# Quote — Robert S. Stone, A Flag for Sunrise

> "What I wonder," Bob Cole said in his strange tremulous voice, "is whether the people down here have to live this way so that we can live the way we do. We have to believe it's no, don't we? We couldn't face up to it otherwise. Because if most of the world lives in this kind of poverty so that we can have our goodies and our extra protein ration - what does that make us?"

- Author: [Robert S. Stone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone.md)
- Book: [A Flag for Sunrise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/a-flag-for-sunrise.md)
- Page: 158
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Stone_(novelist)#A_Flag_for_Sunrise_(1981)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/a-flag-for-sunrise/what-i-wonder

## More from this book

> "Hey, Cecil," Pablo said, "I want to ask you something, man. Promise you won't get pissed? What do you think is the use of me?"
>
> "De use of you?" Cecil asked, incredulous.
>
> "The use - you know. The use of me."
>
> "Well now . . ." Cecil began. A throb of laughter trembled in his throat. "Dat be hard to say, you know."
>
> "Cecil, I'm the first fucker in the world knows that. But right off ... what would you say the use of me was?"
>
> "De use of you, mon? Same as everbody. Put one foot to front of de other. Match de dolluh wif de day."
>
> "That's all?"
>
> "Sure dat's all. Good times, hard times. Mos' certainly dat's all."
>
> "Don't you think everybody got some special purpose?"
>
> "Hey," Cecil demanded, "what I look like - a preacher, mon? Purpose of you and me to be buried in de ground and das hard enough to do. Be buried in de sweet ground and not in dat ocean." They drank their rum together.
>
> "Dreamin' be de ruin of you, sailor. Be de ruin. Old chap, you too young to be worryin' after dose tings. Be burnin' out your mind."
>
> "It is burning," Pablo said. "Burning out."
>
> "Go to sleep, Pablo. Go upstairs and sleep it off, mon."

p. 126 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/a-flag-for-sunrise/hey-cecil-pablo.md)

> "It isn't religion they need down here," Heath declared after five minutes. "They've had plenty of that. It's the pill. If this coast had half the population it has it would be in damn fine shape."

p. 188 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/a-flag-for-sunrise/it-isnt-religion.md)

> "A little cinder in the wind, Pablo - that's what you are."
>
> "Everybody's worth something," Pablo said. "I mean - everybody's life got some meaning to it. You know - there's a reason for people."
>
> "No kidding? A reason for you? What is it?"
>
> "I don't know," Pablo confessed. "I ain't found out yet. But I know there is one."

p. 253 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-s-stone/a-flag-for-sunrise/a-little-cinder.md)