Anna and the King of Siam

It came with a stirring of the conviction that was never to leave her: that human being, whatever his color or creed or sex, had certain inalienable rights which other human beings had no right to violate.

Perhaps nuns felt like this, she thought, when they passed within convent walls and left the glitter of the world behind. But their renunciation was of the will, while circumstances beyond her control had stripped her of the people who meant everything to her. And yet was it not possible that they had endured the same impoverishment, so that when the glory that was life had become husks they found it good to exchange those dead things for service and whatever vicarious happiness could be salvaged? Maybe selflessness was only selfishness on another level.

He searched for words to poison the shaft of his disdain.

Perhaps, she had dreamed, she would teach some future King, shaping his child mind for a new and better world.

Farewell, my beautiful Sunatda. You have been the light of the setting sun to me. The glory of your love has dispersed the dark clouds that overshadowed my life and the memory of your face will be bright before my fading eyes to the end.

(T)he motive consecrates the deed.

Anna was convinced that the low level of literature and art in Siam was due to the fear that every talented person felt of being impounded into royal service if it became known that he had more than ordinary gifts.

Maybe selflessness was only selfishness on another level.

She was a woman, slight, almost frail in appearance; not someone who could fight with guns to free the slaves, as in the United States, but someone who could fight with knowledge in the corner of the world where she found herself.

Change from despair to joy he made her extremely beautiful.

Was she insane?! She would lose her head before she was 20!

She had become so much more accustomed to hard work and opposition than to adulation that the only emotion she had felt had been one of acute discomfort.

Shall I say of you that you worship the image of your God that you have in your mind, but not your God?

The nonchalance irritated her more because it was not assumed.