The Roots of Heaven QUOTES

21 " The idea that a professional tracker like Idriss could suddenly start suffering from a sort of poetic remorse, soulfulness, regret at the memory of the animals he had tracked down— such an idea could only come to birth in decadent brains and exquisite sensitivities freshly arrived from Europe — which were the beginning of all our troubles in Africa and elsewhere, be it said in passing. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

22 " The obstinacy of those people is funny. That someone may simply be fed up with them and their ways and may want to look for another company, that just cannot enter their heads. They can’t believe it. There must be a trick behind it, a dishonest trick, something crooked, something political, something they can understand. They’re so used to sniffing at their own behinds that when someone wants to get a breath of fresh air, to turn at last to something different, and more important, and threatened, something that's got to be
saved at all costs, it's quite beyond them. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

23 " After all,' he said, “I suppose there are things that nothing can kill and that remain forever intact. It’s as if nothing could ever happen to human beings. They’re a species over which it’s not easy to triumph. They’ve a way of rising from the ashes, smiling and holding hands. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

24 " I too have often felt the need to understand it all; but I know my limits. In my life I've done more suffering than thinking — though I believe one understands better that way. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

25 " On the whole, people are beginning to understand. Any fellow who's known war, fear, who thinks of his children and of the hydrogen tests, and of political oppression, is beginning to understand that the protection of nature concerns him directly. . . "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

26 " He wondered, with some annoyance, whether he would finally learn what he wanted to know, or if he would have in the end to content himself with what he already knew. He felt that, at his age, patience was ceasing to be a virtue and was becoming a luxury he could less and less afford. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

27 " Never say die. You have to be mad, it’s true, to keep going and hope, but the first reptile who dragged his belly out of the water a million years ago to live on land without lungs and tried to breathe all the same — he too was mad. In the end the reptile became a man. We must always try to do the best we can — perhaps one day well become human, who knows. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

28 " He might all the same do a little something for us. We’re
on our backs, doesn’t He see?'
'I’m doing my best, I tell you,' said Father Julien. 'I pray and I pray and I pray . . .'
'Even we find a way of doing something for the may- beetles.’
'You don’t give a damn about the may-beetles, you bastards,' said Father Julien. 'You do it out of pride. If you weren’t in a forced labor camp you’d step on may-beetles without even noticing their existence. This is something that happens in the head, not in the heart. You’re bursting with pride, that’s what it is. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

29 " After all, Father, to understand their demonstration one doesn't have to be very intelligent: it's enough to have suffered. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

30 " You see, if I simply told them that they're disgusting, that it's time to change, to respect nature at long last, to leave a margin of humanity in which there would be room even for all elephants in Africa, that wouldn't worry them much. They’d shrug their shoulders and say that I’m a visionary, a fanatic, just about fit to be locked up. So one’s got to outwit them. That’s why I’m quite willing to let them think that the elephants are only a pretext, a symbol, and that what’s underneath it is a terroristic movement for African independence, and that the defense of the elephants is merely a method of protest against the exploitation of Africa’s natural wealth by white men. That — there’s no doubt about it — has a good chance of waking them up, alarming them, making them do something, making them take me seriously; and the cleverest, most astute thing to do is obviously to deprive us of the pretext — that is to say, to ban elephant hunting completely. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

31 " He thought of all that the newspapers were printing about him. Each man attributed to him his own hopes, his own motives and rancors, and his own secret misanthropy: it was in vain that he stated his own aims clearly; there was nothing he could do about it.
And yet the truth was clear; it could hardly be clearer.
He loved all those free roots that gave their beauty to the earth and to man’s life on it.
He loved nature, and he had always done his best to defend it. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

32 " Look here, my friend, for three years I was a bus conductor in Paris. I recommend it during rush hours; it gave me what you might call a knowledge of human nature — a good, solid knowledge which prompted me to change sides and go over to the elephants. I hope that’ll do for you, as an explanation. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

33 " To the people, Morel was the hero of a cause that had nothing to do with nations and political ideologies, a cause that had nothing to do with Africa and touched what was deepest in them — a secret rancor — a confused dream of being able one day to emerge victorious from the difficulty of being a man. They were staking a claim to respectful and decent treatment. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

34 " Besides, nothing mattered to her any longer. If she had anything left it was her horror of cold — and the uncle had coal through his contacts. But she found the atmosphere of Berlin hard to bear. She dreamed of escape, of going to live under some more clement sky, far, very far away from it all, closer to nature. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

35 " Behind him stood Wa’itari, who believed that a new world war was imminent and who expected to appear after the fall of Europe, as the first hero of Pan-African nationalism. Behind them stood, as in the shadow of all great causes, mere
bandits and murderers, as a pledge of earthly triumph. Behind them again, the silent awakening mass of the black peoples whose hour was striking, whatever happened. Behind them again, very far behind, and perhaps only in Morel’s heart, came the elephants.
'It was in fact a great cause, with the company a great cause always keeps: men of good will and those who exploit them, generous endeavor and sordid calculations, an ideal over the horizon, but also the treachery of ends justifying means. Man’s oldest company, I tell you, a noble cause and a pack of scoundrels behind it, a generous dream and all the purity that’s needed to cause great massacres ... "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

36 " I had made it my chief aim in Africa to hinder the spreading of our poisons — of our absurd political notions of democracy, self-government, parliamentary institutions, political parties, and all that threatened the African way of life and the traditions of the African tribes. I was here to watch over a pastoral civilization, to prevent it from going our way, and I was ready to do anything to carry out my self-appointed task. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

37 " He was back once more to the starting point: he must find money. Arms traffickers didn’t give their wares for nothing and 'volunteers' did not join up on the strength of promissory notes. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

38 " ...He could strike down the prisoners and he could stamp on the may-beetles, but what he was aiming at was out of reach and could not be killed.
At last he understood.
He had undertaken the task which no army, no police force, no militia, no party, no organization could successfully carry out. It would have been necessary to kill all human beings down to the very last, and even then it was possible, yes, it was probable that their imperishable spirit would remain behind them like a smile of heaven over the face of earth. "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

39 " Islam calls that 'the roots of heaven' and to the Mexican Indians it is the 'tree of life'--the thing that makes both of them fall on their knees and raise their eyes and beat their tormented breasts. [...] Our needs--for justice, for freedom and dignity--are roots of heaven that are deeply embedded in our hearts, but of heaven itself men know nothing but the gripping roots... "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven

40 " I’m an old naturalist. I defend all the roots that God has planted deep in the earth — and also the ones He has planted forever in the human soul — call it a need for justice, for freedom, for dignity . . . "

― Romain Gary , The Roots of Heaven