James A. Michener

Quotes

• “It took her three seconds-one, two, three-to know that her destiny required her to join this man, and his gun and his wa...”
• “Other things being roughly equal, that man lives most keenly who lives in closest harmony with nature. To be wholly aliv...”
• “The South Pacific is memorable because when you are in the islands you simply cannot ignore nature. You cannot avoid loo...”
• “What did I learn in my travels? In whatever foreign country I visited I met dreamers who longed to reach America and its...”
• “At times, working in big cities far from nature, I have been sick with nesomania, and I think the reason is this: On the...”
• “I am terrified of restrictive religious doctrine, having learned from history that when men who adhere to any form of it...”
• “Very early on in life, I decided the hell with it: material things weren't for me. Christmas would come, and other kids ...”
• “You have to be eligible for luck to strike and I think that's a matter of education and preparation and character and ...”
• “Over a hundred German scientists arrived here [Huntsville] at eleven o’clock on an April morning and by nightfall more t...”
• “It may seem contradictory, but in the languid tropics one spends more time contemplating those great good things of soun...”
• “The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are s...”
• “To travel across Spain and finally to reach Barcelona is like drinking a respectable red wine and finishing up with a bo...”
• “For of this world one never sees enough and to dine in harmony with nature is one of the gentlest and loveliest things w...”
• “a soldier lives always for the next battle, because he knows that before it arrives impossible changes can occur in his ...”
• “With my pen I have engraved warrants of citizenship in the most remote corners, for truly the world has been my home.”
• “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.”
• “We seek God so earnestly, Eliav reflected, not to find Him but to discover ourselves.”
• “Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.”
• “Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.”
• “All I can do is play the game the way the cards fall.”
• “It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.”
• “Only the rocks live forever, Gray Wolf said.”
• “Writers turn dreams into print.”