Tag Archives: CS Lewis

Some Quotes From Around the World

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Some Quotes From Around The World

“The problem with quotes on the internet is that you never know if they are genuine.” Joseph Stalin

I have collected quotes all my life – way before the internet. I had a compilation of napkins, theatre programs, index cards, ripped pieces of papers from newspapers and magazines, hotel stationery, loose-leaf paper, memo pads, notebooks and colored bits of paper – all filled with quotes I had read or heard somewhere. The internet makes it way too easy. I read a book or see a play I like and I look up quotes from the author. I pick a subject I’m interested in and find hundreds of quotes about it. I have a lot more knowledge now but every once in a while I find a folded up piece of paper in an old pair of pants or purse with a quote that touched me when I heard it.

I thought I would share some of my favorites from around the world –  especially for those of you who are not on my quote list. I hope you enjoy them. They are special to me.

“AMERICA

A bit of advice

Given to a young Native American

At the time of his initiation:

As you go the way of life,

You will see a great chasm. Jump.

It is not as wide as you think.” Joseph Campbell

AUSTRIA

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are

princesses who are only waiting to see us act just once, with beauty and

courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence,

something helpless that needs our love.” Rainer Maria  Rilke

CHILE

“Laughter is the language of the soul.” Pablo Neruda

CHINA

“Once upon a time a man whose ax was missing suspected his neighbor’s son. The boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief. But the next day, the man found his ax while digging in the valley and the next time he saw his neighbor’s son, he walked like a child, looked like a child, and spoke like a child.” Lao Tzu

COLOMBIA

“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez

CZECH REPUBLIC

“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.” Vaclav Havel

ENGLAND

“You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” CS Lewis

FRANCE

“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.“ Albert Camus

GERMANY

“But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony–Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?” Erich Maria Remarque

INDIA

“You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.” Mahatma Gandhi

IRAN

‘One day the sun admitted I am just a shadow.

I wish I could show you the infinite incandescence

that has cast my brilliant image.

I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness

the outstanding light of your own being,” Hafiz

IRELAND

“Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” W. B. Yeats

ISRAEL

“Once I sat on the steps by a gate at David’s Tower in Jerusalem. I placed my two heavy baskets at my side. A group of tourists was standing around their guide and I became their target marker. “You see that man with the baskets? Just right of his head, there’s an arch from the Roman period. Just right of his head.”  I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guide tells them, “You see that arch from the Roman period? It’s not important: but next to it, left and down a bit, there sits a man who’s bought fruit and vegetables for his family.” Yehudah Amichal

ITALY

“There are three classes of people. Those who see. Those who see when shown. Those who do not see.” Leonardo Da Vinci

 JAPAN

“My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon.” Masahide

NETHERLANDS

“Conscience is a man’s compass.” Vincent Van Gogh

RUSSIA

“How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand one who’s cold?’  Alexander Solzhenitsyn

SOUTH AFRICA

“As I walked out the door toward my freedom, I knew that if I did not leave all the anger, hatred and bitterness behind, that I would still be in prison”. Nelson Mandela

SPAIN

“Traveler, there is no path. The path is made by walking.

Traveller, the path is your tracks and nothing more.

By walking you make a path and turning, you look back

At a way you will never tread again.

Traveler, there is no road, only walks in the sea.” Antonio Machado

TIBET

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” – Dalai Lama

TURKEY

“On a day when the wind is perfect,

the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty.

Today is such a day.” Rumi

VIET NAM

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” Thich Nhat Hanh

Fly safe,

JAZ

 

 

My Top Ten Imaginary Places

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My Top Ten Imaginary Places

“Captain Cook discovered Australia looking for the Terra Incognita. Christopher Columbus thought he was finding India but discovered America. History is full of events that happened because of an imaginary tale. “ Umberto Eco

I think imaginary places exist to help us make sense of our realities. Sometimes they look a lot like the world we live in. There are always recognizable characters that we know from our own lives. Sometimes the places look completely different. Always, I am transported to the world of these author’s imaginations and for this I am grateful.

1. Chocolate Factory – Willly Wonka And The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

I was brought up on health food and was not allowed to have candy as a kid.  This was my ultimate fantasy place. Wonka’s Chocolate Factory included a river of chocolate with enough chocolate to fill every bathtub in the entire country. The grass and flowers are made of candy and minted sugar. Machines can shrink you into a tiny person and special seltzer can make you float. Also, nothing really bad happened at the Chocolate Factory as opposed to other imaginary places, which look great but have witches and warlocks and pirates and monsters.

