his tribe QUOTES

1 " [H]e is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature. "

― George Bernard Shaw , Caesar and Cleopatra

2 " Tracker Marks was of a different opinion. Though he seemed more white than a white man, he had no time for their ways. For him his dress, his deportment was no different than staying downwind in the shadows of trees when hunting, blending into the world of those he hunted, rather than standing out from it. Once he had excelled at the emu dance & the kangaroo dance; then his talent led him to the whitefella dance, only now no-one was left of his tribe to stand around the fire & laugh & praise his talent for observation & stealthy imitation.

The whites have no law, he told Capois Death, no dreaming. Their way of life made no sense whatsoever. Still, he did not hate them or despise them. They were stupid beyond belief, but they had a power, & somehow their stupidity & their power were, in Tracker Marks’s mind, inextricably connected. But how? he asked Capois Death. How can power & ignorance sleep together? Questions to which Capois Death had no answer. "

― Richard Flanagan

3 " To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand. This is the sport, the luxury, special to the intellectual man. The gesture characteristic of his tribe consists in looking at the world with eyes wide open in wonder. Everything in the world is strange and marvelous to well-open eyes. "

― José Ortega y Gasset , The Revolt of the Masses

4 " One of them confessed to Paul that his tribe had heard stories about the fiercely cannibalistic ways of white men. Paul's first instinct was to laugh him off as a simpleminded fool. But the legend hadn't been conjured from thin air. When Paul tried to assure him that white men didn't eat black men, the man confronted him with a direct challenge: explain why they bought and sold Africans as if they were cattle, not human beings." Why do you come from nobody knows where, and carry off our men, and women, and children?" the man asked Paul. " Do you not fatten them in your far country and eat them? "

5 " Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!) Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace. "

6 " Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!) Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace And saw within the moonlight in his room Making it rich and like a lily in bloom An angel writing in a book of gold Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold And to the presence in the room he said - " What writest thou?" The Vision raised its head And with a look made all of sweet accord Answered " The names of those who love the Lord." "