These are quotes related to Hawaiʻi or the Hawaiian Islands. I had found these over the years from various sources and regrettably, don’t have where they are all from. I’m also interested in finding “real” quotes, so I’m trying to verify these were actually said. I am working on getting the sources for each quote listed. You will see a green “Verified” next to the quotes where I have verified the source.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
“Seashells in ancient Polynesia were used as currency in trades. Different species of seashells represented different dollar values according to their scarcity or abundance. Seashells found in Hawaiian waters nowadays are known for their unique shapes and colorful appearances. Some shells of Hawaii have evolved into unique species not found elsewhere in the world and are highly prized by international collectors. Among those interesting variety of shells, you will find Augers, Miters, Cone Shells, Cowries, Spindles, Hawaiian Olive, Abalone, Clam, Pecten and many more in our Gold Collection.”
Source: Adex, INC.; Gift card
Submitted by: Grandma W.
“I’d like to do every movie in Hawai’i. The people are extraordinarily friendly and it’s just a gorgeous, gorgeous place…a paradise.”
– Ben Afflack
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 343
“Aloha is not a greeting, it is a feeling…the feeling that God is present.”
“In other words, aloha is God. Aloha is the power of God seeking to unite what is separated in the world – the power that unites heart with heart, soul with soul, life with life, culture with culture, race with race, nation with nation.”
– Reverend Dr. Abraham Akaka
Source: Eddie Would Go; page 33
“Paradise can be created wherever you are when you look at the world with gratitude and humor, asking what can I give today, how can I be courageous today, how can I show patience, how can I keep my heart open, who can I forgive, and how can I love fully today? These virtues are the beacons of light in all cultures.”
– Reverend Dr. Abraham Akaka
“Hawaiians, with their great respect for nature, feel God is in everything. So life is in everything – everything is sacred. And each atom is held together with love and aloha.”
– Kanieka Akaka
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 344
“The state of aloha can be created in an instant. It is a decision to behave with kindness, with generosity, wanting to give joy to another.”
– Irmgard Farden Aluli
“[E]verybody in Hawaii finds the businessman a sympathetic figure, for his constant concern is to ‘make money’…This is his first object and ruling passion, toward which he dedicates all his faculties. All foreigners who settle in Hawaii are – or want to be – businessmen.”
– Anglade, M.G. Bosseront d’; From his 1895 memoir A Tree in Bud: The Hawaiian Kingdom 1889-1893
“A hasty glance at these islands shows that they have not figured long upon the surface of the earth. The volcanic eruptions which have produced them, are yet recent, and many promontories, upon which villages are now seen, have been formed within the memory of man.”
– Theodore-Adolphe Barrot; French diplomat, 1836
“Beyond the reef and beyond the blue, nestling among coconut trees and bananas, umbrella trees and breadfruits, oranges, mangoes, hibiscus, algarroba and passion-flowers, almost hidden in the deep, dense greenery, was Honolulu. Bright blossom of the summer sea! Fair Paradise of the Pacific!”
– Isabella L. Bird; Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands, 1881
[Lord’s Prayer in Hawaiian]
“E ko mako Makua i-loko o ka Lani, e hoanoia Kou Inoa E hiki mai Kou auhuni e malamaia Kou Makemake me ka-nei honua e like me ia i malamaia ma ka Lani e haawi mai i a makau i ai no keia la e kala mai i ko makou lawehalaana me makou e kala nei i ka poe i lawehala mai i a makou mai alakai i a makou i ka hoowalewaleia mai ata a hookapele i a makou mai ka ino no ka mea Nou ke Aupuni a me ka Mana a me ka hoonaniia a man loa‘ku. Aemene.”
Source: Isabella L. Bird, “Six Months in the Sandwich Islands Among Hawai‘i’s Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes; Pg. 96
“It is excellent we boiled ad sliced; but the preparation of poi is an elaborate process. The roots are baked in an underground oven, and are then laid on a slightly hollowed board, and beaten with a stone pestle. It is hard work, and the men don’t wear any clothes while engaged in it. It is not a pleasant-looking operation. They often dip their hands in a calabash of water to aid them in removing the sticky mass, and they always look hot and tired. When it is removed from the board into large calabashes, it is reduced to paste by the addition of water, and set aside for two or three days to ferment. When ready for use it is either lilac or pink, and tastes like sour bookbinders’ paste. Before water is added, when it is in its dry state, it is called paiai, or hard food, and is then packed in 20 lb. bundles for inland carriage, and is exported to the Guano Islands. It is a prolific and nutritious plant. It is estimated that forty square feet will support a Hawaiian for a year.”
