Cultural Quotes

“A good work culture and work environment is very crucial in helping your employees to put their best foot forward.”
― Pooja Agnihotri, 17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure

“Her spirited blue eyes danced like elves in the night and her chestnut hair shone like the sun on autumn leaves.”
― Rowena Kinread, The Missionary

“Beyond them stood a far greater number of men, all dressed like human versions of classic tin soldiers; dark blue jackets, white shirts, red sashes and black top hats. Definitely not 21st century military uniform; I’d have thought that they were actors had they not, on a drum roll, unshouldered their rifles and fired into the air.”
― Oliver Dowson, There's No Business Like International Business: Business Travel – But Not As You Know It

“I love airports. I’m fascinated by how an airport runs seamlessly as one huge well-oiled machine, and to watch how, when things go wrong, as they do all the time, all those little crises are fixed by people running around like the T-cells of a mammalian immune system dealing with infections before they have chance to get out of control.”
― Oliver Dowson, There's No Business Like International Business: Business Travel – But Not As You Know It

“But as the good-hearted young man discovers, a hero is not merely born, he is honed in the moments when his love and loyalty are the most sorely tested.”

― Jin Yong”
― Jin Yong, A Hero Born

“The story of how I threw up over John Lennon’s Beatle boots is worth telling.”
― Harry F. MacDonald, Magic Alex and the Secret History of Rock and Roll

“Out of that kitchen came food not only that I had never tasted, but that I hadn’t even dreamed of tasting. Gumbo, corn jacks and blackened fish was just the start of many dishes. It was like finding all the exotic scents in the world and wrapping as many of them as you can into a dish. Cumin and coriander, paprika, red peppers, anise and fennel, burnt orange peel and chili. It felt like the sailors from every port in the world from Morocco and Madagascar to the coast of Malabar had each brought a spice with them to throw into the cooking pot.”
― Harry F. MacDonald, Magic Alex and the Secret History of Rock and Roll

“It’s April 2006. It’s a Saturday. I’m walking through a market in Seoul, Korea, having a very public screaming match with a young Chinese-Korean woman whom I have recently promoted to Asia-Pacific Regional Manager. Despite the promotion, she is not happy. I think she wants my job. Right now, I’d happily give it to her if it would shut her up and calm me down. If I’d wanted a screaming match, I could have stayed at home; no, correct that, I’ve never had a domestic dispute as loud and unpleasant as this is turning out to be.”
― Oliver Dowson, There's No Business Like International Business: Business Travel – But Not As You Know It

“Thousands of stars glittered in an inky sky. Glow-worms sparkled in the grass and owls hooted in the distance. It was so peaceful that Patricius’ breast swelled with love and thankfulness for the Lord’s goodness.”
― Rowena Kinread, The Missionary

“I am trying to get to an airport hotel. I can see it. I know it’s the right hotel because the name is shining out from the top of it in 10-foot-high illuminated letters. It is huge. It is right next to the highway. But there is no exit. I have no idea how to get there or, more pressingly, how to get off this road in the first place. There’s a lot of traffic and, worse, motorcycles with no lights are buzzing past me on the nearside. They all know where they are going and are determined to go there as fast as they can. They have no patience for a foreign visitor searching for an exit. This is no time to learn to drive all over again.”
― Oliver Dowson, There's No Business Like International Business: Business Travel – But Not As You Know It

“Don’t seem to matter much where you are, but folks are always saying you shoulda been here long, long ago, the scene has all dried up. Georgie Harrison said it about Haight–Ashbury, and Sid and Nancy said it about the Chelsea Hotel. The only place they could never really say that about was MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. There was a crackle in the air that just let you know you were alive. As Bobby sang it, later there was music in the cafes and revolution wafting in the wind.”
― Harry F. MacDonald, Magic Alex and the Secret History of Rock and Roll

“On the Greek island of Hydra there are no cars. You have to travel by donkey or walk. If you go up the hill from the harbor and walk the ancient paved pathways you will enter a square of sorts and find a tavern called Douskos. If you sit there under the tree, pick up a battered guitar and sing sweetly to the cat, they will kick you out. They’ve had enough of that sort of thing already at Douskos. Stop there if you can. I did. I had to. Leonard and Joni wanted some private time.”
― Harry F. MacDonald, Magic Alex and the Secret History of Rock and Roll

“Patricius’ heart sank. He studied the druids and recognised a few from Antrim. They stood around the king in their white robes, their hair shaved from ear to ear, chewing their thumbnails and chanting curses. The king raised him arms to silence them. “Kill him! Kill him!” they demanded.”
― Rowena Kinread, The Missionary

“Every time rocks fell or a bird screeched, Patricius felt his heart squeezing in terror. He would never recover from his youth in Hibernia.”
― Rowena Kinread, The Missionary

