Quotes About Burma
“It is not power that corrupts but fear.”
― Aung San Suu Kyi
Roman Payne
“People wonder why so many writers come to live in Paris. I’ve been living ten years in Paris and the answer seems simple to me: because it’s the best place to pick ideas. Just like Italy, Spain.. or Iran are the best places to pick saffron. If you want to pick opium poppies you go to Burma or South-East Asia. And if you want to pick novel ideas, you go to Paris.”
― Roman Payne, Crepuscule
Mia Kirshner
“Bursts of gold on lavender melting into saffron. It’s the time of day when the sky looks like it has been spray-painted by a graffiti artist.”
― Mia Kirshner, I Live Here
tags: burma, sky, sunset 41 likes Like
Aung San Suu Kyi
“My top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves.”
― Aung San Suu Kyi
Mia Kirshner
“My mother used to say that rain here pours like a blessing, like a thick veil that parts to reveal the bride’s face. But nearly every day, when this rain parted, it revealed a long line of soldiers, like you, like death, marching toward us, and we would scatter with a practiced silence and hide.”
― Mia Kirshner, I Live Here
George Orwell
“When I was young and had no sense
In far-off Mandalay
I lost my heart to a Burmese girl
As lovely as the day.
Her skin was gold, her hair was jet,
her teeth were ivory;
I said, “For twenty silver pieces,
Maiden, sleep with me.”
She looked at me, so pure, so sad,
The loveliest thing alive,
And in her lisping, virgin voice,
Stood out for twenty-five.”
― George Orwell
George MacDonald Fraser
“It was part of war; men died, more would die, that was past, and what mattered now was the business in hand; those who lived would get on with it. Whatever sorrow was felt, there was no point in talking or brooding about it, much less in making, for form’s sake, a parade of it. Better and healthier to forget it, and look to tomorrow.
The celebrated British stiff upper lip, the resolve to conceal emotion which is not only embarrassing and useless, but harmful, is just plain commons sense”
― George MacDonald Fraser, Quartered Safe Out Here: A Harrowing Tale of World War II
tags: burma, second-world-war, stiff-upper-lip, war 9 likes Like
George Orwell
“An earthquake is such fun when it is over.”
― George Orwell, Burmese Days
Mia Kirshner
“We stepped carefully, so softly, over thorny plants. The dust had turned to mud, splattering our shoes, socks, and legs. By the time we reached the boat, our clothes were clinging to our flesh and stained with the bloody remains of mosquitoes.”
― Mia Kirshner, I Live Here
George Orwell
“Like the crocodile, he strikes always at the weakest spot.”
― George Orwell, Burmese Days
Victoria Armour-Hileman
“But if the world measures a refugee according to the worst story, we will always excuse human suffering, saying it is not yet as bad as someone else’s.”
― Victoria Armour-Hileman
T.F. Rhoden
“Seriously, just have the gonads to quote yourself! ^__^”
― T.F. Rhoden
H.E. Bates
“Well, we have to do something. There are all sorts of rumours about soldiers coming up.”
“These people are full of rumours. They love rumours.” Paterson stood watching the bridge. “Their whole life is a rumour.”
― H.E. Bates
Victoria Armour-Hileman
“Seeds of destruction take root in the human heart, and even among those who long for peace, they call to our darker instincts and urge us to violence.:”
― Victoria Armour-Hileman, Singing to the Dead: A Missioner’s Life among Refugees from Burma
tags: burma, missioner, mon, refugee 1 likes Like
“After a year or two, the long term expats won’t see the beggars the same way. After a year or two, the cheeky young monks won’t make them smile. After a year or two, the newest restaurant opening won’t pull them in. To preserve they will withdraw and settle. They will come to accept the limits of it all. The hype won’t bother them. The promise won’t motivate them. They will have accepted their odd expat life, their awkward place in the chimera that is Myanmar today.”
― Craig Hodges
H.E. Bates
“Paterson was not a member of the club. [..] When Paterson wanted to swim he took a towel and swam in the river naked and his Burmese boy stood on the bank with his bath-robe and waited to rub him down. ‘I like to swim in water, not people,’ was a remark of Paterson’s that for a long time went round the club.”
― H.E. Bates, The Jacaranda Tree