Source: Isabella L. Bird, “Six Months in the Sandwich Islands Among Hawai‘i’s Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes; Pg. 66
“Without an exception, the men and women wore wreaths and garlands of flowers, carmine, orange or pure white, twined round their hats and thrown carelessly round their throats, flowers unknown to me but redolent of the tropics in fragrance and color.”
– Bird, Isabella L.; Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands, 1881
“It is possible to fall in love with a beautiful woman of every ethnic group or nationality without having to leave the islands.”
– Borges, Jimmy
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 345
“Hawai’i is defined by kupuna wisdom.
‘Whatever you see is what I have gotten out of living. I have not been afraid of the depths, the heights, and the plateaus. I have dared to be involved in everything.'”
– Brandt, Gladys; 96 years old and a Living Treasure of Hawai’i.
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 344
“The Hawaiian Spirit is to live in gratitude, keep a sense of humor, and when possible in human relationships, learn to overlook.”
– Brooks, Tutu Elizabeth; age 100
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 344
“The recovery of Hawaiian self-determination is not only an issue for Hawaii, but for America. … let all of us, Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian, work toward a common goal. Let us resolve … to advance a plan for Hawaiian sovereignty.”
– Cayetano, Ben; Democratic Governor
“In many ways we, the people of these Islands, are childlike. We are hopeful and curious and find goodness in everything.”
– Cazimero, Kanoe
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 346
“The woman Pele burst forth at Nomilu,
She flashed to the heavens, on and on.
The woman Pele burst forth at Kakakalua, She flashed to the heavens, on and on.
It was awe-inspiring, awe-inspiring.
She flashed to the heavens, on and on.”
– Chant, Traditional Pele
“I have gone east, that is, west, as far as Hawaii, where I have stood alongside the highway at the edge of the sugarcane and listened for the voices of the great grandfathers.”
– China Men; Maxine Hong Kingston
“This is the cheapest market I ever yet saw, a moderate sized Nail will supply my Ships Company very plentifully with excellent Pork for the Day, and as to the Potatoes and Tarrow, they are attained upon still easier Terms, such is these People’s avidity for Iron.”
– Clerke, Captain; Captain of the Discovery
“The smell of plumeria is a powerful antidepressant.”
– Coffee, Captain Jerry
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 345
“Living on isolated islands, we cherish out diversities. For we have come from many places and in many different ways to this enormous yet intimate chamber of summer. These are islands of the gentlest invasions. And somehow the closer we live to each other, the more space we all seem to have, the more we are enlarged. Celebrate that.”
– Daws, Gavan and Ed Sheehan; The Hawaiians, 1970
“My family has been here for five generations, and I am still astonished at the beauty of these Islands and the grace of its people. With my last breath, as I leave this world, I will, still, with amazement, whisper the world…Hawai’i.”
– DeMello, Jon
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 347
“Where else can you shower under a 2,000 foot Waipio Valley waterfall while shampooing your hair with freshly picked awapuhi?”
– Derek, Bo
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 343
“[I]t is war that is pivotal to the Hawaiian imagination, war that fills the mind, war that seems to hover over Honolulu like the rain clouds on Tantalus.”
– Didion, Joan ; in her Vietnam-era essay “Letter from Paradise,” 1968
“Honolulu – it’s got everything. Sand for the children, sun for the wife, sharks for the wife’s mother.”
– Dodd, Ken
“A sight of the volcano fills the mind with awe. The strongest man is unstrung, the most courageous heart is daunted in approaching this place.”
– Douglas, David; Botanist, on climbing Mauna Loa, 1834
“Go out as far as you want. Never be afraid in the water.”
– Kahanamoku’s, Julia; advice to her six sons, including legendary surfer, swimmer, and waterman Duke Kahanamoku, C. 1900
“I appreciate the wonderful people and the way of life.”