“You never change, Salvatore, always thinking of food.”
Salvatore pretended to be offended. “I’m practical, that’s all. We don’t want anyone to faint with exhaustion.”
― Rowena Kinread, The Missionary

“Salvatore quickly withdrew his sword, ready to attack.
Patricius held him back. “No,” he said. “Síochán. We have come in peace.”
― Rowena Kinread, The Missionary

“That is the sidhe bridge.” She chuckled. “The fairy bridge. The Gaels are very superstitious. They believe they must throw silver over the bridge every time they cross it, or it will bring bad luck!”
― Rowena Kinread, The Missionary

“Thank you but no. I… I don’t love you and I believe that sex should only take place with love.”
― Rowena Kinread, The Missionary

“Parsons famously divided the social science world into a set of component "systems"—notably the social, the cultural, and the psychological—a division that by now seems as arbitrary as it was then influential, especially in its distinction between social structure and the cultural order. Even at the time, it struck some that the project was like analyzing water into its discernible ele­ments of hydrogen and oxygen in order to understand why it runs downhill.”
― Marshall Sahlins, What Kinship Is-And Is Not

“There are no towns in Hibernia. The population is entirely rural and dispersed.”
― Rowena Kinread, The Missionary

“Before long our entire table was covered in food: an earthenware ramekin of pearly-pink prawns bathed in garlic butter; translucent, paper-thin slices of cured ham fanned out on the plate; tortilla espanola with nuggets of potato and sweet onion; candy-stripe beets studded with goat cheese and almond slivers; slow-cooked short ribs almost silky in their tenderness; thick chorizo stew.”
― Kirstin Chen, Soy Sauce for Beginners

“« C’est un livre magnifique. En pleine période de folie fasciste et d’engouement militariste et ultranationaliste, Yoshino a eu l’audace d’écrire, à l’intention des jeunes Japonais, un livre qui prônait l’usage critique de la raison et défendait la supériorité éthique de l’amitié des égaux par rapport à la soumission rampante et aveugle à l’égard des aînés et des dominants. »”
― Akira Mizubayashi, Âme brisée

“Trying to build the world’s largest telescope atop the most sacred mountain in Hawaii is a cultural violation to the Hawaiian’s.”
― Steven Magee

“This book is the first of its kind to record and express the past from a Banaban perspective.”
― Stacey M. King, Te Rii ni Banaba: backbone of Banaba

“It is the integrative synergy of the arts, based on cultural traditions and current trauma-informed practice, that is requisite to addressing traumatic stress with most children, adults, families, groups, and communities.”
― Cathy A. Malchiodi, Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy: Brain, Body, and Imagination in the Healing Process

“TIME has an idiosyncrasy for hyperbolizing its relevance within all that exists, all that is to be. Suggesting the first fundamental form of appraising practicality, efficiency and greatness by its usage; defined by a hindsight perspective once it has passed.”
― Demetrius Williamson, Jr., A Book That I Would Read

“QUESTIONS are valiant. Partially confrontational. Because a question is asked, the assumption is that an answer is unknown. A stimulate for a discussion. When a question is posed, so is a requirement. You’re either going to answer or elude. Lie or tell your truth. Elaborate or give short answers. There is an opening for logic or emotion. Or both.”
― Demetrius Williamson, Jr., A Book That I Would Read

“The word NOTHING lacks comparison when there’s an absence of action. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing, as said by Billy Preston. Yet, the decision to do nothing can differ. Indicating that, once before in time, a decision was made in a similar scenario of some sort.

Can we trust without comparison? A response from a friend suggested that because trust is debatably a natural instinct [similar to love] and comparison is not of the like, you can trust without comparison.”
― Demetrius Williamson, Jr., A Book That I Would Read

“To grasp any conceptual idea of potential, it is fundamental for humanity to include selflessness, confidence, optimism and faith. Advocates of conviction. Noth the richest. Not the loudest. Not the most popular. Not even the most intelligent. People who will actively advocate all examples of potential, increase and improvement with no prerequisites, no prejudices, no filibustering.”
― Demetrius Williamson, Jr., A Book That I Would Read

“She looked out the taxi window at the picturesque Creole cottages and brick Spanish Colonial houses on the way back to the bakery. Piper could understand why New Orleans was an attractive location for filming. The culturally rich neighborhoods and diverse locations, from bayou to big city, provided vivid backdrops. There were willing extras of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities available, as well as state-of-the-art sound stages and plenty of skilled crew members. Piper also knew that Louisiana offered attractive tax incentives to the film industry to bring in business to New Orleans. The city was working hard to earn the moniker "Hollywood of the South.”
― Mary Jane Clark, That Old Black Magic