Quotes from The Whale Rider

Witi Ihimaera ·  150 pages

Rating: (5.6K votes)


“He loved them deeply, but sometimes love becomes a power game between the ambitions that parents have for their children and the ambitions that children have for themselves.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider


“Der Mensch mag sein moko (Tätowierung) in die Erde tätowieren, aber sobald seine Wachsamkeit nachlässt, nimmt die Natur sich zurück, was er sich angeeignet hatte, um seine Eitelkeit zu befriedigen.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider


“Even the good guys,' she said, 'can't win all the time.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider


“... the love which Kahu received from Koro Apirana was the sort that dropped off the edge of the table, like breadcrumbs after everybody else has had a big meal.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider


“Sometimes life has a habit of flooding over you and rushing you along in its overwhelming tide.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider



“... sometimes love becomes a power game between ambitions that parents have for their children and the ambitions that children have for themselves.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider


“Man might carve his mark on the earth but unless he's vigilant, Nature will take it all back.”
― Witi Ihimaera, quote from The Whale Rider


About the author

Witi Ihimaera
Born place: in Gisborne, New Zealand
Born date February 7, 1944
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Popular quotes

“She wondered if her father had awakened yet, if he had missed her, if Jeweltongue would tell him she was only out in the garden, if Tea-cosy's wretchedness would give them all away immediately. She wondered if she had been right to guess that her father would not mend till she left--and that he would mend when she did. Had the Beast sent his illness? Did he watch them from his palace? What a sorcerer could and could not do could never quite be relied on--not even always by the sorcerer. She could hate him--easily she could hate him--for the misery of it if he had sent it. If he kept his promises like a man, did he suppose that they mere humans as they were, would keep theirs any less? The price was high for one stolen rose, but they would pay it. If he had sent her father's illness to beat them into acquiescence, she would hate him for it.

The bitterness of her thoughts weighted her down till she had to stop walking. She looked again at the beech trees and, not waiting for a gap this time, fought her way through to the nearest and leant against it, turning her head so that her cheek was against the bark. The Beast is a Beast, even if he keeps his promises; how could she guess how a Beast thinkds, especially one who is so great a sorcere? It was foolish to talk of hating him--foolish and wasteful. What had happened had happened, like anything else might happen, like a bit of paper giving you a new home when you had none finding its way into your hand, like a company of the ugliest, worst-tempered plants you'd ever seen opening their flowers and becoming rose-bushes, the most beautiful, lovable plants you've ever seen. Perhaps it was the Beast's near presence that made her own roses grow. Did she not owe him something for that if that were the case? It was a curious thing, she thought sadly, how one is no longer satisfied with what one was or had if one has discovered something better. She could not now happily live without roses, although she had never seen a rose before three years ago.”
― Robin McKinley, quote from Rose Daughter


“I am not a people person.”
― quote from Alice, I Think


“As Henry G. Felsen, a humorist and no medical authority, pointed out quite a while ago, proper treatment will cure a cold in seven days, but left to itself a cold will hang on for a week.”
― quote from How to Lie with Statistics


“She nodded. Nick opened the door, but she paused on the threshold. "Noah? What's your last name? "Clayborne," he answered. "Noah Clayborne.”
― Julie Garwood, quote from Heartbreaker


“There's an old Sysan saying that the soup of life is salty enough without adding tears to it.”
― Iain M. Banks, quote from Look to Windward


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