Mark Masters

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that receives it.”
― Edith Wharton

“The South China Sea functions as the throat of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans—the mass of connective economic tissue where global sea routes coalesce. Here is the heart of Eurasia’s navigable rimland, punctuated by the Malacca, Sunda, Lombok, and Makassar straits. More than half of the world’s annual merchant fleet tonnage passes through these choke points, and a third of all maritime traffic worldwide.2”
― Robert D. Kaplan, Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific

“Peter is saying that the fiery furnace does not automatically make us better. We must recognize, depend on, speak with, and believe in God while in the fire. God himself says in Isaiah 43 that he will be with us, walking beside us in the fire. Knowing him personally while in our affliction is the key to becoming stronger rather than weaker in it.”
― Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

“The United States fought against the prospect of a Vietnam unified by the communist North. But once that unification became fact, the new and enlarged Vietnamese state became a much greater threat to communist China than to the United States. Such can be the ironies of history. Champa,”
― Robert D. Kaplan, Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific