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1172ade
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you're certain, then, that no human affection can outlast a five-year absence?" "It can, undoubtedly," replied the Chinese, "but only as a fragrance whose melancholy we may enjoy."
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James Hilton |
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ac79cdd
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You cannot judge the importance of things by the noise they make.
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James Hilton |
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7d0fb7d
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You were contemplating the mountain, Mr. Conway?" Came the inquiry. "Yes, it's a fine sight. It has a name, I suppose?" "It is called Karakal" "I don't think I've ever heard of it. Is is very high?" "Over twenty-eight thousand feet." "Indeed? I didn't realize there would be anything on that scale outside the Himalayas. Has it been properly surveyed? Whose are the measurements?" "Whose would you expect, my dear sir? Is there anything incompa..
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mountains
perspective
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James Hilton |
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898a24e
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The jewel has facets," said the Chinese, "and it is possible that many religions are moderately true."
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James Hilton |
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d58d77a
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Moonlight faded after a time, and with it that distant specter of the mountain; then the triple mischiefs of darkness, cold, and wind increased until dawn. As though at its signal, the wind dropped, leaving the world in compassionate quietude.
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James Hilton |
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4345e5c
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During a subsequent visit, however, Chang told him that there were other books published up to about the middle of 1930 which would doubtless be added to the shelves eventually; they had already arrived at the lamasery. "We keep ourselves fairly up-to-date, you see," he commented. "There are people who would hardly agree with you," replied Conway with a smile. "Quite a lot of things have happened in the world since last year, you know." "No..
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James Hilton |
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13048cc
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I often think that the Romans were fortunate; their civilization reached as far as hot baths without touching the fatal knowledge of machinery.
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James Hilton |
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86dbd13
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Life's more important than a living. So many people who make a living are making death, not life. Don't ever join them. They're the gravediggers of our civilization - The safe men. The compromisers. The moneymakers. The muddlers-through.
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philosophy
truth
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James Hilton |
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0fe794d
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The will of God or the lunacy of man--it seemed to him that you could take your choice, if you wanted a good enough reason for most things.
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James Hilton |
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da0041f
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And what if it's a trap?" asked Mallinson, but Barnard supplied an answer. "A nice warm trap," he said, "with a piece of cheese in it, would suit me down to the ground."
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James Hilton |
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b37e35d
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CIGARS HAD BURNED LOW, and we were beginning to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school friends who have met again as men and found themselves with less in common than they had believed they had.
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James Hilton |
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d62df2b
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Are you interested, by the way, in etchings? I have one or two here that are considered to be rather choice.
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James Hilton |
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7ca76b4
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Tit-Bits.
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James Hilton |
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9796f5d
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Then, my son, when the strong have devoured each other, the Christian ethic may at last be fulfilled, and the meek shall inherit the earth.
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war
meek
strong
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James Hilton |
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a57c848
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For the first time in his life he felt necessary--and necessary to something that was nearest his heart. There is no sublimer feeling in the world, and it was his at last.
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James Hilton |
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1824755
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It did not require a great deal of imagination to picture a world in which power had passed into the hands of Al Capones with their private bombing squadrons.
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James Hilton |
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de13e17
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I thought I heard you--one of you--saying it was a pity--umph--a pity I never had--any children ... eh? ... But I have, you know ... I have ..." The others smiled without answering, and after a pause Chips began a faint and palpitating chuckle. "Yes--umph--I have," he added, with quavering merriment. "Thousands of 'em ... thousands of 'em... and all boys."
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James Hilton |
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97d9761
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Aunt Viney (short for 'Lavinia'), viewed in the grey daylight that came in through the dining-room window, was always a rather imposing spectacle. She was fifty-one years of age, and had large staring eyes, quick bustling movements, more than a tendency to stoutness, a menacing optimism that was not quite matched by a sense of humour, and the most decided opinions upon everything. She was an excellent 'manager', and for more than a decade h..
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James Hilton |
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8738edb
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explained Conway, "is a slang word meaning a lazy fellow, a good-for-nothing."
