Polynesians Quotes

• Throughout my career, I was to be cast as a frontier girl, an aristocrat, an Arabian, a Eurasian, a Polynesian, and a Chinese.

  Gene Tierney

  Girl, Careers, Chinese

  Gene Tierney, Mickey Herskowitz (1979). “Self-portrait”, Peter Wyden

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• As a Polynesian, our gods are tied to water, so this means something special.

  Jason Momoa

  Mean, Water, Special

  "Jason Momoa's First Comments About Starring in 'Aquaman'". www.worstpreviews.com. October 20, 2014.

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• The Aloha spirit is something that is very special and very meaningful to us and our Polynesian culture. Those of you who have had the opportunity to visit Hawaii, or any of the Polynesian islands, know that it's a very special thing. It's an intangible, and when you get off the plane and have your feet on the ground there, it energetically takes you to a different place.

  Dwayne Johnson

  Meaningful, Opportunity, Feet

  Source: collider.com

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• I'm looking forward to the time when we all look like Polynesians.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Looks, Looking Forward

  "After the Beer Summit". Interview with Deborah Solomon, www.nytimes.com. February 11, 2010.

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• All of my Polynesian counterparts in the NFL with roots in American Samoa understand how the values embedded in our South Pacific culture - community, hard work, perseverance, respect - contribute directly to our success.

  Troy Polamalu

  Perseverance, Hard Work, Nfl

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• Civilization does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she has not even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance and attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality of the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the faithful friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass any thing of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe.

  Herman Melville

  Europe, Civilization, People

  Herman Melville (2012). “Typee: A Romance of the South Seas (Illustrated & Annotated Edition)”, p.211, Jazzybee Verlag

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• I am sorry to say we whites have a sad reputation among many of the Polynesians. The natives of these islands are naturally of a kindly and hospitable temper, but there has been implanted among them an almost instinctive hate of the white man. They esteem us, with rare exceptions, such as some of the missionaries, the most barbarous, treacherous, irreligious, and devilish creatures on the earth.

  Herman Melville

  Sorry, Hate, Men

  Herman Melville (1987). “Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition”, p.415, Northwestern University Press

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• The Hawaiian Islands were discovered by hardy Polynesian sailors, who crossed thousands of miles of open ocean in primitive canoes, braving violent storm-tossed seas for months at a time. My family and I arrived by modern commercial aviation, which was infinitely worse.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Humorous, Ocean

  Dave Barry (2010). “Dave Barry Talks Back”, p.107, Crown Archetype

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• Pretty Polynesian baby over the sea, I remember the night, when we walked in the sands of Waikiki and I held you oh so tight.

  Ricky Nelson

  Baby, Night, Sea

  Song: Travelin' Man

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• To be an American and unable to play baseball is comparable to being a Polynesian and unable to swim.

  John Cheever

  Softball, Baseball, Play

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• Everyone asks about gold. This is the irony: just as Jim Grant tells us (correctly) that we all have faith-based paper currencies backed by nothing, it is equally fair to say that gold is a faith-based metal. It pays no dividend, cannot be eaten, and is mostly used for nothing more useful than jewelry. I would say that anything of which 75% sits idly and expensively in bank vaults is, as a measure of value, only one step up from the Polynesian islands that attached value to certain well-known large rocks that were traded.

  Jeremy Grantham

  Islands, Rocks, Gold

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• A gentleman of Typee can bring up a numerous family of children and give them all a highly respectable cannibal education, with infinitely less toil and anxiety than he expends in the simple process of striking a light; whilst a poor European artisan, who through the instrumentality of a lucifer performs the same operation in one second, is put to his wits' end to provide for his starving offspring that food which the children of a Polynesian father, without troubling their parent, pluck from the branches of every tree around them.

  Herman Melville

  Children, Father, Simple

  Herman Melville (2012). “Typee: A Romance of the South Seas (Illustrated & Annotated Edition)”, p.129, Jazzybee Verlag

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• The Polynesians used to have a system where they proclaimed a fishing area as 'taboo.' If any fisherman was caught fishing in a taboo area, they would be killed. The Polynesians understood that the fish had to be given a chance to recover.

  Paul Watson

  Fishing, Would Be, Chance

  "Sea Shepherd: how we sank the Japanese whaling fleet". Interview with Deborah Bassett, www.theecologist.org. April 21, 2011.

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• Sleepy pulled the car to a stop in front of this paved entranceway, which was flanked on either side by these enormous palm trees, kind of like the Polynesian Resort at Disney World. In fact, the whole place had kind of a Disney feel to it. You know, really big, and kind of modern and fake.

  Meg Cabot

  Car, Fake, Tree

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