Quote of the Month

On War . . .

Lost Horizon, 1937 film (screenplay by Robert Riskin from novel by James Hilton)

High Lama: It is the entire meaning and purpose of Shangri-La.  It came to me in a vision, long, long ago.  I saw all the nations strengthening, not in wisdom, but in the vulgar passions and the will to destroy.  I saw the machine power multiplying, until a single weaponed man might match a whole army.  I foresaw a time when man, exalting in the technique of murder, would rage so hotly over the world, that every book, every treasure, would be domed to destruction.  This vision was so vivid and so moving, that I determined to gather together all things of beauty and of culture that I could, and preserve them here, against the doom toward which the world is rushing.  Look at the world today.  Is there anything more pitiful?  What madness there is!  What blindness!  What unintelligent leadership!  A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity, crashing headlong against each other, propelled by an orgy of greed and brutality.  A time must come my friend, when this orgy will spend itself.  When brutality and the lust for power must perish by its own sword. . . For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life.  And it is our hope that they may find it here.  For here, we shall be with . . . a way of life based on one simple rule: BE KIND!

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