– Eastwood, Clint
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 344
“The usual salutation is aroha (attachment), or aroha mui (attachment great); and the customary invitation to partake of some refreshment is, ‘The food belonging to and us is ready; let us eat together’; always using the proud kakou, or kaua, which includes the person addressed, as well as the speaker. On entering a chief’s house, should we remark, ‘Yours is a strong or convenient house’ he would answer, ‘it is good house for you and me.'”
– Ellis, William; Polynesian Researches, 1831
“Well do I remember as a child the joy with which I listened to the resounding music coming from half a dozen or more skillful women beating their kapa in different parts of the neighborhood. Each operator took a just pride in the musical performance, at times sending a simple telephonic message to her friends by means of her rhythmic beating.”
– Emerson, J. S.; Mid-Pacific Magazine, XXI, 505; June, 1926
“If everyone who had ever been loved, guided or healed by a kupuna of these Islands lit one candle in tribute to these wise and gracious elders at midnight, the light would be so bright that the Islands would look like they were drenched in the blazing noonday sun.”
– Fries, John De
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 347
“Hawai’i is the land of hugs and kisses. Wherever you go people hug and kiss you.”
– Garcia, Eddie; age 6
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 343
“I dream of a place where sunlight heals the tired spirit, far from the things I am used to, where cleansing waters float away my cares and fragrant trade winds and waterfall spray caress my skin and carry the years away.
I dream of a place where romance is kindled and children play carefree on sugar-white sand beaches.
I dream of a place where whales break the surface of crystal clear waters in a playful dance and people hold the land in reverence.
I dream of the Islands of Aloha.
I dream of Hawai’i.”
– GoHawaii Travel Planner
“A large bowl of poi is the inevitable center-piece [of family picnics], into which all present dip promiscuously, drawing out a finger thickly coated with the very adhesive sour paste, which by a series of most scientific twirls, is safely landed in the mouth.”
– Gordon-Cummings, C.F. ; Fire Fountains, 1883
“I have a memory of [a young Hawaiian man] diving into the sea and gamboling in it for hours, frolicking with the animal persistence and a religious veneration. He let himself be tossed and beaten by the surf, his black hair floating on the tide like that of a drowned man. And then he turned around again to court the waves, arms outstretched, with a kind of weary devotion, like a man making love to a woman for the sixth time. The vast Pacific Ocean would always remain the islanders’ great solace, escape and nourishment.”
– Gray, Francine du Plessix; Hawaii: The Sugar-Coated Fortress, 1972
“There are few areas of the planet where the pendulum of history has swung more widely than in Hawaii.”
– Gray, Francine du Plessix ; Hawaii: The Sugar-Coated Fortress, 1972
“The charms of Waikiki do not end with the setting sun, but, in many instances, they just begin. Waikiki by moonlight is something that must be experienced and not read about. The golden glow of a tropical moon…the faint strumming of ukuleles and guitars…accompanied by the falsetto and slurring voices of native singers, all help to make the beach a sentiment and not a locality.”
– Griffiss, Townsend; When You Go to Hawaii: You Will Need This Guide to the Islands, 1930
“Hawaii is unique in its combination of beauty in the natural physical environment, in its people and their Aloha spirit, and in its cosmopolitan mixing of ethnic groups, cultures, religions, and lifestyles. The facets of beauty are to be preserved and enhanced, not only because they are the basis of attraction to visitors but because they are the basis for Hawaii’s attraction to its own people.”
– Hawaii, State of ; Tourism Policy Act
“For over half a century, the aloha shirt has been Hawai’i’s most enduring and visible greeter and ambassador. Like a lei, the aloha shirt is worn as a statement of one’s love for and connection to, a most special place.”
– Hope, Dale
“There is another quality to Hawaii that cannot be measured in mountain heights or the sunny allure of beaches fringed by palm trees. There are other places in other oceans – even in this same ocean – with sunny weather and white sand beaches, places where mountains rise even higher, the land is greater in size and diversity and the history more dramatic. But nowhere else is there a place so small as Hawaii with such a world of differences among its people and their cultures blending so naturally with an exotic environment. The life of Hawaii, as it is lived today and as it was lived hundreds of years before, is as important to any meaningful understanding of these islands as the beauty of the land itself.”
– Horton, Tom and Karen
“Aloha is spoken here.”
