Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
99b7624	It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.	ancestry middle-east	Tahir Shah
0673f8a	At the last moment, the fish and I exchange a troubled glance. The murrel seems to be demanding an explanation. Alas, I am in no position to start justifying the unusual treatment. What comes next is a new experience for both the fish and me.	india	Tahir Shah
08a4b38	The ability to tell a good route from a terrible one is a valuable skill when leading an expedition. Unfortunately for us all, it was a skill I did not possess.	expedition journey navigation skill	Tahir Shah
6991ea4	Inscribed on it was a verse from the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, the eleventh-century Persian mystic. Reading the words aloud I prepared for a most amazing journey: The sages who have compassed sea and land, Their secret to search out and understand, My mind misgives me if they ever solve The scheme on which the universe is planned.	sufis sword travel	Tahir Shah
587a6f1	Because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we all have become lazy. Lazy people are like cancer. They spread. Before you know it, the entire country is destroyed.	laziness life-and-living-life-lessons work-ethic	Tahir Shah
b91fb4f	In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that I will come to no harm.	danger harm protection travel	Tahir Shah
e72af3d	I believe that Marrakech ought to be earned as a destination. The journey is the preparation for the experience. Reaching it too fast derides it, makes it a little less easy to understand.	marrakech travel	Tahir Shah
4168513	Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.	india travel	Tahir Shah
c1bdd10	Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood.	reading	Tahir Shah
e3de387	But in Africa bureaucrats are usually too proud to accept a bribe, something I admire when I'm not the one being arrested.	bribery bureaucracy pride	Tahir Shah
e47510e	He came to the conclusion that humans confused the content with the container. They would gorge themselves on great plates of inferior food, imagining it to be delicious because there was simply so much of it. Or, they would make half wits their leaders, merely because they were pleasing to the eye, or because their words were spoken in honeyed voices. And when it came to information, they would champion weighty tomes that contained almost ..		Tahir Shah
ebecb1e	The situation was different in the jungle. Every inch of ground had to be earned, and was done so through much exertion with the blade.	endurance jungle	Tahir Shah
3bc2625	Buy a house in a foreign country and, it seems, that anything which can go wrong usually does.	moving	Tahir Shah
62b02fa	As I see the world, there's one element that's even more corrosive than missionaries: tourists. It's not that I feel above them in any way, but that the very places they patronize are destroyed by their affection.	tourism	Tahir Shah
0116b22	The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways.	ego glory	Tahir Shah
2570a49	Any man who has ever led an army, an expedition, or a group of Boy Scouts has sadism in his bones.	leadership sadism	Tahir Shah
579313e	In India everything has a use and a value.	life use value	Tahir Shah
d8b2cbf	The ants are bad" The Bear "the ants?"Tahir "Do not be fooled. They look very small, so harm you don't think of then at all. Then years. Then one day you wake up, and your home has fallen down." Osman."	destruction ignorance	Tahir Shah
624ef2c	There's nothing like a pack of mules to give one a sense of entourage.	journey mules travel	Tahir Shah
3671cc5	Close your senses and the imagination comes alive. It's inside us al, dulled by endless television reruns and by a society that reins in fantasy as something not to be trusted, something to be purged. But it's in there, deep inside, a spark waiting to set a touch-paper alight.	imagination	Tahir Shah
c088d7e	There is nothing quite as unpleasant as wearing a pair of briefs which have been trailed through a Calcutta courtyard. Nothing, that is, except having one's elbows and knees lacerated by unseen slivers of glass and discarded razor blades.	endurance india pain	Tahir Shah
f47d42b	As a travel writer I've specialized in gritty, fearful destinations, the kind of places that make a reader's hair stick on end.	travel writing	Tahir Shah
fdc6c3e	In some peculiar way, indeed, the rules were now beginning to seem quite logical. It was then I knew that I had been in India long enough.	india logic rules travel	Tahir Shah
d04ed42	For me, a journey to Damascus is an amazing hunt from beginning to end, a slice through layers of history in search of treasure.	history journey travel	Tahir Shah
052da89	What came next was a new experience for for both the fish and me		Tahir Shah
dc4108a	For me, nature is something you watch on the Discovery Channel, or on the evening news -- as you learn how much more of it's been savaged to make way for the Blackberry realm that is my home	nature	Tahir Shah
bbdc479	Normally I would have been the first to go in search of cannibal monks, particularly as I had heard of a similar tradition at a nunnery in the Philippines. It's the sort of quest I can't resist.	cannibalism monks nunnery quest search	Tahir Shah
40b7fdf	The rain of Madre de Dios is similar to that of the Amazon, but there is a petrifying aspect to it, as if it seeks to wound rather than to nurture.	fear peru rain	Tahir Shah
a9f96ff	The desert was bad, but nothing could compare with the horrors of a tropical rain forest.	hardship rain-forest	Tahir Shah
b13bc6c	We may yearn for rustic detail and old-world charm, but those who have it set their minds on vinyl wallpaper, fitted carpets and all mod cons.		Tahir Shah
8205f6d	As anyone who's ever taken an Ethiopian bus knows, there is an unwritten rule that the windows must remain firmly closed.	bus-travel ethiopia travel	Tahir Shah
dda6451	Real terror is a crippling experience. You sweat so much that your skin goes all wrinkly like when you've been in the bath all afternoon. And then the scent of your sweat changes. It smells like cat pee, no doubt from the adrenalin. However hard you wash, it won't come off. It smothers you, as your muscles become frozen with acid and your mind paralysed by despair.	despair fear sweat terror	Tahir Shah
b1b2728	At the dealership, I pulled out the sieve and toyed with it threateningly. When the salesman was ready for me, I held it up, told him I was not a tourist and demanded a large discount.	humor	Tahir Shah
56e2ece	Bombay is a city where gossip is treated as a commodity.	gossip india life mumbay wisdom	Tahir Shah
cecdc1b	The mere mention of the Farakka Express, which jerks its way eastward each day from Delhi to Calcutta, is enough to throw even a seasoned traveller into fits of apoplexy. At a desert encampment on Namibia's Skeleton Coast, a hard-bitten adventurer had downed a peg of local fire-water then told me the tale. Farakka was a ghost train, he said, haunted by ghouls, Thuggees, and thieves. Only a passenger with a death wish would go anywhere near ..	delhi farakka-express ghosts india travel	Tahir Shah
8262569	The pursuit of illusion is not about studying for prizes, or for study's sake. There's no right or wrong, no pass or fail.	study-abroad	Tahir Shah
72695f0	Only a man who has his health, a full stomach and wears clean clothes would ever entertain the notion of tracking down the greatest lost city on Earth.	endurance health quest	Tahir Shah
3f7d35c	Previous experience had taught me that any expedition marches on its stomach.	endurance expedition food hunger	Tahir Shah
5139495	Previous journeys in search of treasure have taught me that a zigzag strategy is the best way to get ahead.	strategy success treasure zigzag	Tahir Shah
d87f81f	In some warped way, having an embalmed body with us made perfect sense.	body corpse mummy quest	Tahir Shah
419343b	The only thing they valued higher than ammunition were Man United footballs.	football value	Tahir Shah
c6d91b2	As I saw it, a little threatening was a good thing. It kept the men on their toes.	threat	Tahir Shah
03ccc76	Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.	explorers hardship	Tahir Shah
56f3e80	I was no longer troubled when he pulled out a machete in a crowded bar, tried to pick up schoolgirls, or threatened to scalp us, then rip off our heads and scoop out our brains.	death fear machete threat	Tahir Shah