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James Hilton |
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17ecfad
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she really did possess a love for humanity, and the further removed humanity was, both in space and time, the more she loved it.
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James Hilton |
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421aab6
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He was not much of a nature-worshipper, but he perceived that nature here was certainly at her best and liveliest. He gave her, as it were, full marks and a nod of approval, feeling that she would do very nicely as a background to his satisfying emotions
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James Hilton |
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436ff72
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He was a wanderer between two worlds and must ever wander...
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James Hilton |
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0b095db
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Without thought or knowledge, one could have guessed that this bleak world was mountain-high, and that the mountains rising from it were mountains on top of mountains. A range of them gleamed on a far horizon like a row of dogteeth.
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James Hilton |
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2ed34a4
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It was not a friendly picture, but to Conway, as he surveyed, there came a queer perception of fineness in it, of something that had no romantic appeal at all, but a steely, almost an intellectual quality. The white pyramid in the distance compelled the mind's assent as passionlessly as a Euclidean theorem, and when at last the sun rose into a sky of deep delphinium blue, he felt only a little less than comfortable again.
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theorem
mountains
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James Hilton |
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136c101
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His was one of those well-groomed reputations that get the most out of everything; any unusual holiday acquires the character of an exploration, and though the explorer takes care to do nothing really original, the public does not know this
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travel-writing
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James Hilton |
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f123ad8
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He had suddenly come to realize a single facet of the promised jewel; he had Time, Time for everything that he wished to happen, such Time that desire itself was quenched in the certainty of fulfillment.
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time
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James Hilton |
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ac01244
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And then, in the midst of the still-encompassing dream, he felt himself master of Shangri-La. These were his beloved things, all around him, the things of that inner mind in which he lived increasingly, away from the fret of the world. His eyes strayed into the shadows and were caught by golden pinpoints sparkling in rich, undulating lacquers; and the scent of tuberose, so faint that it expired on the very brink of sensation, lured him from..
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shangri-la
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James Hilton |
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ef6455d
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There came a time, he realized, when the strangeness of everything made it increasingly difficult to realize the strangeness of anything;
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James Hilton |
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524b9a3
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Mallinson, who had been somberly enduring these pleasantries, now interposed with something of the shrill acerbity of the barrack-square. "Our stay won't be long," he announced curtly. "We shall pay for anything we have, and we should like to hire some of your men to help us on our journey back. We want to return to civilization as soon as possible." "And are you so very certain that you are away from it?" The query, delivered with much sua..
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James Hilton |
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0dcc670
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The parallel is not quite exact. For those Dark Ages were not really so very dark--they were full of flickering lanterns, and even if the light had gone out of Europe altogether, there were other rays, literally from China to Peru, at which it could have been rekindled. But the Dark Ages that are to come will cover the whole world in a single pall; there will be neither escape nor sanctuary, save such as are too secret to be found or too hu..
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James Hilton |
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8cad67e
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tribesmen came forward from all directions, surrounding the machine and effectively preventing any one from getting out of it except the pilot. The latter clambered to earth and held excited colloquy with them, during which proceeding it became clear that, so far from being Fenner, he was not an Englishman at all, and possibly not even a European. Meanwhile cans of gasoline were fetched from a dump close by, and emptied into the exceptional..
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James Hilton |
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1864f7f
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Grins and disregarding silence met the shouts of the four imprisoned passengers, while the slightest attempt to alight provoked a menacing movement from a score of rifles. Conway, who knew a little Pushtu, harangued the tribesmen as well as he could in that language, but without effect; while the pilot's sole retort to any remarks addressed to him in any language was a significant flourish of his revolver. Midday sunlight, blazing on the ro..
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James Hilton |
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d8babde
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He said this with such simplicity that Conway could not help responding: "I'm not much of an authority on what people call high finance." It was a lead, and the American accepted it without the slightest reluctance. "High finance," he said, "is mostly a lot of bunk." "So I've often suspected." "Look here, Conway, I'll put it like this. A feller does what he's been doing for years, and what lots of other fellers have been doing, and suddenly..
