Somphong Manyvong Quotes & Sayings

I plant my elbows on the kitchen table, prop up my chin and think: When the hell did the compass needle get out of whack and lead my life astray? — Haruki Murakami

You cannot describe truly what you are but you can enjoy and directly experience what you are. Therein lies the joy of existence. — Matthew Kahn

Lord, I am not worthy
Lord, I am not worthy
but speak the word only. — T. S. Eliot

To hear of a thousand deaths in war is terrible, and we 'know' that it is. But as it registers on our hearts, it is not more terrible than one death fully imagined. — Wendell Berry

To be logical you have to dig up and face your own hidden motives and emotions, and of course they're hidden principally because you don't want to face them.
So ... um ... it's easier to let your basement feelings run the upper storeys, so to speak, and the result is quarrels, love, opinions, anorexia, philanthropy ... almost anything you can think of. I just like to know what's going on down there, to pick out why I truly want to do things, that's all. Then I can do them, or not. Whichever. — Dick Francis

Absolutely delightful, at first for its unspoiled picture of late-nineteenth-century Japan as seen through the eyes of three remarkable but very different Americans, [the missionary William Elliot Griffis [1843-1928], the scientist Edward Sylvester Morse [1838-1925], and the writer Lafcadio Hearn], and then for the marvelous reconstruction of how Japan worked on their minds, radically changing their perceptions of the country and the whole relationship between East and West
between the barbarian and the civilized. The book is a tour de force. — Edwin O. Reischauer

Knowledge of birth control is essentially moral. Its general, though prudent, practice must lead to a higher individuality and ultimately to a cleaner race. — Margaret Sanger

My motive has always been just to be who I am, and play what I love- if that doesn't get me anywhere then at least it wasn't because I tried to be something I'm not. — Ben Howard

The basis for true change is freedom from negativity. And that's what acceptance implies: no negativity about what is. And then you see what this moment requires: what is it that is required now so that life can express itself more fully? — Eckhart Tolle

People see my current success but don't realize I've worked hard to get where I am. I used to clean garbage off the Philadelphia docks and put a lot of time into developing my music. — Kevin Eubanks

The concealment of art by the actor is as great a mark of genius as it is in the painter. — Francois Delsarte

Although a single source of risk may create large losses, it is not generally enough to result in an actual disaster. For such an event to occur, several types of risks usually need to interact. Most importantly, the lack of appropriate controls appears to be a determining contributor. Although inadequate controls do not trigger the actual financial loss, they allow the organization to take more risk than necessary and also provide enough time for extreme losses to accumulate. — Thomas S. Coleman