99b7624

It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.

ancestry middle-east

Tahir Shah

0673f8a

At the last moment, the fish and I exchange a troubled glance. The murrel seems to be demanding an explanation. Alas, I am in no position to start justifying the unusual treatment. What comes next is a new experience for both the fish and me.

india

Tahir Shah

08a4b38

The ability to tell a good route from a terrible one is a valuable skill when leading an expedition. Unfortunately for us all, it was a skill I did not possess.

expedition journey navigation skill

Tahir Shah

6991ea4

Inscribed on it was a verse from the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, the eleventh-century Persian mystic. Reading the words aloud I prepared for a most amazing journey: The sages who have compassed sea and land, Their secret to search out and understand, My mind misgives me if they ever solve The scheme on which the universe is planned.

sufis sword travel

Tahir Shah

587a6f1

Because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we all have become lazy. Lazy people are like cancer. They spread. Before you know it, the entire country is destroyed.

laziness life-and-living-life-lessons work-ethic

Tahir Shah

b91fb4f

In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that I will come to no harm.

danger harm protection travel

Tahir Shah

e72af3d

I believe that Marrakech ought to be earned as a destination. The journey is the preparation for the experience. Reaching it too fast derides it, makes it a little less easy to understand.

marrakech travel

Tahir Shah

4168513

Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.

india travel

Tahir Shah

c1bdd10

Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood.

reading

Tahir Shah

e3de387

But in Africa bureaucrats are usually too proud to accept a bribe, something I admire when I'm not the one being arrested.

bribery bureaucracy pride

Tahir Shah

e47510e

He came to the conclusion that humans confused the content with the container. They would gorge themselves on great plates of inferior food, imagining it to be delicious because there was simply so much of it. Or, they would make half wits their leaders, merely because they were pleasing to the eye, or because their words were spoken in honeyed voices. And when it came to information, they would champion weighty tomes that contained almost ..

