“They rode out together from the shadows of the trees, leaving the Bala Hissar and the glowing torch of the burning Residency behind them, and spurred away across the flat lands towards the mountains...
And it may even be that they found their Kingdom.”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer: let him step to the music that he hears.”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“India and its peoples; not the British India of cantonments and Clubs, or the artificial world of hill stations and horse shows, but that other India: that mixture of glamour and tawdriness, viciousness and nobility. A land full of gods and gold and famine. Ugly as a rotting corpse and beautiful beyond belief …”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“for the public, it seemed, preferred to believe that which disturbed it least and to ignore troublesome information. Which is a failing common to all nations.”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“I cannot see anything admirable in stupidity, injustice and sheer incompetence in high places, and there is too much of all three in the present administration.”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“Perhaps I myself am a pompous and conceited old fool. And perhaps if these fools I complain of were French or Dutch or German I would not mind so much, because then I could say 'What else can you expect?' and feel superior. It is because they are men of my own race that I would have them all good.”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“Have you really become so much an Angrezi that you believe your people have only to say “It is forbidden”, for such old customs as this to cease immediately? Bah!”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“What could be more entrancing than a carefree nomadic existence camping, moving, exploring strange places and the ruins of forgotten empires, sleeping under canvas or the open sky, and giving no thought to the conventions and restriction of the modern world?”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“Ash said slowly: ‘I don’t believe that anyone can have no regrets … Perhaps there are times when even God regrets that He created such a thing as man. But one can put them away and not dwell upon them; and I’ll have you, Larla … that alone is enough happiness for any man.’ He”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“Did you ever read Aurora Leigh? – “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees takes off his shoes.”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“they were a fanatically independent people, much addicted to intrigue, treachery and murder, and that among their other national traits was an intolerance of rulers (or, if it came to that, of any form of authority whatsoever, other than their own desires).”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“because Afghanistan is no country to fight a war in – and an impossible one to hold if you win.”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions
“إن إمكانية "الثورة الوجودية" هي في حقيقة الأمر -من حيث نتائجها- عبارة عن إمكانية إعادة هيكلة المجتمع أخلاقيا, بمعنى تجديد جذري لعلاقة الإنسان بما أطلقت عليه "النظام البشري" (الذي لا يمكن أن يكون بتفويض من أية نظام سياسي). إن الأمر يتعلق بهذا المسار: خبرة وجودية جديدة, تجديد الارتباط بالعالم, الالتزام المتجدد بالمسؤولية العليا, إعادة اكتشاف العلاقة بالآخر والتضامن مع المجتمع. هذا هو المسار الذي يجب أن تسير فيه.”
― Václav Havel, quote from The Power of the Powerless
“The most important thing to remember is that we must live in the present, and if in the present moment we are still holding on to old wounds and betrayals, it is in this moment that forgiveness is called for.”
― Noah Levine, quote from Against the Stream: A Buddhist Manual for Spiritual Revolutionaries
“Because revelations of systemic deception erode our most basic, default expectation of good faith, they play an outsize role in producing a crisis of authority. Each exposure of previously secret misdeeds—steroid use, Ponzi schemes, rigged intelligence—produces an acute and debilitating psychological effect. Vertigo sets in, similar to that experienced by a spouse who, after decades of what he thought was a happy, loyal marriage, discovers his wife has been cheating all along. Suddenly we realize we live in a world entirely more depraved than the one we thought we inhabited.”
― Christopher L. Hayes, quote from Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy
“For the next few weeks, we are going to perform scenes from the plays we read, starting with the age-old classic Romeo and Juliet.”
― Kaitlyn Davis, quote from Ignite
“whatever fate sends us quickly becomes us, and we grow blind to what we might otherwise have been. And”
― William T. Vollmann, quote from Europe Central
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