#is

Last chances in the Middle East have been two a dirham since the 1950s. Each year the enmities are more profound, the despots more bloodthirsty and clownish, the violence more extreme, and the conditions of ordinary existence more ghastly. ↗

— James Buchan

#chances #conditions #despots #each #east

Of all the failed technologies that litter the onward march of science - steam carriages, zeppelins, armoured trains - none has been so catastrophic to prosperity as the last century's attempt to generate electricity from nuclear fission. ↗

— James Buchan

#been #carriages #catastrophic #century #electricity

To illustrate what I mean, an apt dancer may be in thorough unison with the others in that particular group, and at the same time reveal a difference in dancing temperament, rhythm or technique; she may phrase, accentuate or actually interpret differently. ↗

— Florenz Ziegfeld

#actually #apt #dancer #dancing #difference

The truth is, of course, that history is not completed in modern commerce any more than philosophy is perfected in political economy. In other words, there is nothing timeless or God-given about filling stations and penicillin and plastic bags. ↗

— James Buchan

#any #bags #commerce #completed #course

The west has a great deal to answer for in the Middle East, from Britain's belated empire-building after the First World War to the US and British policy that condemns modern Iraq to the material and social squalor of a half-century ago. ↗

— James Buchan

#ago #answer #belated #britain #british

The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration. ↗

— Pearl S. Buck

#another #answer #away #being #does

The world survived the fall of the Roman empire and will no doubt outlast our own so much more splendid civilisation. ↗

— James Buchan

#doubt #empire #fall #more #much

It may be that religion is dead, and if it is, we had better know it and set ourselves to try to discover other sources of moral strength before it is too late. ↗

— Pearl S. Buck

#better #dead #discover #had #know

The bitterest creature under heaven is the wife who discovers that her husband's bravery is only bravado, that his strength is only a uniform, that his power is but a gun in the hands of a fool. ↗

— Pearl S. Buck

#bravado #bravery #creature #discovers #fool

Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. ↗

— Pearl S. Buck

#kiss #kissing #love #most #mothers