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James Hilton |
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e29d870
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It fitted Baskul and Delhi and London, war making and empire building, consulates and trade concessions and dinner parties at Government House; there was a reek of dissolution over all that recollected world, and Barnard's cropper had only, perhaps, been better dramatized than his own. The whole game was doubtless going to pieces, but fortunately the players were not as a rule put on trial for the pieces they had failed to save. In that res..
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James Hilton |
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a1cc7e3
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Now let me begin by sketching for you a very agreeable picture. You are still, I should say, a youngish man by the world's standards; your life, as people say, lies ahead of you; in the normal course you might expect twenty or thirty years of only slightly and gradually diminishing activity. By no means a cheerless prospect, and I can hardly expect you to see it as I do--as a slender, breathless, and far too frantic interlude. The first qua..
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James Hilton |
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9705c07
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Think for a moment. You will have time to read--never again will you skim pages to save minutes, or avoid some study lest it prove too engrossing. You have also a taste for music--here, then, are your scores and instruments, with Time, unruffled and unmeasured to give you their richest savor. And you are also, we will say, a man of good fellowship--does it not charm you to think of wise and serene friendships, a long and kindly traffic of t..
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James Hilton |
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7ddffc0
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Conway answered: "As good a word as most, no doubt. I don't know whether you classify the people who come here, but if so, you can label me '1914-18.' That makes me, I should think, a unique specimen in your museum of antiquities--the other three who arrived along with me don't enter the category. I used up most of my passions and energies during the years I've mentioned, and though I don't talk much about it, the chief thing I've asked fro..
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James Hilton |
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4c25d19
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I was deeply impressed by your story of the past, but to be candid, your sketch of the future interests me only in an abstract sense. I can't look so far ahead. I should certainly be sorry if I had to leave Shangri-La to-morrow or next week, or perhaps even next year; but how I shall feel about it if I live to be a hundred isn't a matter to prophesy. I can face it, like any other future, but in order to make me keen it must have a point. I'..
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James Hilton |
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086e6ad
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But that was not all. He foresaw a time when men, exultant in the technique of homicide, would rage so hotly over the world that every precious thing would be in danger, every book and picture and harmony, every treasure garnered through two millenniums, the small, the delicate, the defenseless--all would be lost like the lost books of Livy, or wrecked as the English wrecked the Summer Palace in Pekin.
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James Hilton |
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4f970d2
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Barnard caught the word. "Comfortable?" he echoed raucously. "Why, of course we're comfortable. We're just enjoying the trip. Pity we haven't a pack of cards--we could play a rubber of bridge." Conway welcomed the spirit of the remark, though he disliked bridge. "I don't suppose Miss Brinklow plays," he said, smiling. But the missionary turned round briskly to retort: "Indeed I do, and I could never see any harm in cards at all. There's not..
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James Hilton |
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29e0a86
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Chang bowed his thanks for the information. He took a keen interest in languages and liked to weigh a new word philosophically. "It is significant," he said after a pause, "that the English regard slackness as a vice. We, on the other hand, should vastly prefer it to tension. Is there not too much tension in the world at present, and might it not be better if more people were slackers?"
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James Hilton |
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5768a42
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Perhaps the exhaustion of the passions is the beginning of wisdom, if you care to alter the proverb.
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James Hilton |
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8401dba
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He was surprised to find that beyond his puzzlement he had few misgivings, and none at all on his own behalf. There were moments in life when one opened wide one's soul just as one might open wide one's purse if an evening's entertainment were proving unexpectedly costly but also unexpectedly novel.
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James Hilton |
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f9e7080
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Conway said quietly, "If you'd had all the experiences I've had, you'd know that there are times in life when the most comfortable thing is to do nothing at all. Things happen to you and you just let them happen. The War was rather like that. One is fortunate if, as on this occasion, a touch of novelty seasons the unpleasantness." "You're too confoundedly philosophic for me. That wasn't your mood during the trouble at Baskul." "Of course no..
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James Hilton |