Harvey Manning > Quotes

“        In the static mode an observer may unify the pieces of a puzzle, but only as a blueprint—kinetics add the third dimention of depth, and the fourth of history. The motion, however, must be on the human scale, which happens also to be that of birds, waves, and clouds. Were a bullet to be made sentient, it still would see or hear or smell or feel nothing in land or water or air except its target. So, too, with a passenger in any machine that goes faster than a Model A. As speed increases, reality thins and becomes at the pace of a jet airplane no more substantial than a computer readout.
        Running suits a person who seeks to look inward, through a fugue of pain, to study the dark self. A person afraid of the dark had better walk—strenuous enough for the rhythm of the feet to pace those of heart and lungs, relaxed enough to let him look outward, through joy, to a bright creation.”
― Harvey Manning, Walking the Beach to Bellingham

“       If this isn't a guidebook, what is it? A book of sermons, perhaps.
       I preach that air travel be scaled back, as a start, to the level of twenty years ago, further reductions to be considered after all the Boeing engineers have been retrained as turkey ranchers.
       The state Game Department should establish a season on helicopters — fifty-two weeks a year, twenty-four hours a day, no bag limit.
       Passenger trains must be restored, as a start, to the service of forty years ago and then improved from there.
       The Gypsy Bus System must not be regularized (the government would regulate it to death) but publicized cautiously through the underground.
       I would discourage, if not ban, trekking to Everest base camp and flying over the Greenland Icecap. Generally, people should stay home. Forget gaining a little knowledge about a lot and strive to learn about a little.”
― Harvey Manning, Walking the Beach to Bellingham