The tune was too ingrained for Mortenson to consider the novelty of this moment- an American, lost in Pakistan, singing a German hymn in Swahili.

When you take the time to actually listen, with humility, to what people have to say, it's amazing what you can learn. Especially if the people who are doing the talking also happen to be children.

If you teach a boy, you educate an individual; but if you teach a girl, you educate a community.

If you really want to change a culture to empower women improve basic hygiene and health care and fight high rates of infant mortality the answer is to educate girls.

My father ended up starting the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, which is on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. My mother started a school.

In times of war, you often hear leaders—Christian, Jewish, and Muslim—saying, ‘God is on our side.’ But that isn’t true. In war, God is on the side of refugees, widows, and orphans.

Slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects.

If you really want to change a culture... empower women.

You can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change.

When your kids accomplish something it means much more than anything you've done.

Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel.' Sign in Skardu

I can hear the songs of your eyes, I can feel the warmth of your glowing cheek, and I can get lost in the smile of your soul.

Most of them are remembered for their works, few are remembered in spite of them...for their finesse!

As a writer, I always tend to take the liberty and the great artistic luxury of a composite form of writing.

Genuine listening ability is one of the few true forms of competitive advantage.

The truth will not necessarily set you free, but truthfulness will.

Babies just change everything. You have to become super-selfless and super-tired and super-amenable to change. They just change all the time.

Once you clarify your purpose for doing something, the way to do it becomes clear

Fill your heart with the creative power to accept the past, decorate the present and transform the future.

In the hyperconnected world, there is only “good” “better” and “best.

Pointed criticism, if accurate, often gives the artist an inner sense of relief. The criticism that damages is that which disparages, dismisses, ridicules, or condemns.