– Island Belief, An
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 342
“Golf in Hawai’i is the best: From the Beach Course at Waikoloa, I’ve seen dolphins jumping and volcanoes erupting…or Bill Murray leading a gallery of spectators in a Samba line down the slopes of the Kapalua Bay Course after teeing off. Hawai’i…what a place!”
– Jacobsen, Peter
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 346
“Ho’oponoponp is a cultural practice and ceremony of forgiveness. It has been said that in the book on the life of an great man or woman, there is always a chapter of forgiveness.”
– Jamplsky, M.D., Gerald
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 347
“In Hawai’i we greet friends, loved ones and strangers with aloha, which means with love.
Aloha is the key word to the universal spirit of real hospitality, which makes Hawai’i renowned as the world’s center of understanding and fellowship.
Try meeting or leaving people with aloha.
You’ll be surprised by their reaction.
I believe it and it is my creed.
Aloha to you.”
– Kahanamoku, Duke Paoa; 1890-1968
“It is my dream to some day tour other countries and personally acquaint the people with the users of the surfboard, for as an aid in life saving and the physical development of growing boys and girls, it commands respect the world over.”
– Kahanamoku, Duke Paoa; father of modern surfing
“We can still hear the voices of the kupuna reminding us that the earth is always speaking to us – ‘Malama ‘aina – take care of the land’ – and we need to listen”
– Kamae, Eddie and Myrna
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 346
“The Kingdom of Hawai’i nei is a kingdom that loves its ali’i, that loves the voices with which the Ali’i speak, that loves their words, that loves the discussion between us, that fulfills the command that simply falls from the lips. Our aloha is not for sale, not for rent, not merely for personal gain, but, is the true Native aloha. This aloha clings to the Mo’i and the beloved ali’i who are kind to the commoners and to the entire race.”
– Kamakau, Samuel; 8/26/1869
Source: http://www.pbs.org/holomaipele/culture.html
“Someday I’ll wish upon a star,
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where trouble melts like lemon drops,
High above the chimney tops,
That’s where you’ll find me.”
– Kamakawiwo’ole, Israel; Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World Medley
“Hawaiian songs are usually about flowers, skies, the moon, and places you lived before…The songs bring back memories [of the] days that I loved most when I was growing up…If you play that music with feeling, it brings tears to your eyes.”
– Kane, Raymond; Slack-key guitar master
“My grandmother gave me the wisdom and courage to use the Hawaiian fighting technique – a hug.”
– Kealana, Brian
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 345
“I never cease to be astonished by the celestial Hawaiian tenor voice of Robert Cazimero singing “Ka’ena.” In Hawaiian mythology, Ka’ena point is where the souls jump off to enter the next dimension.”
– Keali’iwahamana, Nina
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 344
“The foundation of all Hawaiian music is great love. If you are glowing with love, then you are playing and singing the songs right.”
– Keawe, Auntie Genoe
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 346
“The spirit of these Islands comes from the people. People who are unselfish and radiate joy, they are full of the spirit of Hawai’i.”
– Kekumano, Monsignor Charles
“These islands represent all that we are and all that we hope to be.”
– Kennedy, President John F.
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 342
“Many Chiefs came on board, who shew’d both a great sorrow for what had happen’d as well as great pleasure that we were friends – Maiha maiha [Kamehameha] & others, who perhaps were afraid of venturing themselves, sent large hogs as peace offerings.”
– King, Feb. 22, 1779
“The Cane Cutters”
It is early morning. The brave
Hawaiian moon sits in the saddle
Of morning, bucking its light.
A woman shivers as she trudges
Briskly, behind a man. She carries
The lunches and an old kerosene lantern
The man takes out two long knives.
They sparkle in the negligent light.
He fingers each honed edge and tenderly
Caresses the sharpness. Pleased,
He hands one to his wife. Together,
They work the tall burnt fields,
Long into the tiring hours. They sing,
And they dream to the pendulum
Swing of their machetes.
