Quotes by Sri Lankan Authors - Page 8

Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence
Arthur C. Clarke
As his body became more and more defenseless, so his means of offense became steadily more frightful.
Arthur C. Clarke
We have every piece of data on 200 million people,” he said, ticking off his fingers. “We have their bank accounts. We know how much they make and how much they spend and where. We have their social media. We know what they talk about, who they influence and how much. We know exactly how important each and everyone one of them is.
Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
Wise people listen to your words. Learned people listen to their interpretation of your words.
Dr. Asoka Jinadasa
Titles don’t mean anything. What really matters is the impact you make on a daily basis!
Akilnathan Logeswaran
He had sometimes wondered if the real reason why men sought danger was that only thus could they find the companionship and solidarity which they unconsciously craved.
Arthur C. Clarke
I am in the unthinkable situation that people cannot bear to contemplate.
Sonali Deraniyagala
Jung was absolutely right about one thing. We are occupied by gods. The mistake is to identify with the god occupying you.
Michael Ondaatje
Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the nonexistence of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now.
Arthur C. Clarke
Girls with poison necklacesto save themselves from torture.Just as women wear amuletswhich hold their rolled up fortunestranscribed on ola leaf.
Michael Ondaatje
The more people I am able to help, the more people are willing to help others. The more followers we have, the closer we are to a perfect world.
Akilnathan Logeswaran
The name one gives is inessential.What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by other name would smell as sweet.
Walpola Rahula
You think that you are an iconoclast, but you’re not. You just move, or replace what you cannot have. If you fail at something, you retreat into something else. Nothing changes you.... I left you because I knew I could never change you. You would stand in the room so still sometimes, as if the greatest betrayal of yourself would be to reveal one more inch of your character.
Michael Ondaatje
But nothing is said of the closeness between two people: how they grew in the shade of each other's presence. No one speaks of that exchange of gift and character --- the way a person took on and recognized in himself the smile of a lover. Individuals are seen only in the context of these swirling social tides.
Michael Ondaatje
Treasures are hidden and hard to find but if we could find a real treasure, it will shine our lives. In the similar way ultimate reality is hidden and hard to find but if we could find it, it will shine our lives.
Muditha Champika
In a front of each home garden the villagers fixed a triangular wooden lamp-house on the top of a pole planted on the ground to hold a small statue of Lord Buddha and some deities. They used to offer flowers at this small shrine and light a tiny clay oil lamp.
Swarnakanthi Rajapakse
Sometimes, during the lonely hours on the control deck, Bowman would listen to this radiation. He would turn up the gain until the room filled with a crackling, hissing roar; out of this background, at irregular intervals, emerged brief whistles and peeps like the cries of demented birds. It was an eerie sound, for it had nothing to do with Man; it was as lonely and meaningless as the murmur of waves on a beach, or the distant crash of thunder beyond the horizon.
Arthur C. Clarke
I love to see the sunshine on the wings of the Dragonflies... there is magic in it.
Ama H. Vanniarachchy
Jan had always been a good pianist, and now he was the finest in the world.
Arthur C. Clarke
We are not subjects of an autocratic King, but are citizens of the country contributing to the advancement of our people who pay taxes out of their hard earned income.
Nilantha Ilangamuwa
After their encounter on the approach to Jupiter, there would aways be a secret bond between them---not of love, but of tenderness, which is often more enduring.
Arthur C. Clarke
The confrontation lasted about five minutes; then the display died out as quickly as it had begun, and everyone drank his fill of the muddy water. Honor had been satisfied; each group had staked its claim to its own territory.
Arthur C. Clarke
I am someone who has a cold heart. If I am beside a great grief I throw barriers up so the loss cannot go too deep or too far. There is a wall instantly in place, and it will not fall.
Michael Ondaatje
Before walking in someone else’s shoes, you have to remove your shoes first.
Dr. Asoka Jinadasa
If humans are kind to each other, if really humanity do exist, the world would have been a better place and we wouldn’t need to fight so much for innocent lives. This would have made our struggles easier. As I get involved more and more in protecting innocent lives my faith in Humanity fades away. What a world we live in? Can we have faith in humanity? We humans are here to protect others, but we are the very reason that their lives are in danger. How long can we fight for the week, for the voiceless? The future is so dark!!!
Ama H. Vanniarachchy
Animosity does not eradicate animosity. Only by loving kindness is animosity dissolved. This law is ancient and eternal. (attributed to Buddha)
Ananda Maitreya
I was terrified that tomorrow the truth would start.
Sonali Deraniyagala
The major dilemma is that we tend to listen to reply, while all we should do is: listen to understand and feel.
Akilnathan Logeswaran
We are naked, but we think we are not; we are wrong, but think we are correct. We are misled but we think we are properly guided. We think we have leaders but in reality we do not. What we have are tyrants.
Nilantha Ilangamuwa
We often seek beauty in the outside, in the unknown, and often lack to realize the sheer beauty right in front of our very eyes, back home.
