Quotes by James Clavell - Page 1 | QuoteForever

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Christ, it's so good to be alive.
James Clavell / Novelist
Alive
Christ
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Isn't it only laughter we can stay human?
James Clavell / Novelist
Humans
Laughter
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Horses are far worse than men for treachery.
James Clavell / Novelist
Men
Horse
Treachery
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First the priests arrive. Then the conquistadores.
James Clavell / Novelist
Atheism
Atheist
Firsts
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Life and death are the same...Leave karma to karma.
James Clavell / Novelist
Karma
Life And Death
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You never know . . . that's what makes life interesting.
James Clavell / Novelist
Interesting
Knows
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The scarcity of years does not necessitate lack of wisdom.
James Clavell / Novelist
Doe
Scarcity
Years
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There is no dignity for either the sufferer or the torturer
James Clavell / Novelist
Dignity
Shoguns
Sufferers
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What can I do to help thee?" he asked. "Believe there is a tomorrow.
James Clavell / Novelist
Believe
Helping
Tomorrow
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Of what real value is a title? The power is the only important thing
James Clavell / Novelist
Important
Real
Titles
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The more I know, the more sure I am I know so little. The eternal paradox.
James Clavell / Novelist
Eternal
Littles
Paradox
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What are clouds, but an excuse for the sky? What is life, but an escape from death?
James Clavell / Novelist
Clouds
Excuse
Sky
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It's always important to take time to study men -- important men. Friends and enemies.
James Clavell / Novelist
Men
Enemy
Important
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Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life - Shogun.
James Clavell / Novelist
Indescribable
Joy
Shoguns
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The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world, and the most dangerous.
James Clavell / Novelist
Dangerous
Important Work
Truth Is
Search
The Most Important
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The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world - and the most dangerous.
James Clavell / Novelist
Important
Truth Is
World
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How beautiful life is and how sad! How fleeting, with no past and no future, only a limitless now.
James Clavell / Novelist
Beautiful
Fleeting
Past
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God gives us intelligence to uncover the wonders of nature. Without the gift, nothing is possible.
James Clavell / Novelist
Giving
Wonder
Wonder Of Nature
Wonders
Uncover
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All stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending, and if they're any good, the ending is a beginning.
James Clavell / Novelist
Ifs
Middle
Stories
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.., by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.
James Clavell / Novelist
Destruction
Enemy
Planning
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How can a man be so brave and so stupid, so gentle and so cruel, so warming and so detestable -- all at the same time?
James Clavell / Novelist
Men
Brave
Stupid
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You've commited murder just as much as Helene did. You killed a fly with a human head. She killed a human with a fly head.
James Clavell / Novelist
Committed
Humans
Murder
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Isn't man but a blossom taken by wind, and only the mountains and the sea and the stars and this land of the gods everlasting?
James Clavell / Novelist
Men
Stars
Taken
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Wars are fought by teenagers, you realize that. They really ought to be fought by the politicians and old people who start these wars.
James Clavell / Novelist
War
People
Teenager
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So much of 'normal, civilized' life is bull that you can't imagine... What frightens you, doesn't frighten me, what frightens me, you'd laugh at.
James Clavell / Novelist
Fear
Laughing
Laughter
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Guard yourself and your conscience no one else will and know that a bad decision at the right time can destroy you far more surely than any bullet!
James Clavell / Novelist
Bullets
Decision
Right Time
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Anger is something you should only vent in front of intimates, and friends and relations. Never be angry in front of strangers because you lose face.
James Clavell / Novelist
Faces
Should
Stranger
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What you do with strangers is ignore them for. No second chance, no sorry I did it, never accept an apology, but never, ever get angry with strangers.
James Clavell / Novelist
Apology
Second Chance
Sorry
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Changi for me - of course it's easy to be wise after the event, and to discuss it cleverly after the event - was about as near as you can get to being dead and still be alive.
James Clavell / Novelist
Wise
Alive
Easy
Events
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Anger is one of the most intimate of emotions and to expose it to strangers is one of the most stupid and sickening things to do. Never get angry with strangers because they are strangers.
James Clavell / Novelist
Emotion
Stranger
Stupid
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Isn’t it only through laughter that we become one with the gods and thus can endure life and can overcome all the horror and waste and suffering here on earth? …Isn’t it only through laughter we can stay human?
James Clavell / Novelist
Laughter
Overcoming
Suffering
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Patience means restraining yourself. There are seven emotions, Joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear, and hate. If a man doesn't give way to these, he's patient. I'm not as strong as I might be but I'm patient.
James Clavell / Novelist
Grief
Hate
Strong
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Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san. Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal. We have no word for 'love' as I understand you to mean it. Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need.
James Clavell / Novelist
Loyalty
Christian
Love Is
Mean
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Why is she afraid?" he asked. "She's not Anjin-san. Just a little nervous. Please excuse her. She's never seen a foreigner close to before." "Tell her when the moon's full, barbarians sprout horns and fire comes out of our mouths like dragons.
James Clavell / Novelist
Dragons
Fire
Moon
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And Adam ruled, for he was the King. Until the day his will to be King deserted him. Then he died, food for a stronger. And the strongest was always the King, not by strength alone, but King by cunning and luck and strength together. Among the rats.
James Clavell / Novelist
Kings
Luck
Together
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Changi became my university instead of my prison. Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life - the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving.
James Clavell / Novelist
Art
Experts
Inmates
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To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline and training is all about.
James Clavell / Novelist
Discipline
Effort
Thinking
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It's a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for the world to see, another in his breast to show to his special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except to himself alone, hidden only God knows where.
James Clavell / Novelist
Men
Heart
Real
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I write short stories. They may appear big in size, but when you consider it, they're four or five novels in one... In return for picking up one of my books, I'm trying to give them value for their money... the goal of writing any book is to create the illusion that what you are reading is reality and you're part of it.
James Clavell / Novelist
Book
Reading
Writing
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Blackthorne, beside the gates, was still turmoiled by his boundless joy at her reprieve and he remembered how his own will had been stretched that night of his near-seppuku, when he had had to get up as a man and walk home as a man unsupported, and became samurai. And he watched her, despising the need for this courage, yet understanding it, even honoring it.
James Clavell / Novelist
Home
Men
Night
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Karma is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very important. The strong are the patient ones, Anjin-san. patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don't give way to the seven, you're patient, then you'll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity.
James Clavell / Novelist
Karma
Grief
Hate
Strong
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How baffling it was that even the most cunning and clever people would frequently see only what they wanted to see, and would rarely look beyond the thinnest of facades. Or they would ignore reality, dismissing it as the facade. And then, when their whole world fell to pieces...they would tear their topknots or rend their clothes and bewail their karma, blaming gods or kami or luck or their lords or husbands or vassals-anything or anyone-but never themselves.
James Clavell / Novelist
Karma
Clever
Husband
Reality
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Leave the problems of God to God and karma to karma. Today you're here and nothing you do will change that. Today you are alive and here and honored and blessed with good fortune. Look at this suset, it's beautiful, neh? This sunset exists. Tomorrow does not exist. There is only now. Please look. It is so beautiful and it will never happen ever again, never, not this sunset, never in all infinity. Lose yourself in it, make yourself one with nature and do not worry about karma, yours, mine, or that of the village.
James Clavell / Novelist
Karma
Beautiful
Blessed
Sunset
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