"...the distance between railway tracks is always 143.5 centimeters, or 4 feet 8.5 inches. Why this absurd measurement? [...] When they built the first train carriages, they used the same tools as they had for building horse-drawn carriages. And why that distrance between the wheels on carriages? Because that was the width of the old roads along which the carriages had to travel. And who decided that roads should be that width? It was the Romans, the first great road builders, who decided to make their roads that width. And why? Because their war chariots were pulled by two horses, and when placed side by side, the horses they used at the time took up 143.5 centimeters."

"[...] the world we know today is merely a story someone has told us, but it is not the true story."

[Why are people sad?]

"[...] They are the prisoners of their personal history. Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people's ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams."

"How does one go about abandoning the story one was told?"

"By repeating it out loud in meticulous detail. And as we tell our story, we say goodbye to what we were and, as you'll see if you try, we create space for a new, unknown world. We repeat the old story over and over until it is no longer important to us. [...] as those spaces grow, it is important to fill them up quickly, even if only provisionally, so as not to be left with a feeling of emptiness. [...] That is how we change. That is how love grows. And when love grows, we grow with it."

Excerpts from The Zahir