The Far Pavilions Quotes

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer: let him step to the music that he hears.”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“They rode out together from the shadows of the trees, leaving the Bala Hissar and the glowing torch of the burning Residency behind them, and spurred away across the flat lands towards the mountains...
And it may even be that they found their Kingdom.”
― M. M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“India and its peoples; not the British India of cantonments and Clubs, or the artificial world of hill stations and horse shows, but that other India: that mixture of glamour and tawdriness, viciousness and nobility. A land full of gods and gold and famine. Ugly as a rotting corpse and beautiful beyond belief …”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“I cannot see anything admirable in stupidity, injustice and sheer incompetence in high places, and there is too much of all three in the present administration.”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“for the public, it seemed, preferred to believe that which disturbed it least and to ignore troublesome information. Which is a failing common to all nations.”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“But surely Uncle Akbar could not be dead as they were dead? There must be something indestructible — something that remained of men who had walked and talked with one and told one stories, men whom one had loved and looked up to. But where had it gone? It was all very puzzling, and he did not understand.”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“Nor have I become so blind that I cannot see what is written on your face, or so deaf that I cannot hear what is in your voice; and I am not yet so old that I cannot remember my own youth”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“What could be more entrancing than a carefree nomadic existence camping, moving, exploring strange places and the ruins of forgotten empires, sleeping under canvas or the open sky, and giving no thought to the conventions and restriction of the modern world?”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“Perhaps I myself am a pompous and conceited old fool. And perhaps if these fools I complain of were French or Dutch or German I would not mind so much, because then I could say 'What else can you expect?' and feel superior. It is because they are men of my own race that I would have them all good.”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“Ash said slowly: ‘I don’t believe that anyone can have no regrets … Perhaps there are times when even God regrets that He created such a thing as man. But one can put them away and not dwell upon them; and I’ll have you, Larla … that alone is enough happiness for any man.’ He”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“Did you ever read Aurora Leigh? – “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees takes off his shoes.”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“people everywhere are suspicious of strangers and hostile towards anyone different from themselves”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“I do not doubt that you would have done all that was in your power to make her happy. But it is not in your power to build a new world; or to turn back time”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“they were a fanatically independent people, much addicted to intrigue, treachery and murder, and that among their other national traits was an intolerance of rulers (or, if it came to that, of any form of authority whatsoever, other than their own desires).”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“Have you really become so much an Angrezi that you believe your people have only to say “It is forbidden”, for such old customs as this to cease immediately? Bah!”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“People everywhere preferred to make their own mistakes, and resented strangers (even efficient and well-meaning ones) interfering with their affairs”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“because Afghanistan is no country to fight a war in – and an impossible one to hold if you win.”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“was”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“the enmity of closed minds towards all that is strange or new.”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions

“So that she lived always in hope, and when that hope was realized, was happy beyond expression – far more so than those who take happiness for granted because they feel their hold on it to be secure, and do not visualize it ending.”
― M.M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions