Hawaii Quotes

“I'll try to communicate, Taylor said. She spoke slowly and deliberately. Hello! We need help. Is your village close?
My village is Denver. And I think it's a long way from here. I'm Nicole Ade. Miss Colorado.
We have a Colorado where we're from too! Tiara said. She swiveled her hips, spread her arms wide, then brought her hands together prayer-style and bowed. Kipa aloha.
Nicole stared. I speak English. I'm American. Also, did you learn those moves from Barbie's Hawaiian Vacation DVD?
Ohmigosh, yes! Do your people have that, too?”
― Libba Bray, Beauty Queens

“Sitting on the porch alone, listening to them fixing supper, he felt again the indignation he had felt before, the sense of loss and the aloneness, the utter defenselessness that was each man's lot, sealed up in his bee cell from all the others in the world. But the smelling of boiling vegetables and pork reached him from the inside, the aloneness left him for a while. The warm moist smell promised other people lived and were preparing supper.

He listened to the pouring and the thunder rumblings that sounded hollow like they were in a rainbarrel, shared the excitement and the coziness of the buzzing insects that had sought refuge on the porch, and now and then he slapped detachedly at the mosquitoes, making a sharp crack in the pouring buzzing silence. The porch sheltered him from all but the splashes of the drops that hit the floor and their spray touched him with a pleasant chill. And he was secure, because someewhere out beyond the wall of water humanity still existed, and was preparing supper.”
― James Jones, From Here to Eternity

“A slight breeze cooled the Hawaiian spring air, swaying the branches of palm trees, which cast black silhouettes against the purple and orange colors of the twilight sky.”
― Victoria Kahler, Capturing the Sunset

“The groundswell of outrage over the invasion of Iraq often cited the preemptive war as a betrayal of American ideals. The subtext of the dissent was: 'This is not who we are.' But not if you were standing where I was. It was hard to see the look in that palace tour guide's eyes when she talked about the American flag flying over the palace and not realize that ever since 1898, from time to time, this is exactly who we are.”
― Sarah Vowell, Unfamiliar Fishes

“We, the Hawaiian people, who are born from the union of Papahanaumoku and Wakea, earth mother and sky father, and who have lived in these islands for over 100 generations, will always have the moral right to the lands of Hawai'i now and forever, no matter what any court says.”
― Lilikalā K. Kame'eleihiwa

“Mount Kilauea spilled glowing lava like cords of orange neon-lighting from seemingly nowhere. In the blackness that engulfed the night, electric heat lit flowing streams that fell into the sea, disappearing in a cloud of steam with a sizzling splash.”
― Victoria Kahler, Capturing the Sunset

“I've come to believe that how we choose to live with pain, or injustice, or death...is the true measure of the Divine within us.”
― Alan Brennert, Moloka'i

“I once heard a grouty northern invalid say that a coconut tree might be poetical, possibly it was; but it looked like a feather-duster struck by lightning.”
― Mark Twain, Mark Twain in Hawaii: Roughing It in the Sandwich Islands: Hawaii in the 1860s

“Write, drink and be merry!”
― Maureen A. Miller

“Look, Neal, Hawaii is not some magical pixie wonderland; it’s an American state populated by atomic weapons, a remnant native population and people too stupid to spell their way out of a paper bag. Most of them came here to escape pathetic lives in the forty nine other states, so in some sense, Hawaii is a scenic cul-de-sac filled with people who want to drink themselves to death without feeling judged.”
― Douglas Coupland, Worst. Person. Ever.

“On mountain tops, in green valleys
and all across the land
We sing new songs, create sharper visions
and we shout with pride
give us back what is left of what was ours
Our pride, our hopes.
And what about our lands?
They belong to us. Give them back.
We sleep no longer in compliance.
We have awakened with the beat
of ancient pahu,
the shark skin stretched tight,
and move determined to a new
rhythm, a new beat.
Aloha aina, aloha aina, E
Hawaii aloha e.

