“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
“We could be something amazing- or we could end up destroying each other.”
― Ivy Devlin, quote from Low Red Moon
“He straightened. "Are you ready?"
"Yes."
He nodded, his gaze traveling the length of her body, deliberately, slowly, as if to memorize her as she stood.
"Then may I have a kiss?" he asked, unmoving. "For luck?"
She felt her heart pick up. She felt her face grow hot.
"You see? I'm asking, not demanding." He lifted his hands to her, palms up.
"Even the most beastly of us can learn."
Rue dropped her gaze to the ground, discomfited. "I don't think you're beastly."
"Thank goodness. I was about to point out that that fellow down there has far worse breath than I do."
She laughed softly, shaking her head, but by then his fingers were curling around hers.
"Is that a yes, mouse?"
She inhaled: heat, and animal. Him.
Rue lifted her chin. "Yes."
Everything happened so gently at first, so languidly, as his hands drew hers behind his back so that she had to step toward him, so that their fronts had to touch. As soon as they did his fingers released; he smoothed his palms up her back, one hand at her waist and the other rising to cradle her head. She felt her hair bunch and slide with the passage of his fingers. She felt the cool air on her skin, and the welcome warmth of his chest and stomach and hips. His eyes roamed her face with that half-lidded intensity; she brought up a hand to the slope of his shoulder, resting it there. They stood there together in the open dark, soft and hard, while her stomach tied in knots and her hair stirred with the breeze.
She wet her lips, nervous. "Are...are you going to do it?"
"I am." His head tilted to hers. She felt his lips against her cheek, light, thistledown, barely there. "I just..."
"What?" she whispered, staring out into the shadows.
"I just like looking at you."
So when he kissed her she was smiling a little, her lips curved under his. Kit loved that curve.
-Kit & Rue”
― Shana Abe, quote from The Smoke Thief
“From the standpoint of what eternity is it better to have read a thousand books than to have ploughed a million furrows?”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from Collected Short Stories: Volume 1
“يريد الناس الحب مجاناً، وبدون التزامات إن أمكن”
― Sándor Márai, quote from Casanova in Bolzano
“humans can build as easily as destroy,”
― quote from The Faithful Spy
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