Islands Quotes - Page 31

• Cicero, in his treatise concerning the Nature of the Gods, having said that three Jupiters were enumerated by theologians, adds that the third was of Crete, the son of Saturn, and that his tomb is shown in that island.

  Lactantius

  Son, Jupiter, Add

  Lactantius, Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus (1871). “The Works of Lactantius: Of the false worship of the gods”, p.32

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• Even if a civil society were to be dissolved by the consent of all its members (e.g., if a people inhabiting an island decided to separate and disperse throughout the world), the last murderer remaining in prison would first have to be executed, so that each has done to him what his deeds deserve and blood guilt does not cling to the people for not having insisted upon this punishment; for otherwise the people can be regarded as collaborators in his public violation of justice.

  Immanuel Kant

  Blood, Punishment, Justice

  Immanuel Kant, Mary J. Gregor (1999). “Practical Philosophy”, p.474, Cambridge University Press

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• The Falklands held a mirror up to our own islands, and it reflected, in brilliantly sharp focus, all our injured belittlement, our sense of being beleaguered, neglected and misunderstood.

  Jonathan Raban

  Mirrors, Focus, Misunderstood

  1986 Coasting, ch.3.

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• No man is an island. You can ask people for help and they can ask for your help in return.

  Mr Hudson

  Men, People, Return

  Source: ca.complex.com

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• One night in the early sixties I passed something on the Long Island Expressway just before the Queens tunnel that I must have seen for years. The billboard advertising cigars, Dutch Masters. I realized it was sort of perfect. It's weird isn't it? You're looking at Rembrandt - in neon! It was too much, it was irresistible.

  Larry Rivers

  Queens, Night, Tunnels

  Larry Rivers, Carol Brightman (1979). “Drawings and digressions”, Clarkson Potter

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• Treasure Island is completed! The entire set of seventeen canvases without one break in my enthusiasm and spirit. Better in every quality than anything I ever did.

  N. C. Wyeth

  Quality, Treasure, Enthusiasm

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• I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.

  Frederick Douglass

  Song, Men, Joy

  Frederick Douglass (2009). “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, written by himself”, p.27, Harvard University Press

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• Thus departed Hiawatha, Hiawatha the Beloved, In the glory of the sunset, In the purple mists of evening, To the regions of the home-wind, Of the Northwest-Wind, Keewaydin, To the Islands of the Blessed, To the Kingdom of Ponemah, To the Land of the Hereafter!

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Blessed, Sunset, Home

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, George Housman Thomas (1860). “The Song of Hiawatha ... Illustrated by John Gilbert”, p.211

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• In midmost of the stream, embraced in the weir's shimmering arm-spread, a small island lay anchored, fringed close with willow and silver birch and alder. Reserved, shy, but full of significance, it hid whatever it might hold behind a veil, keeping it till the hour should come, and, with the hour, those who were called and chosen.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Shy, Veils, Arms

  Kenneth Grahame, Seth Lerer (2009). “The Wind in the Willows: An Annotated Edition”, p.155, Harvard University Press

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• All problems have to be solved eventually by ONESELF, and that's where all your lovely John Donne stuff turns out to be a load of crap because, in the last analysis, A MAN IS AN ISLAND.

  Kenneth Williams

  Men, Lovely, Analysis

  "Kenneth Williams: secret loves behind the life of a tormented man" by Vanessa Thorpe, www.theguardian.com. October 9, 2010.

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• I thought I might teach philosophy but the atmosphere of a college faculty repelled me; the few islands of greatness seemed to be washed by seas of pettiness and mediocrity.

  I. F. Stone

  Philosophy, Greatness, College

  F. Stone's Bi-Weekly, December 14, 1971.

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• Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.This vast power, gathered into one, endeavored to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits, and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind.

  Plato

  Country, Blow, Men

  Plato (2012). “Gorgias and Timaeus”, p.195, Courier Corporation

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• If we assiduously cultivate our powers of exaggeration, perhaps we, too, shall obtain the Paradise of Liars. And there Raphael shall paint for us scores and scores of his manifestly impossible pictures... and Shakespeare will lie to us of fabulous islands far past 'the still-vex'd Bermoothes,' and bring us fresh tales from the coast of Bohemia. For no one will speak the truth there, and we shall all be perfectly happy.