– Komo, Juliet S.; 1980
“Honolulu, in short, is the most comfortable and relaxed big city I’ve ever known. The beguiling weather has a far-from-subtle influence on every phase of life: dress, diet, health, business, social amenities, athletics, and such customs as “Hawaiian time” and the shoes left at the doorway. A friend who came from the mainland in the 1960s to attend the University of Hawaii says he’s stayed on because of that “comfort and easy pace.” The mere thought of going to work in the canyons of Manhattan with Honolulu’s dress, pace, and attitudes sent us into fits of laughter. Another friend puts it differently: “New York’s for winners, Honolulu’s for losers,” I might have bought that cynical view in my making-it youth, but now in the mellow years I think it’s off the mark. I’d rather say that if New York’s for testing oneself, Honolulu’s for living.”
– Knebel, Fletcher
“The night gave birth
Born was Kumulipo in the night, a male
Born was Po’ele in the night, a female
Born was the coral polyp, born was the coral, came forth…”
– Kumulipo; a Hawaiian creation chant, translated by Martha Beckwith, 1951
“Tranquil was the time when men multiplied
Calm like the time when men came from afar
It was called Calmness [La’ila’i] then
Born was La’ila’i a woman
Born was Ki’i a man
Born was Kane a god
Born was Kanaloa the hot-striking octopus
It was day”
– Kumulipo; a Hawaiian creation chant, translated by Martha Bechwith, 1951
“Although it encompasses only one square mile of sea and sand, the sunny shores of Hawai’i’s Waikiki Beach have defined paradise for generations of visitors. From the royal sport of surfing to the invention of the steel guitar, and the modern swimsuit, this small stretch of sand has had a far-reaching influence on American notions of paradise. In ancient times, the beach was used as a place of healing. Later on, famous people from Mark Twain to Hollywood movie stars visited this legendary spot to savor Hawaiian culture and the good life with a zeal that continues to be found in visitors today.”
– Lee, Edgy
“‘Aloha’ was a recognition of life in another. If there was life there was mana, goodness and wisdom, and if there was goodness and wisdom there was a god-quality. One had to recognize the ‘god of life’ in another before saying ‘Aloha,’ but this was easy. Life was everywhere … Aloha had its own mana. It never left the giver but flowed freely and continuously between giver and receiver. ‘Aloha’ could not be thoughtlessly or indiscriminately spoken, for it carried its own power. No Hawaiian could greet another with ‘Aloha’ unless he felt it in his own heart. If he felt anger or hate in his heart he had to cleanse himself before he said ‘Aloha’.”
– Lili’uokalani, Queen
“I Liliuokalani, by the Grace of God and under the Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the Constitutional Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom by certain persons claiming to have established a Provisional Government of and for this Kingdom.
That I yield to the superior force of the United States of America whose Minister Plenipotentiary, His Excellency John L. Stevens, has caused United States troops to be landed a Honolulu and declared that he would support the Provisional Government.
“Now to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest and impelled by said force yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.”
– Liliu‘okalani, Queen; United States Public Law 103-150, The Apology Act, 1893
When informed of the risk of bloodshed with resistance, Queen Lili‘uokalani issued the above statement yielding her authority to the United States Government rather than to the Provisional Government
“The cause of Hawaii and independence is larger and dearer than the life of any man connected with it. Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.”
– Lili’uokalani, Queen; Hawaii’s last Queen
“The people to whom your fathers told of the living God, and taught to call “Father,” and now whom the sons now seek to despoil and destroy, are crying aloud to Him in their time of trouble; and He will keep His promise, and will listen to the voices of His Hawaiian children lamenting for their homes.”
– Lili’uokalani, Queen; Hawaii’s last Queen
“This is a historical issue, based on a relationship between an independent government and the United States of America, and what has happened since and the steps that we need to take to make things right.”
– Lingle, Linda; Republican Governor, January 2003
“No billboards. No snakes. How cool is that?”
– Livingston, Lance
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 343
“Hawaii is a Paradise – and I can never cease proclaiming it; but I must append one word of qualification: Hawaii is a Paradise for the well-to-do.”
– London, Jack
“In what other land save this one is the commonest form of greeting not ‘Good day,’ nor ‘How d’ye do’, but ‘Love’? That greeting is ‘Aloha’: love, I love you, my love to you… It is a positive affirmation of the warmth of one’s own heart-giving.”
– London, Jack
“It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that ‘no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods, or through injury to feelings.’ These were the only sins.”
