Quotes by James Albert Michener

The masters in the art of living make little distinction between their work and their play, their labor and their leisure, their minds and their bodies, their information, their recreation, their love and their religion. They hardly know which is which, they simply pursue their vision of excellence at whatever they do, leaving others to decide whether they are working or playing.

Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today, because if you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow.

We are never prepared for what we expect.

The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home. You are like a pebble thrown into water; you become wet on the surface, but are never part of the water.

No idea is ever dead until those who believe in it say it's dead.

The really great writers are people like Emily Bronte who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.

An age is called Dark, not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

. . . Luddites were those frenzied traditionalists of the early 19th century who toured [England] wrecking new weaving machines on the theory that if they were destroyed . . . old jobs and old ways of life could be preserved . . . At certain times in his life each man is tempted to become a Luddite, for there is always something he would like to go back to. But to be against all change-against change in the abstract-is folly.