Hawaii Quotes

“I'll try to communicate, Taylor said. She spoke slowly and deliberately. Hello! We need help. Is your village close?
My village is Denver. And I think it's a long way from here. I'm Nicole Ade. Miss Colorado.
We have a Colorado where we're from too! Tiara said. She swiveled her hips, spread her arms wide, then brought her hands together prayer-style and bowed. Kipa aloha.
Nicole stared. I speak English. I'm American. Also, did you learn those moves from Barbie's Hawaiian Vacation DVD?
Ohmigosh, yes! Do your people have that, too?”
― Libba Bray, Beauty Queens

“Sitting on the porch alone, listening to them fixing supper, he felt again the indignation he had felt before, the sense of loss and the aloneness, the utter defenselessness that was each man's lot, sealed up in his bee cell from all the others in the world. But the smelling of boiling vegetables and pork reached him from the inside, the aloneness left him for a while. The warm moist smell promised other people lived and were preparing supper.

He listened to the pouring and the thunder rumblings that sounded hollow like they were in a rainbarrel, shared the excitement and the coziness of the buzzing insects that had sought refuge on the porch, and now and then he slapped detachedly at the mosquitoes, making a sharp crack in the pouring buzzing silence. The porch sheltered him from all but the splashes of the drops that hit the floor and their spray touched him with a pleasant chill. And he was secure, because someewhere out beyond the wall of water humanity still existed, and was preparing supper.”
― James Jones, From Here to Eternity

“A slight breeze cooled the Hawaiian spring air, swaying the branches of palm trees, which cast black silhouettes against the purple and orange colors of the twilight sky.”
― Victoria Kahler, Capturing the Sunset

“The groundswell of outrage over the invasion of Iraq often cited the preemptive war as a betrayal of American ideals. The subtext of the dissent was: 'This is not who we are.' But not if you were standing where I was. It was hard to see the look in that palace tour guide's eyes when she talked about the American flag flying over the palace and not realize that ever since 1898, from time to time, this is exactly who we are.”
― Sarah Vowell, Unfamiliar Fishes

“We, the Hawaiian people, who are born from the union of Papahanaumoku and Wakea, earth mother and sky father, and who have lived in these islands for over 100 generations, will always have the moral right to the lands of Hawai'i now and forever, no matter what any court says.”
― Lilikalā K. Kame'eleihiwa

“Mount Kilauea spilled glowing lava like cords of orange neon-lighting from seemingly nowhere. In the blackness that engulfed the night, electric heat lit flowing streams that fell into the sea, disappearing in a cloud of steam with a sizzling splash.”
― Victoria Kahler, Capturing the Sunset

“Look, Neal, Hawaii is not some magical pixie wonderland; it’s an American state populated by atomic weapons, a remnant native population and people too stupid to spell their way out of a paper bag. Most of them came here to escape pathetic lives in the forty nine other states, so in some sense, Hawaii is a scenic cul-de-sac filled with people who want to drink themselves to death without feeling judged.”
― Douglas Coupland, Worst. Person. Ever.

“Write, drink and be merry!”
― Maureen A. Miller

“I once heard a grouty northern invalid say that a coconut tree might be poetical, possibly it was; but it looked like a feather-duster struck by lightning.”
― Mark Twain, Mark Twain in Hawaii: Roughing It in the Sandwich Islands: Hawaii in the 1860s

“I've come to believe that how we choose to live with pain, or injustice, or death...is the true measure of the Divine within us.”
― Alan Brennert, Moloka'i

“When the infernal machine of plantation slavery began to grind its wheels, iron laws of economics came into play, laws that would lead to immeasurable suffering but would also, and equally inevitably, produce new languages all over the world – languages that ironically, in the very midst of man's inhumanity to man, demonstrated the essential unity of humanity.”
― Derek Bickerton, Bastard Tongues: A Trail-Blazing Linguist Finds Clues to Our Common Humanity in the World's Lowliest Languages

“Even though hurricane Dora passed 500 miles south of the Hawaiian islands, it devastated Maui island with historic wildfires that destroyed Lahaina!”
― Steven Magee

“I find the Hawaii afternoon heat to be fatiguing.”
― Steven Magee

“The historic Lahaina town joined the Hawaiian spirits in August 2023.”
― Steven Magee

“8th August 2023: Historic Lahaina town joined the Hawaiian spiritual world.”
― Steven Magee

“Hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed in the August 2023 Lahaina fire.”
― Steven Magee

“I am interested to see how Hawaii’s ‘War On The Homeless’ is going to work out on Maui after the loss of historic Lahaina town.”
― Steven Magee

“Hurricane Dora will be remembered as one of the most devastating hurricanes to ever hit Hawaii, even though it was 500 miles away!”
― Steven Magee

“Will Lahaina rebuild or acknowledge that it may be better to build elsewhere in a climate changed Hawaii?”
― Steven Magee

“Hawaiian Electric has turned into the new Pacific Gas and Electric Company.”
― Steven Magee

“Life for electrical utilities in Hawaii forever changed in the August 2023 Maui wildfires.”
― Steven Magee

“Why is a private utility company that is linked to destroying Lahaina being given $95,000,000 in taxpayer money?”
― Steven Magee

“How much has the government spent on the Ukraine war and how much has it spent on the Lahaina disaster in Hawaii?”
― Steven Magee

“I expect Hawaii summer vacations will end soon, as tourists will not like the excessive heat that climate change is creating in the Hawaiian islands.”
― Steven Magee

“After the destruction of Lahaina, I will not be voting Democrat in the next election.”
― Steven Magee

“I expect the Maui wildfires that destroyed Lahaina to be remembered as one of the biggest tourism disasters in history.”
― Steven Magee

“Living in Hawaii and working at the world’s largest telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory was my September 11th 2001.”
― Steven Magee

“I remember being at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii and watching the 9-11 attacks on TV. It happened in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep and I only found out about it when I arrived at work. By that time the two towers had collapsed hours earlier.”
― Steven Magee

“The first few days of pollution from a Hawaii volcanic eruption can be bad while it fountains lava. Once it settles in to oozing lava, the pollution generally calms down.”
― Steven Magee

“It was interesting to watch the Lahaina disaster victims getting an education on how their government really is!”
― Steven Magee