– Long, Max Freedom
“May 28 [1942]: Reports filter in that Japanese marauders are on the loose somewhere in our area of the Pacific; but our fleet is out, and we can rest assured it isn’t idle. June 6: The alert is over! The huge Japanese invasion fleet which was headed this way was intercepted and routed at Midway by our Army, Navy and Marine forces. We breathe freely again…”
– Marie, Sister Adele; from a collection of letters, To You from Hawaii, 1950
“It’s a great place, Honolulu. We’re certainly lifting its face for it. Give us another year and we’ll make it look like Pittsburgh.”
– Marquand, J.P.
“We are having papaya for dessert,” Mr. Wintertree said. “It isn’t quite the season, but I’m proud of my papayas.”
– Marquand, J.P.; Lunch at Honolulu, 1945
“Though the air is so soft and the sky so blue, you have, I know not why, a feeling of something hotly passionate that beats like a throbbing pulse through the crowd. Though the native policeman … gives the scene an air of respectability, you cannot but feel that it is a respectability only of the surface: a little below there is a darkness and mystery.”
– Maugham, W. Somerset; on Hawaii
“Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu … It is a typical western city … It is the meeting place of East and West, the very new rubs shoulders with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you expected, you have come upon something singularly intriguing. All these strange people live close to each other, with different languages and different thoughts; they believe in different god and they have different values; two passions alone they share, love and hunger. And somehow as you watch them, you have an impression of extraordinary vitality.”
– Maugham, W. Somerset; 1921
“The abominations of Paganism have given way to the pure rites of the Christian worship – the ignorant savage has been supplanted by the refined European! Look at Honolulu, the metropolis of the Sandwich Islands! A community of disinterested merchants, and devoted self-exiled heralds of the Cross, located on the very spot that twenty years ago was defiled by the presence of idolatry. What a subject for an eloquent Bible-meeting orator!”
– Melville, Herman
“You can ski the snowy slopes of Maunakea volcano in the morning and then surf Waikiki in the afternoon.”
– Memminger, Charles
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 344
“In Hawai’i, the scent of the flowers would hang on in the breeze, caressing you…and the beams of sun would shoot out of the banks of pristine clouds, and you just knew there was a God, and He had made all this just for you.”
– Midler, Bette; born and raised in Hawai’i
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 343
“There is an energy here unlike any other place on earth. it is where I am at peace. If you find that in your life you are indeed very fortunate.”
– Nabors, Jim
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 345
“Hospitality is not a Hawaiian art so much as it is a Hawaiian perspective. There is, in fact, no Hawaiian word for welcome, for welcome is always assumed. It just is, like the air we breathe.”
– Nae’ole, Clifford
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 346
“I have hula students who come from different religions and different races. No matter what race or color, when they dance hula, they’re Hawaiian.”
– Naope, George; Kumu Hula
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 346
“Being Hawaiian today is finally feeling at home after nearly a century of trying to live like foreigners told us we should live in out own land.”
– Napeahi, Abby; Community leader
“I am Kahuna. Where I come from, I am considered an elder of my people. I am considered a master of helping others to identify themselves and find the courage to become all that they are able to become. All of you have the same potential. Make the choices you need to make to become all that you really are. That is the responsibility you have to the rest of your great Family. That is what you can do to contribute to the Earth that is our home.”
– Napeahi, Abbey; Community leader
“Hawai’i has an incredible, fascinating past … No place on earth has anything like the true stories that make up Hawai’i history. … The sun, sand, and surf may be the reasons so many people come to the Islands, but the culture and heritage are the reasons so many people stay. I, for one, could never get enough Hawai’i history.”
– Nichol, Brian
“In the Hawaiian culture, the teacher, or kumu, is the source, the foundation, the model of learning that guides us. I believe that a teacher’s affect is ongoing; one can never know where the influence stops.” – Nogelmeir, Puakea
“I know what the Aloha Spirit means. I hope it is contagious for it could change the world.”
– Jackie Kennedy Onassis
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 342
“In Hawai’i, panty hose are against the law.”
– Susan Page
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 345
“Aloha is my religion. I practice it every day.”
– Pilahi Paki
“Playing golf in Hawai’i is as close to heaven as you’ll get while on this earth.”
– Arnold Palmer
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 345
“Once Hawai’i takes your heart you never fully get it back.”
– Regis Philbin and Joy
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 345
“We who live in the Hawaiian Islands sometimes forget to appreciate them until we are reminded by an awestruck visitor of the jaw-dropping beauty and spirit here. All this… and you can drink the water!”
