James A. Michener
Quotes
A Pole is a man born with a sword in his right hand, a brick in his left. When the battle is over, he starts to rebuild.
No invader has ever conquered the heart of Poland, that spirit which is the inheritance of sons and daughters, the private passion of families and the ancient, unbreakable tie to all those who came before.
In a small Polish farm community, during the fall planting season of 1981, events occurred which electrified the world, sending reverberations of magnitude to capitals as diverse as Washington, Peking and especially Moscow.
Silence, much more powerful than before, much more shot through with the meaning of life and the accumulated wisdom of history.
p. 361
When you seek, you find things you did not anticipate.
It was the silent time before dawn, along the shores of what had been one of the most beautiful lakes in southern Africa.
Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.
On 24 October 1944 Planet Earth was following its orbit about the sun as it has obediently done for nearly five billion years.
It is difficult to be king when the gods are changing.
No man leaves where he is and seeks a distant place unless he is in some respect a failure.
Therefore, men of Polynesia and Boston and China and Mount Fuji and the barrios of the Philippines, do not come to these islands empty-handed, or craven in spirit, or afraid to starve. There is no food here. In these islands there is no certainty. Bring your own food, your own gods, your own flowers and fruits and concepts. For if you come without resources to these islands you will perish... On these harsh terms the islands waited.
You love the Hawaiians as potential Christians, but you despise them as people. I am proud to say that I have come to exactly the opposite conclusion, and it is therefore appropriate that I should be expelled from a mission where love is not.