Tahir Shah

ebecb1e

The situation was different in the jungle. Every inch of ground had to be earned, and was done so through much exertion with the blade.

endurance jungle

Tahir Shah

3bc2625

Buy a house in a foreign country and, it seems, that anything which can go wrong usually does.

moving

Tahir Shah

62b02fa

As I see the world, there's one element that's even more corrosive than missionaries: tourists. It's not that I feel above them in any way, but that the very places they patronize are destroyed by their affection.

tourism

Tahir Shah

0116b22

The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways.

ego glory

Tahir Shah

2570a49

Any man who has ever led an army, an expedition, or a group of Boy Scouts has sadism in his bones.

leadership sadism

Tahir Shah

579313e

In India everything has a use and a value.

life use value

Tahir Shah

d8b2cbf

The ants are bad" The Bear "the ants?"Tahir "Do not be fooled. They look very small, so harm you don't think of then at all. Then years. Then one day you wake up, and your home has fallen down." Osman."

destruction ignorance

Tahir Shah

624ef2c

There's nothing like a pack of mules to give one a sense of entourage.

journey mules travel

Tahir Shah

3671cc5

Close your senses and the imagination comes alive. It's inside us al, dulled by endless television reruns and by a society that reins in fantasy as something not to be trusted, something to be purged. But it's in there, deep inside, a spark waiting to set a touch-paper alight.

imagination

Tahir Shah

c088d7e

There is nothing quite as unpleasant as wearing a pair of briefs which have been trailed through a Calcutta courtyard. Nothing, that is, except having one's elbows and knees lacerated by unseen slivers of glass and discarded razor blades.

endurance india pain

Tahir Shah

f47d42b

As a travel writer I've specialized in gritty, fearful destinations, the kind of places that make a reader's hair stick on end.

travel writing

Tahir Shah

fdc6c3e

In some peculiar way, indeed, the rules were now beginning to seem quite logical. It was then I knew that I had been in India long enough.

india logic rules travel

Tahir Shah

d04ed42

For me, a journey to Damascus is an amazing hunt from beginning to end, a slice through layers of history in search of treasure.

history journey travel

Tahir Shah

052da89

What came next was a new experience for for both the fish and me

Tahir Shah

dc4108a

For me, nature is something you watch on the Discovery Channel, or on the evening news -- as you learn how much more of it's been savaged to make way for the Blackberry realm that is my home

nature

Tahir Shah

bbdc479

Normally I would have been the first to go in search of cannibal monks, particularly as I had heard of a similar tradition at a nunnery in the Philippines. It's the sort of quest I can't resist.

cannibalism monks nunnery quest search

Tahir Shah

40b7fdf

The rain of Madre de Dios is similar to that of the Amazon, but there is a petrifying aspect to it, as if it seeks to wound rather than to nurture.

fear peru rain

Tahir Shah

a9f96ff

The desert was bad, but nothing could compare with the horrors of a tropical rain forest.

hardship rain-forest

Tahir Shah

b13bc6c

We may yearn for rustic detail and old-world charm, but those who have it set their minds on vinyl wallpaper, fitted carpets and all mod cons.

Tahir Shah

8205f6d

As anyone who's ever taken an Ethiopian bus knows, there is an unwritten rule that the windows must remain firmly closed.

bus-travel ethiopia travel

Tahir Shah

dda6451

Real terror is a crippling experience. You sweat so much that your skin goes all wrinkly like when you've been in the bath all afternoon. And then the scent of your sweat changes. It smells like cat pee, no doubt from the adrenalin. However hard you wash, it won't come off. It smothers you, as your muscles become frozen with acid and your mind paralysed by despair.

despair fear sweat terror

Tahir Shah

b1b2728

At the dealership, I pulled out the sieve and toyed with it threateningly. When the salesman was ready for me, I held it up, told him I was not a tourist and demanded a large discount.

humor

Tahir Shah

56e2ece

Bombay is a city where gossip is treated as a commodity.

gossip india life mumbay wisdom

Tahir Shah

cecdc1b

The mere mention of the Farakka Express, which jerks its way eastward each day from Delhi to Calcutta, is enough to throw even a seasoned traveller into fits of apoplexy. At a desert encampment on Namibia's Skeleton Coast, a hard-bitten adventurer had downed a peg of local fire-water then told me the tale. Farakka was a ghost train, he said, haunted by ghouls, Thuggees, and thieves. Only a passenger with a death wish would go anywhere near ..

delhi farakka-express ghosts india travel

Tahir Shah

8262569

The pursuit of illusion is not about studying for prizes, or for study's sake. There's no right or wrong, no pass or fail.

study-abroad

Tahir Shah

72695f0

Only a man who has his health, a full stomach and wears clean clothes would ever entertain the notion of tracking down the greatest lost city on Earth.

endurance health quest

Tahir Shah

3f7d35c

Previous experience had taught me that any expedition marches on its stomach.

endurance expedition food hunger

Tahir Shah

5139495

Previous journeys in search of treasure have taught me that a zigzag strategy is the best way to get ahead.

strategy success treasure zigzag

Tahir Shah

d87f81f

In some warped way, having an embalmed body with us made perfect sense.

body corpse mummy quest

Tahir Shah

419343b

The only thing they valued higher than ammunition were Man United footballs.

football value

Tahir Shah

c6d91b2

As I saw it, a little threatening was a good thing. It kept the men on their toes.

threat

Tahir Shah

03ccc76

Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.

explorers hardship

Tahir Shah

56f3e80

I was no longer troubled when he pulled out a machete in a crowded bar, tried to pick up schoolgirls, or threatened to scalp us, then rip off our heads and scoop out our brains.

death fear machete threat

Tahir Shah