– Michael W. Perry
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 346
“In Hawai’i, when your eyes meet with a stranger’s, you both smile.”
– Nina Pueo
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 345
“I wear your love like lei through the summers and the winters.”
– Mary Kawena Pukui
“Hawaii is a unique state. It is a small state. It is a state that is by itself. It is a…it is different from the other 49 states. Well, all states are different, but it’s got a particularly unique situation.”
– Dan Quayle; United States Vice President
“The world of the seen in Hawaiʻi is magnificent, the world of the unseen is extraordinary.”
– Suni Reedy
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 344
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt
“I got kidnapped by these Islands.”
– Thos Rohr
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 347
“Iolani Palace…A building with overtones of gaiety, tragedy, struggle, success, insurrection…the frosted windows with their coats-of-arms, the koa stairways, the kamani paneled walls and cedar floors, the early gold and ebony furniture…where Kalakaua loved to play the sovereign according to rules laid down in the palaces of Buckingham and Potsdam.”
– Edward B. Scott; The Saga of the Sandwich Islands, 1968
“I don’t care what story you use so long as we call it Bird of Paradise and [Dolores] Del Rio jumps into a flaming volcano at the finish.”
– David O. Selznick; Producer to director King Vidor regarding the script for the original Bird of Paradise, 1932
“Living on isolated islands, we cherish our diversities. For we have come from many places and in many different ways to this enormous yet intimate chamber of summer.”
– Ed Sheehan
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 342
“Where in the history of jurisprudence has love been used to guide government and law?.”
– Alvin Shim; in reference to “The Aloha Spirit” being added to the Hawai’i State Charter and establishing “aloha” as the “working philosophy of Hawai’i”
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 343
“It seems that everybody goes to Hawaii, and no matter what their tastes, they love it…Now that we’ve been there, we’ve become just like everyone else–we loved it.”
– Geoff and Lauren Slater
“I have just been a week away alone on the lee coast of Hawaii … a lovely week among God’s best – at least God’s sweetest – works, Polynesians. It has bettered me greatly. If I could only stay there the time that remains, I could get my work done and be happy…”
– Robert Louis Stevenson; In a letter from Honolulu on May 10, 1889
“It is our imperative duty to hold these islands with the invincible strength of the American nation.”
– John L. Stevens; U.S. minister to Hawaii, 1892
“If anyone desires such old-fashioned things as lovely scenery, quiet, pure air, clear sea water, good food and heavenly sunsets…I recommend him cordially to Waikiki Beach.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson
“The thought that haunts the stranger in Hawaii is that of Italy. … Countenances of the same eloquent harshness, manners of the same vivacious cordiality, are to be found in Hawaii and among Italian fisherfolk. I know no race that carries years more handsomely, whose people, in the middle way of life, retain more charm. I recall faces, both of men and women, with a certain leonine stamp, trusty, sagacious, brave, beautiful in plainness; faces that take the heart captive.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson
“The leader of the band uttered a long, wild and shrill guttural – a sort of invocation to the goddess of the hula-hula [and] the dance began, all joining in with wonderfully accurate rhythm, the body swaying slowly backward and forward, to the left and right; the arms tossing, or rather waving, in the air above the head, now beckoning some spirit of light, so tender and seductive were the emotions of the dancers, so graceful and free the movements of the wrists; now, in violence and fear, they seemed to repulse a host of devils that hovered invisibly about them.”
– Charles Warren Stoddard; South Sea Idyls, 1873
“For a girl my age, I’ve been able to do quite a lot of traveling. The three trips we’ve made to Hawai’i were the best. I’m actually insane about Hawai’i. It’s the way a movie set looks when you see it on the screen…not like it looks when you’re working on it.”
– Shirley Temple; My Young Life, 1945
“… a car in Honolulu is the badge of one’s class. I think the car is the key thing. In such a hot city, where nearly everyone rich and poor dresses identically, clothes cannot possibly be a status symbol.”
– Paul Theroux
“In Hawai’i I felt I was always half outdoors, which was where I wanted to be – nature mattered.”
– Paul Theroux; Forward to Under the Hula Moon: Living in Hawaii, by Jocelyn Fuji, 1992
“When we’re in Hawai’i our days are shaped by long walks and by the pull of the ocean.”