  James Branch Cabell

  Liars, Lying, Past

  "On Telling the Truth". William and Mary College Monthly, Volume VII (pp. 53-55), November 1897.

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• In mysteries what we know, and our realization of what we do not know, proceed together; the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. It is like the quantum world, where the more we understand its formalism, the stranger that world becomes.

  Huston Smith

  Together, Realization, World

  "The World's Religions". Book by Huston Smith, 1991.

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• At the piping of all hands,When the judgment-signal's spread-When the islands and the landsAnd the seas give up their dead,And the South and North shall come;When the sinner is dismayed,And the just man is afraid,Then Heaven be thy aid,Poor Tom.

  John Gardiner Calkins Brainard

  Giving Up, Men, Hands

  John Gardiner Calkins Brainard (1846). “The Poems of John G.C. Brainard: A New and Authentic Collection, with an Original Memoir of His Life”, p.70

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• We shall not read it for its sociological insights, which are non-existent, nor as science fiction, because it has a general air of implausibility; but there is one high poetic fancy in the New Atlantis that stays in the mind after all its fancies and inventions have been forgotten. In the New Atlantis, an island kingdom lying in very distant seas, the only commodity of external trade is light: Bacon's own special light, the light of understanding.

  Peter Medawar

  Lying, Sea, Light

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• Ernest Bevin had many of the strongest characteristics of the English race. His manliness, his common sense, his rough simplicity, sturdiness and kind heart, easy geniality and generosity, all are qualities which we who live in the southern part of this famous island regard with admiration.

  Ernest Bevin

  Heart, Race, Generosity

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• The islands above the falls are covered with foliage as beautiful as can be seen anywhere. Viewed from the mass of rock which overhangs the fall, the scenery was the loveliest I had seen.

  David Livingstone

  Beautiful, Fall, Rocks

  David Livingstone (1857). “Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa: Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa”, p.244

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• I would like to be a parson on this island. Explain the Sermon on the Mount to ordinary people and let the world be the world.

  Joseph Goebbels

  People, Ordinary, World

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• I must have the sun and warmth. I need to be in the sun - I'm a true island baby.

  Narciso Rodriguez

  Baby, Needs, Sun

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• Younger Cuban Americans who have decided to go to the island always come back telling me "that isn't the country my grandparents have told me about."

  Mark Falcoff

  Country, Grandparent, Cuban

  "Post-Fidel Plans for U.S.-Cuba Relations, Migration Policy". Live chat, www.washingtonpost.com. August 2, 2007.

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• The Castro government is disproportionately white given the color of the island. It doesn't look like Cuba.

  Mark Falcoff

  Government, Color, White

  "Post-Fidel Plans for U.S.-Cuba Relations, Migration Policy". Live Q&As, www.washingtonpost.com. August 2, 2007.

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• I judge property myself by its net earning power; that is the only rule I have been able to get.... This whole island [Manhattan] was once bought for a few strings of beads. But now you will find this property valued by its earning power, by its rent power, and that is the way to value a railroad or telegraph.

  Jay Gould

  Judging, Railroads, Manhattan

  "Jay Gould: A Character Sketch" by William T. Stead, in The Review of Reviews. Testimony to the New York Senate Committee on Labor and Education, February 1893.

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• The island is in Kenya, the water is in Uganda... But the [Luos, a Kenyan ethnic group] are mad, they want to fish here but this is Uganda.

  Yoweri Museveni

  Uganda, Mad, Water

  "Kenyan MPs' Fury Over Island Row". news.bbc.co.uk. May 13, 2009.

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• the place (Dogtown, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, fh) is forsaken and majestically lovely as if nature had at last formed one spot where she can live for herself alone.. (it) looked like a cross between Easter Island and Stonehenge - essentially druidic in it appearance, it gives the feeling that an ancient race might turn up at any moment and renew an ageless rite there.

  Marsden Hartley

  Easter, Race, Giving

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