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, pus...
How small he was and how wormy in manner,
[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 p...
If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home.
It may seem contradictory, but in the languid tropics one spends more time contemplating those great good things of sound and sight and smell.
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...
Therefore, men of Polynesia and Boston and China and Mount Fuji and the barrios of the Philippines, do not come to these islands empty-handed, or craven in spirit, or afraid to starve. There is no foo...
If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.
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...
Public libraries have been a mainstay of my life. They represent an individual's right to acquire knowledge; they are the sinews that bind civilized societies the world over. Without libraries, I woul...
We seek God so earnestly, Eliav reflected, not to find Him but to discover ourselves.
To have courage. To have honor. Is very beautiful.
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.
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.
We are never prepared for what we expect.
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, a...
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,...
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.
I live for the few minutes I can talk with a sensible human being, but every time I do, I feel worse than before.
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 a...