2. Emerald City, Oz -The Wizard Of Oz by Frank Baum

“The walls are green, but the city itself is not. However, when they enter, everyone in the Emerald City is made to wear green-tinted eye glasses this is explained as an effort to protect their eyes from the “brightness and glory” of the city, but in effect makes everything appear green when it is, in fact, “no more green than any other city.” Dorothy sees rows of shops, selling green articles of every variety, and a person who sells green lemonade, from whom children bought it with green pennies.” I’m talking more about the MGM version in all its1939 green, Technicolor glory with midgets and kids dancing and singing all around as munchkins. Emerald City was a happy place.

3. Narnia The Chronicles Of Narnia by CS Lewis

Narnia is a fantasy world of magic, mythical beasts, and talking animals. The protagonists are all children from the real world who go through a closet and are magically transported to Narnia, where they are called upon by the lion Asian to protect Narnia from evil and restore the throne to its rightful line. The books span the entire history of Narnia, from its creation to its eventual destruction. There is something about going through an ordinary closet and finding an extraordinary world that is very appealing to me.

4. Atlantis Timaeus and Critias by Plato.

That was the earliest reference to Atlantis which has been mentioned many times in literature as a perfect place. In this story Atlantis was a fictional island who ruled the world and suffered defeat against Ancient Athens (Plato’s perfect society). I love Greek mythology and the ancient gods give Poseidon the island. But I think it is Plato’s description of the island that captivated me not the story. It lies between “the pillars of Hercules in the Straits of Gibraltar.” It was larger than ancient Libya and Asia Minor and then it was swallowed up by the sea and vanished. I think that was my beginning of wanting to see the world and the Straits Of Gibraltar are still on my bucket list.

5.Hogwarts Harry Potter Series by A.K.Rowling

Hogwarts is ‘the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry” in the world. Its full name is the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is located in Hogwarts Castle somewhere in Scotland. The exact location is unknown. Children with magical abilities may be enrolled at birth, and acceptance is confirmed by an owl at age eleven. Of course Hogwarts is on my list because it feeds into my over achieving sensibilities. It’s the best.  There are definitely a lot of the Dark Arts people hanging around, but Harry always triumphs in the end. What House would I join? and what would I wear? I want to be in Gryffindor, but Ill probably be accepted into Hufflepuff. As long as I’m not in Slytherin, it is all good.

6.Camelot The Once and Future King by TH White

Camelot is the castle and court of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It includes King Arthur, Guinevere, Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot, the Holy Grail and a sword named Excalibur and sometimes a wizard named Merlin. The location of Camelot is not agreed upon since the stories are based on early French romance stories. Camelot has become more of an Arthurian vision than an actual place. It was full of high ideals, quests and medieval chivalry with occasional jousting.   I think we always want our leaders to follow the Code of the Knights of the Round Table. The legend lives on.

7. Neverland Peter Pan by JM Barrie

Neverland is another one of the places that has an ambiguous location because it exists in the minds of children. It has directions like second star to the right and straight on till morning. Peter Pan, Lost Boys, Pirates, Fairies, Mermaids and Indians live there. It is best known for being a place where people don’t grow up and time is difficult to track. The only clock is inside a crocodile. The not growing older interests me at this time.

8. Utopia Utopia by Thomas Moore

Utopia is an invented island society where everything is perfect. The political system, legal system and all social and religious interactions are perfect. The word Utopia comes from Latin and literally means nowhere. Thomas Moore gave us the word for a perfect society that can never exist. As an adult living in the messy and violent world of 2014, Utopia sounds like something to strive for – even half Utopia would be good.

9. Shangri-La Lost Horizon by James Hilton

Shangri-La is a fictitious, happy land of eternal youth, isolated form the outside world in the mountains of Tibet. People are immortal and only show their age a little bit. The book says, having made war on the ground, man would now fill the skies with death, and all precious things were in danger of being lost – books, art, relics etc. It was hoped that, overlooked by the violent outside world, Shangri-la would keep them and show them later to a receptive world exhausted by war. That was the real purpose of the lamasery of Shangri La – study, inner peace, and long life were merely a side benefit to living there. We look for peace now as our world becomes more chaotic – for a place to put our history so it won’t be destroyed by the environment and violence.

10 Xanadu Kubla Khan a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

One night after an opium influenced dream and reading about Xanadu, the summer palace of the Mongol ruler Kubla Khan, Coleridge wrote one of his most famous poems. It was based on the writings of Marco Polo who said he had visited there. It created pictures in my mind  of people in the world that I had never heard of –  like a damsel with a dulcimer and an Absynnian maid. He joined two of my favorite things –  imagination and traveling to an exotic place. It was  as far away from Brooklyn as a girl could get.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, A stately pleasure-dome decree :

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran. Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

Any more places?

Read Safe,

JAZ