In lieu of travel notes in this monsoon season when travel plans are oft put on hold and work is happily coming in, I would like to post gems of thoughts from books I read. In this post, I lift some favorite quotes from Paul Theroux's "The Happy Isles of Oceania".
"There is an intense but simple thrill in setting off in the morning on a mountain trail knowing that everything you need is on your back. It is a confidence in having left all inessentials behind, and of entering a world of natural beauty which has not been violated, where money has no value and possessions are a deadweight. The person with fewest possessions is the freest. Thoreau was right."
"Travel, which is nearly always seen as an attempt to escape from the ego, is in my opinion the opposite. Nothing induces concentration or inspires memory like an alien landscape or a foreign culture."
"The smaller one feels on the earth, dwarfed by mountains and assailed by weather, the more respectful one has to be -- and unless we are very arrogant, the less likely are we to poison or destroy it."