– Kelly Preston and John Travolta
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 343
“I tried surfing once, subsequently, but made a failure of it. I got the board placed right, and at the right moment, too; but missed the connection myself. The board struck the shore in three-quarters of a second, without any cargo, and I struck the bottom about the same time, with a couple barrels of water in me.”
– Mark Twain
Source: Eddie Would Go; page 38
“That peaceful land, that beautiful land, that far-off home of solitude and soft idleness, and repose, and reams, where life is one long slumberous Sabbath, the climate one long summer day, and the good that die experience no change, for they but fall asleep in one heaven and wake up in another.”
– Mark Twain; On Hawaii
“The further I traveled through the town the better I liked it. Every step revealed a new contrast – disclosed something I was unaccustomed to. I saw cottages surrounded by ample yards. I saw luxurious banks and thickets of flowers, fresh as a meadow after a rain, and glowing with the richest dyes …I saw huge-bodied, wide-spreading forest streets…I saw cats – Tom cats, Mary Ann cats, long-tailed cats, bobtail cats, blind cats, one-eyed cats, walleyed cats, cross-eyed cats, gray cats, black cats, white cats, yellow cats, striped cats, spotted cats, tame cats, wild cats, singed cats, individual cats, groups of cats, platoons of cats, companies of cats, regiments of cats, armies of cats, multitudes of cats, millions of cats, and all of them sleek, fat, lazy, and sound asleep … I breathed the balmy fragrance of jessamine, oleander, and the Pride of India … I moved in the midst of a summer calms as tranquil as dawn in the Garden of Eden …”
-Mark Twain; On Honolulu
“The good that die in Hawai’i experience no change, for they fall asleep in one heaven and wake up in another.”
-Mark Twain
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 342
“The loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored to any ocean.”
-Mark Twain
“The traders brought labor and fancy diseases — in other words, long, deliberate, infallible destruction; and the missionaries brought the means of grace and got them ready.”
-Mark Twain
“What I have always longed for was the privilege of living forever away up on one of those mountains in the Sandwich Islands overlooking the sea…. no alien land in all the world has any deep strong charm for me but that one, no other land could so longingly and so beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done. Other things leave me, but it abides, other things change, but it remains the same…”
– Mark Twain; On Hawaii
“The Congress apologizes to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the people of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on January 17, 1893 with the participation of agents and citizens of the United States, and the deprivation of the rights of Native Hawaiians to self-determination.”
– United States Public Law 103-150, 103rd Congress Joint Resolution 19, November 23, 1993
“No worries.”
– Unknown
Although this may not seem like a Hawai‘i-related quote, it is. “No worries” seems to be the lifestyle of the islands, and one I strive for every day.
“‘Alo’ means the bosom, the center of the universe. ‘Ha’ is the breath of God. The word is imbued with a great deal of power. I do not use the word casually. Aloha is a feeling, a recognition of the divine. It is not just a word or greeting. When you say ‘aloha’ to someone, you are conveying or bestowing this feeling.
In the Hawai’i of my childhood, this feeling bonded the entire community. The whole village was your family; their sorrows became yours and yours, theirs. We felt we were all related and count not help loving one another. As a child, I called out neighbors ‘uncle’ or ‘tutu’ or ‘auntie,’ a practice still observed by Hawaiian families today.”
– Nana Veary; Hawaiian spiritualist, Change We Must: Spiritual Journey, 1989
“It is the only place in the world where no one ethnicity is a majority. And where we live in relative harmony. It makes me feel world peace is possible.”
– Tony Vericella
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 345
“The overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy … was a hostile act, an armed takeover of a legitimate government that was an established member of the community of nations.”
– John Waihee; Governor of Hawaii 1988-1996
“But I can’t talk the way he wants me to. I cannot make it sound his way, unless I’m playing pretend-talk-haole. I can make my words straight, that’s pretty easy if I concentrate real hard. But the sound, the sound from my mouth, if I let it rip right out of my lips, my words will always come out like home.”
– Lois-Ann Yamanaka; “Lovey,” from Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers, 1996
“The work on the spiritual dimension goes on…and it based on the code of aloha.”
– Kristin Zambucka
Source: Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawai’i; page 347