Akilnathan Logeswaran
What we can see in most societies is the gravity of suffering, tears of sorrow and nightmares of hopelessness.
Nilantha Ilangamuwa
That requires as much power as a small radio transmitter--and rather similar skills to operate. For it's the application of the power, not its amount, that matters. How long do you think Hitler's career as a dictator of Germany would have lasted, if wherever he went a voice was talking quietly in his ear? Or if a steady musical note, loud enough to drown all other sounds and to prevent sleep, filled his brain night and day? Nothing brutal, you appreciate. Yet, in the final analysis, just as irresistible as a tritium bomb.
Arthur C. Clarke
I once traveled with a guide who was taking me to Faya. He didn't speak for nine hours. At the end of it he pointed to the horizon and said, 'Faya!' That was a good day.
Michael Ondaatje
One physician may gravely exaggerate an illness and give up hope altogether. Another may ignorantly declare that there is no illness and that no treatment is necessary, thus deceiving the patient with false consolation. You may call the first one pessimistic and the second one optimistic. Both are equally dangerous.
Walpola Rahula
I love your roots, not the flower everybody sees!
Akilnathan Logeswaran
Laws ostensibly directed at undocumented immigrants inevitably affect the treatment of lawfully present immigrants and citizens who share the ethnic, racial, or national origin characteristics of undocumented immigrants.
Pratheepan Gulasekaram
I was asked, ‘When is the next book release, it’s been over a year since the last book release, have you given up writing?” Again a senseless question by a Sri Lankan journalist. Does it mean that being a writer means you have to release a book every month? Do they count a writer’s success by the quantity of books or the quality of the work? I am concerned about the quality of work, not the quantity of books that I release. One can publish hundreds of books within a couple of years today as technology is advance and cheap, but keeping the quality of the work is something you cannot depend of technology and money. It is the quality of thinking of the writer which should reflect through their work. I have been in the field for almost 2 and a half years, learnt a lot through trial and error, learn through my mistakes. I am no longer bothered about the number of books I write, how much I spend or how much I earn, my only focus is to do something quality which will last long, even after I am gone, something that will touch the soul of the readers. Will these journalists understand a soul of an artist? In this big dirty game of ‘media mafia’, ‘artists’ are only marketing ideas.
Ama H. Vanniarachchy
There are betrayals in war that are childlike compared with our human betrayals during peace. The new lovers enter the habits of the other. Things are smashed, revealed in a new light. This is done with nervous or tender sentences, although the heart is an organ of fire.
Michael Ondaatje
I have never seen anyone drink like he did. To say he drank with a vengeance is almost understating it: it was almost as if there was a thirst there, a deep and insatiable craving that made the man keep going back for more and more until he sat down in one corner with a bottle.
Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
At birth and at dawn for each and every dayit triumphs over the eclipse.It is the very first thing that you see.Its power is blinding at first, anon it opens our eyes to the allure of the world.Each moment it breathes life into us,warms our souls and colors our skin.At gloaming it seems to wane,while it privily awaits a timeto give birth to a new circle of life.
Akilnathan Logeswaran
The 1790 Naturalization law determined that "free white persons" could naturalize after two years of residency, and established that the children of citizens would also be citizens. Soon after, in 1795, Congress extended the residency period to five years, and in 1798 extended the residency requirement even further, to fourteen years.
Pratheepan Gulasekaram
The beauty of the unexpected lies within the surprise of the momentum,not only at its tipping point, but also within all the moments waiting.
Akilnathan Logeswaran
I know money isn't everything. but it certainly is something.
Thisuri Wanniarachchi
Of course, being brave does not mean running towards danger.
Janaki Sooriyarachchi
Foremost, step one could take is avoiding the cheap behaviour of compromising principles with decorated lies which assails the moral power of common sense.
Nilantha Ilangamuwa
They had lived down the road from each other as children. Everyday they walked home from school hand in hand; they were childhood sweethearts, they were bestfriends. And when they came of age, in the time-honoured Sri Lankan tradition they were given in marriage. To other people.
Ashok Ferrey
Slowly, Jimmy held up his outstretched hands. Men had been arguing for two hundred years about this gesture; would every creature, everywhere in the universe, interpret this as "See--no weapons"? But no one could think of anything better.
Arthur C. Clarke
But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger.
Arthur C. Clarke
One of the greatest tragedies in mankind's entire history may be that morality was hijacked by religion.
Arthur C. Clarke
Never expect appreciation for your hardwork. Make sure you are doing the right thing and just continue..
Janaki Sooriyarachchi
Few artists thrive in solitude and nothing is more stimulating than the conflict of minds with similar interests.
Arthur C. Clarke
The most fundamental problem is not that we don’t have a system to run but those with knowledge are cynically manipulating the system for petty personal desires.
Nilantha Ilangamuwa
[T]hese leaders must not believe they are actually being watched, for their behavior in no way reflects the possible existence of a set of values or ethical laws that supersedes their own dominion.
Arthur C. Clarke
We momentarily discover our wings under life-threatening circumstances
Asoka Nimal Jinadasa