must love him, and a dog must have someone. The dog had no one, and no one had the dog. The dog had only the silent empty countryside of the few houses. The dog had only the crumbs and cleaned bones he could pick up at the few houses. The dog had only himself, so the dog had nothing, and he was afraid.”

“You see mother, you had no life of your own. They have no idea. One has only a life of one's own.”

“The work of samskriti or culture is the work of scrubbing, washing and cleansing the mind…the road of culture is one without a trace of stubbornness or crudeness; instead it is the road of humility and respect, for what is the difference between a life without humility and respect and the life of a dog that lunges for.”