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2019c9c
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We are never prepared for what we expect.
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James A. Michener |
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8ebf5f6
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Writers turn dreams into print.
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James A. Michener |
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e4f9c43
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The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.
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James A. Michener |
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da09e1f
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A Roman came to Rabbi Gimzo the Water Carrier, and asked, "What is this study of the law that you Jews engage in?" and Gimzo replied, "I shall explain. There were two men on a roof, and they climbed down the chimney. One's face became sooty. The other's not. Which one washed his face?" The Roman said, "That's easy, the sooty one, of course." Gimzo said, "No. The man without the soot looked at his friend, saw that the man's face was dirty, a..
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judaism
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James A. Michener |
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3971edc
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a soldier lives always for the next battle, because he knows that before it arrives impossible changes can occur in his favor.
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black-swan
michener
poland
soldier
chance
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James A. Michener |
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093d153
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We seek God so earnestly, Eliav reflected, not to find Him but to discover ourselves.
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self-awareness
judaism
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James A. Michener |
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1c5819e
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I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific. The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully toward the ocean. Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, lovely beyond description. I wish I could tell you about the sweating jungle, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes, and the waiting. The waiting. The timeless, repetitive waiting.
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James A. Michener |
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8df0635
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Only the rocks live forever, Gray Wolf said.
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James A. Michener |
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be2fab1
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The dead are dead but they rely on us to fulfill their hopes.
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James A. Michener |
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80cd07f
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This is not a promise, this is not threat, it's just the way it's gonna be!!!
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James A. Michener |
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51ae585
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No man leaves where he is and seeks a distant place unless he is in some respect a failure.
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failure
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James A. Michener |
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f86dc7b
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An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.
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James A. Michener |
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b457d50
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To have courage. To have honor. Is very beautiful.
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James A. Michener |
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59f0166
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The way we react to the Indian will always remain this nation's unique moral headache. It may seem a smaller problem than our Negro one, and less important, but many other sections of the world have had to grapple with slavery and its consequences. There's no parallel for our treatment of the Indian. In Tasmania the English settlers solved the matter neatly by killing off every single Tasmanian, bagging the last one as late as 1910. Austral..
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James A. Michener |
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eb88946
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It was his opinion that a man had to wait until he was dead to know the meaning of God, unless he happened to have known the sea in his youth.
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James A. Michener |
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390d1a9
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I have often been mildly amused when I think that the great American novel was not written about New England or Chicago. It was written about a white whale in the South Pacific.
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writting
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James A. Michener |
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b8e68ca
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In these centuries when God,...was forging a Christian church so that it might fulfill the longing of a hungry world, He was at the same time perfecting His first religion, Judaism, so that it might stand as the permanent norm against which to judge all others. Whenever, in the future some new religion strayed too far from the basic precepts of Judaism, God could be assured that it was in error; so in the Galilee, His ancient cauldron of fa..
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James A. Michener |
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ac23f15
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A ship, like a human being, moves best when it is slightly athwart the wind, when it has to keep its sails tight and attend its course. Ships, like men, do poorly when the wind is directly behind, pushing them sloppily on their way so that no care is required in steering or in the management of sails; the wind seems favorable, for it blows in the direction one is heading, but actually it is destructive because it induces a relaxation in ten..
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James A. Michener |
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9782378
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At times, working in big cities far from nature, I have been sick with nesomania, and I think the reason is this: On the islands one has both the time and the inclination to communicate with the stars and the trees and the waves drifting ashore, one lives more intensely.
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writing
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James A. Michener |
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5c82ee9
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It took her three seconds-one, two, three-to know that her destiny required her to join this man, and his gun and his wagon, and his waiting horses. She had no conception of what was being asked of her, but she knew that there could be no viable alternative. She dashed inside the orphanage and grabbed the few things that belonged to her.
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elly-zahm
pioneers
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James A. Michener |
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c588e9a
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Rampaging horsemen can conquer; only the city can civilize.
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war
history
poland
europe
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James A. Michener |
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af1ca7a
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Other things being roughly equal, that man lives most keenly who lives in closest harmony with nature. To be wholly alive a man must know storms, he must feel the ocean as his home or the air as his habitation. He must smell the things of earth, hear the sounds of living things and taste the rich abundance of the soil and sea.
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James A. Michener |
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4797f61
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The South Pacific is memorable because when you are in the islands you simply cannot ignore nature. You cannot avoid looking up at the stars, large as apples on a new tree. You cannot deafen your ear to the thunder of the surf. The bright sands, the screaming birds, and the wild winds are always with you.
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travel
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James A. Michener |
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89e0115
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From the earliest days of the nation anyone with an intelligence equal to that of sparrows had realized that the peninsula ought logically to be united as one state, but historical accident had decreed that one portion be assigned to Maryland, whose citizens despised the Eastern Shore and considered it a backwater; one portion to the so-called state of Delaware, which never could find any reasonable justification for its existence; and the ..
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James A. Michener |
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d4fca67
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Where, indeed? Captain Vincent Reed had been born in the city of Richmond, Virginia, of northern parents who were stationed there by the telegraph company. He had attended West Point and he thought he knew something about warfare, having served under General Pope in his long and futile struggle against General Stonewall Jackson. Those men were fighters who would face the enemy till the last bullet was fired, but neither would participate in..