--from "Pono”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“... in sunshine both space and time expand

where was I? coming alive on my birthday
breaking to pieces on the rainbow islands

and who is she? a girl today
staying and straying on the rainbow islands

from a sunlit sea
see mountaintop to mountaintop arising
hear the crackle of rocks
in the bright light that falls
everywhere into place
forget your knees
to the breathlessness of peaks
and find them again by some pebbles

… seize me, release me, leave me
everywhere in space to be dispersing

and the colors of the wind parade
on the windswept way of the senses…

crunching over the rough-country cliffs
a cold drizzle begins—
inhale huge drafts
of water in the air
sizzle to the sprinkling feeling
of drizzle on skin
watch the surf pour
to crevices it has worn, hold—
and back out the black rock pushing

… whisk her, brisker, drop her
swifter over the crags like swift rains

and the rainclouds and the fierce winds howl
after the raging of the waves…

and to know every foot
of the land that holds you—
and, with soiled-brown hands,
set against the green of the land
and blue of the sky
sign the earth in gentle, rolling lines
loose with your tines
the living, pulsing root
of a carrot plant
bury the plants
in their beds to live
and bury me insensibly
over the earth from your open, rolling cart

lying on rock, drifting with the clouds
— the only constant is constant change—
ripples of flame, patterns in the waves
— paradise and creation are only sensations—
spearing reef-fish, inflating with the stars
— and heaven and earth forever simultaneous!

and the wheeling colors celebrate
on their way without a destination

wandering islands roam until they die—
with footsteps wrapt and dwelling
in whatever kind of weather
we live our lives with the space to be free
find in our eyes horizons on horizons”
― Mark Kaplon, The Windswept Verses

“lying on rock, drifting with the clouds
— the only constant is constant change—
ripples of flame, patterns in the waves
— paradise and creation are only sensations—
spearing reef-fish, inflating with the stars
— and heaven and earth forever simultaneous!”
― Mark Kaplon, The Windswept Verses

“In Hilo, we are the `āina. Its mist is our breath, its rain our tears, its
waters our blood.
Our veins run deep, our song louder than their noise. Roots too deep to
extract. That’s the thing about hula. Burn your books, rewrite your history,
build walls, plant flags. Hula is written within the swirls of our feet. It’s our
umbilical cord, our pulse. Our battle cry, our death rattle, our moment of
conception. The chants are archived in the stars. Hula is the heat rising from
within our volcanoes. It is the pull of the tides, the beat of the surf against
our cliffs. It is our hair, our teeth, our bones. Our DNA.
You can steal a kingdom, but the kingdom will never belong to you”
― Jasmin Iolani Hakes, Hula

“Decades of desecrating Hawaii’s most sacred spaces with industrial astronomical observatories atop spiritual Hawaiian mountains appears to be in the process of ending.”
― Steven Magee

“It was common to have hallucinations atop the very high altitude mountain of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Oxygen starvation causes it, it is known to start above 12,000 feet and we were at 13,800 feet. When I see people chatting to themselves, I have sympathy for them. They really do believe someone is with them!”
― Steven Magee

“...A majestic wahine with small, bare feet, a grand, swinging, deliberate gait, hibiscus blossoms in her flowing hair, and a lei of yellow flowers flowing over her holoku, marching through these streets, has a tragic grandeur of appearance, which makes the diminutive, fair-skinned haole, tottering along hesitatingly in high-heeled shoes, look grotesque by comparison.

Isabella Bird”
― Mary Kawena Pukui, Nā Wahine: Hawaiian Proverbs and Inspirational Quotes Celebrating Women in Hawai'i

“Learning from my tūtū and aunty meant being very disciplined; there was no fooling around. You had to watch, listen and follow. There wasn't a whole lot of in-depth explanation of what you were doing. You were expected to know it.

