Tahir Shah · 240 pages
Rating: (110 votes)
“The forest did not tolerate frailty of body or mind. Show your weakness, and it would consume you without hesitation.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“On a hard jungle journey nothing is so important as having a team you can trust.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“Previous journeys had taught me the danger of taking too much stuff.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“On a harsh expedition, there's no space for anyone who does not intend to finish.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“Through a strange kind of geographic arrogance, Europeans like to think that the world was a silent, dark, unknown place until they trooped out and discovered it.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“As the head of an expedition, you can't pussyfoot around being polite to everyone. You have to show your teeth once in a while; a little growling goes a long way.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“The quest for a lost city erodes your body, damaging you beyond all reason. But it is your mind that bears the heaviest toll. Listen to the doubters, the worriers and the weak, and the vaguest hope of success evaporates.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“Searching for a lost city is a particularly European obsession.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“There are two ways to find a lost city. The first is to rely on luck alone, the second is to control all the information.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“The situation was different in the jungle. Every inch of ground had to be earned, and was done so through much exertion with the blade.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“Any man who has ever led an army, an expedition, or a group of Boy Scouts has sadism in his bones.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“Normally I would have been the first to go in search of cannibal monks, particularly as I had heard of a similar tradition at a nunnery in the Philippines. It's the sort of quest I can't resist.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“The rain of Madre de Dios is similar to that of the Amazon, but there is a petrifying aspect to it, as if it seeks to wound rather than to nurture.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“The ability to tell a good route from a terrible one is a valuable skill when leading an expedition. Unfortunately for us all, it was a skill I did not possess.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“Only a man who has his health, a full stomach and wears clean clothes would ever entertain the notion of tracking down the greatest lost city on Earth.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“Previous experience had taught me that any expedition marches on its stomach.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“Previous journeys in search of treasure have taught me that a zigzag strategy is the best way to get ahead.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“In some warped way, having an embalmed body with us made perfect sense.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“The only thing they valued higher than ammunition were Man United footballs.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“As I saw it, a little threatening was a good thing. It kept the men on their toes.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“As I see the world, there's one element that's even more corrosive than missionaries: tourists. It's not that I feel above them in any way, but that the very places they patronize are destroyed by their affection.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“Running an expedition can bring out the worst in a man. It can make you a power-crazed monster.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“A man who embarks on a journey must know when to end it.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“The porters could always be coaxed to continue a little further through driving rain by the mere suggestion of a Pot Noodle at the end.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
“Ours was not going to be a clone of the usual expeditions, oozing with sleekness. It was clear from the start that oddity was our advantage.”
― Tahir Shah, quote from House of the Tiger King: The Quest for a Lost City
Tahir Shah
Born place: in London, The United Kingdom
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“What pricks me is the discovery of this equivalence. In front of the photograph of my mother as a child, I tell myself: She is going to die: I shudder… over a catastrophe which has already occurred. Whether or not the subject is already dead, every photograph is this catastrophe.”
― Roland Barthes, quote from Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
“The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.”
― Confucius, quote from The Analects
“Diesel was smiling at Grandma. “You blew through almost two hundred thousand and you were playing dollar slots? That’s impressive.” “Especially since some of that time I was winning,” Grandma said. “Twelve dollars?” “Yep. I was on a roll.”
― Janet Evanovich, quote from Plum Lucky
“Grow up and you turn into burglars and get shot, or worse, they make you wear a coat and tie and stash you in the First National Bank behind brass bars! We gotta stand still! Stay the age we are. Grow up? Hah! All you do then is marry someone who screams at you!”
― Ray Bradbury, quote from Farewell Summer
“Fear is a survival instinct; fear in its way is a comfort for it means that somewhere hope is alive.”
― Theodore Sturgeon, quote from More Than Human
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