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native-americans
slaughter
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James A. Michener |
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9a5c826
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Very rich people] with brains make a great effort to hold on to every penny they have while preaching to the general population that freedom and dignity and patriotism are possible only under their protection; in this way they elicit the support of the very people they hold in subjection.
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money
wealth
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James A. Michener |
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0abc15b
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A lot of nonsense is spoken about work. Some of the finest men I've known were the laziest. Never work because it's expected of you. Find out how much work you must do to live and be happy. Don't do any more.
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James A. Michener |
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10473ab
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like a good Spaniard he needed words as much as he needed money, and the words he wanted had to be the most expansive and inflated available. In Spain words form a kind of currency which must be spent freely, and to do this is not easy for an American, yet not to do it in Spain is to miss the spirit of human relationships.
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James A. Michener |
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b04d989
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Poets are simply people who see things two ways. Like children, as if they had never seen them before. Like old men, as if they would never see them again.
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James A. Michener |
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279b711
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He found that love is never to be defined, that it grows and changes with every year of life, that each person knows it as a different miracle... Nothing can shame it. Nothing can make it more splendid than it already is. Shared, wantoned or hidden forever, it can fill a life. There is no understanding love, and there is no defeat so precious as trying. No aspect of life is more complex, and none so simple. A look, a word, and the heart is ..
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James A. Michener |
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c6770c0
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The South Pacific is not a paradise, in the sense that Eden wasn't either. There are always apples and snakes. But it is a wonderful place to live. The green vales of Tahiti, the hills of Guadalcanal, the towering peaks about Wau, and the noonday brilliance of Rabaul have enchanted many white travelers who have stayed on for many years and built happy lives. Often on a cool night when the beer was plentiful and the stories alluring, we have..
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travel
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James A. Michener |
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9fd1ad7
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Lincoln, who had a personal aversion to blacks and feared they could never be absorbed into a white society, wanted to see them settled somewhere out of the country. He had prudently refrained from liberating those living in important border states like Kentucky and Maryland, whose governments sided with the North; only slaves in states like Alabama and Louisiana were freed.
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James A. Michener |
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65284df
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This is the greatest evil that grows out of a wrong act. Somebody always remembers it ... in an evil way.
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James A. Michener |
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ad48af8
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The city of Los Angeles is now some twenty-four hundred miles south of central Alaska, and since it is moving slowly northward as the San Andreas fault slides irresistibly along, the city is destined eventually to become part of Alaska. If
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James A. Michener |
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4d353ce
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Maybe books are best, because you don't have to have money to read... A man can travel all over the world and come back the same kind of fool he was when he started. You can't do that with books.
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James A. Michener |
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5a621e8
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For of this world one never sees enough and to dine in harmony with nature is one of the gentlest and loveliest things we can do.
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James A. Michener |
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f96fd90
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Always remember, John, that you and I live on a minor planet attached to a minor star, at the far edge of a minor galaxy. We live here briefly, and when we're gone, we're forgotten. And one day the galaxies will be gone, too. The only morality that makes sense is to do something useful with the brief time we're allotted.
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James A. Michener |
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fde2cf6
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Simple. Judaism had its day, and if the Jews had been smart, when Christianity came along they'd have joined up. Christianity has had its day, and if you were intelligent you'd both join the newest religion. Islam!" He bowed low and said, "Soon all Africa will be Islamic. And all Black America. I see India giving up Hinduism while Burma and Thailand surrender Buddhism. Gentlemen, I represent the religion of the future. I offer you salvation..
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James A. Michener |
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ff04a92
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The great writers, Conrad, Maugham and Melville, spent only a few years in the South Seas, but their memory of those waters was indestructible; for the nature of life in the islands commands attention to the vivid world and its even more vivid inhabitants.
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writting
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James A. Michener |
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1fbdcd9
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MOST NATIONS HAVE AT ONE TIME OR OTHER BOTH condoned and practiced slavery. Greece and Rome founded their societies on it. India and Japan handled this state of affairs by creating untouchable classes which continue to this day. Arabia clung to formal slavery longer than most, while black countries like Ethiopia and Burundi were notorious. In the New World each colonial power devised a system precisely suited to its peculiar needs and in co..
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James A. Michener |
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c5ccbcc
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At last he found the branching stream that flowed down from Blue Valley, and now he was guided by the little stone beaver that climbed the cliff.
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James A. Michener |
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aebdbfc
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Afghanistan, one of the most inconspicuous nations on earth. In 1946 it was just emerging from the bronze age, a land incredibly old, incredibly tied to an ancient past. At the embassy we used to say, "Kabul today shows what Palestine was like at the time of Jesus."
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James A. Michener |
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704ad88
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Don't put off what you can do today because if you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow.
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James A. Michener |
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7f0b2f3
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For this is the journey that men make: to find themselves. If they fail in this, it doesn't matter much what else they find. Money, position, fame, many loves, revenge are all of little consequence, and when the tickets are collected at the end of the ride they are tossed into the bin marked FAILURE. But if a man happens to find himself--if he knows what he can be depended upon to do, the limits of his courage, the positions from which he w..
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James A. Michener |