Hōkūlani Hold-Padilla”
― Mary Kawena Pukui, Nā Wahine: Hawaiian Proverbs and Inspirational Quotes Celebrating Women in Hawai'i

“If to believe in freedom and equality is to be a radical, then I am a radical.”
― Patsy Mink

“Do not grieve good Queen in your
place among the aumakua where maile
and the mosses grow.
Some of us are still here. We remember.
We feel.
We burn with the need to seek justice and rectification.
We do not forget the terrible theft of our lands
the destruction of our heritage
the empty eyed look of our children, the rape
of their understanding. Their hunger.
You stand in the center of our fury.
Your songs live on, heard everyday.
We take courage from their words and tunes.
Your love is a legacy to Hawaii's children.
Onipaʻa is the cry. Onipaʻa
You are a powerful symbol
Too strong to die
Too strong to kill the memory of theft
You give us courage
to continue to fight to regain what was ours.
--from "Manawaʻino”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“How the haunting music of this cry of hope
the words searching for encouragement
stabbed at your heart.
But this too of your creations made the days of incarceration more bearable.
--from "Ka wa hauʻlea”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“We remember and in remembering there is
happiness.
Although dark times seeped in the hearts
of all of you who lived those days of
Commissioner Stevens and Captain Wiltse.
--from "Ka wa hauʻle”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“Did you reflect on Cook's arrival
and rue the day we were discovered
and curse the coming of foreign sailors
with bodies soaked in the blights
of London sewers?

Giving this cruel treasure to our unblemished women?
Did you think of this and rage and want to kill?
Did you remember all the insults down
the years from
French, British and American alike
Did you remember the threat of their guns?
I was not there during those dark
days of anguish and confusion

when the palace shook
with intrigue and rumor
that the greedy determined men
downtown were plotting your
ruin and demise of our nation.
--from "Manawaʻino”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“Cruel and proud America
give us back our pride,
our dreams, our land.

--from "Enaʻena”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“Cruel and proud America
give us back our pride,
our dreams, our land.

Liliuokalani is long gone
but we are here
and you are here
and the ghosts of Kepookalani,
and Kamanawa.
The great Paiea, our ageless king,
will stalk you until the end
and we will be there

because Queen Liliuokalani is long gone
but she is also here to haunt you
and we are here
witnesses to your greed,
your stubborn clutching to what is ours.

We are here
and the ghosts of our makua
watch you from the shadows of their
island valleys and caves.
From the mountain tops of Kaala and Maunakea
Where old gods and the makua wait patiently.

--from "Enaʻena”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“Makaaina voices with fresh songs to sing
Speaking of new strengths
Mind and body strengths,
Strengthening the hope of change -- new joys
in this tiresome regimen of want and confusion.
Grand queen sleep the ageless
sleep in peace

Your people rise now,
and demand their share
of this sweet and wondrous place.
The populace from their sleep of compliance
Awake now to the beat of new
drums hewn from betrayal and delusion
urging the makaaina voice to
rise above the din of daily
trumpetings of man and machine
To be rid of confusion and fear
To stand equally with the new
rulers of this precious place
to be ruthless in demanding what is ours.

--from "Pono”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“ʻIolani Palace also stands in equally strong rebuttal to the notion that the will of Hawaiʻi's Kings and Queens was simply overborne by outsiders. Hawaiʻi's Monarchs from King Kamehameha I on worked diligently and often brilliantly to find the path to draw together traditional Hawaiian culture and values and the forces of Westernization and modernization spreading across the world. This was not an easy path, for there was no model to follow. Each monarch in his or her way remained true to their land and their people. If you look closely and listen carefully, the Palace itself speaks to that path.

That it was ultimately force of arms that brought the journey of modern Hawaiian Kingdom to an end makes it a tragedy and not a denial of honor, integrity, and achievements of that journey.”
― Carol Maxym, ʻIolani Palace: A Metaphor for Two Centuries of Hawaiʻi History

“Haʻina ʻia mai ana ka puana
Ka poʻe i aloha i ka ʻaina

The story is told
Of the people who love the land”
― Carol Maxym, ʻIolani Palace: A Metaphor for Two Centuries of Hawaiʻi History

“While he was alive, Duke Kahanamoku was Hawaii's favorite son. Until Barack Obama came along, no one born in Hawaii was more famous or revered than Duke Kahanamoku.”
― David Davis, Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku

“The phrase "flying to Hawaii" translated in my head to "drowning in the ocean.”
― Katherine Center, How to Walk Away