“They [the previous chiefs of old] looked after the island, the fish, the turtles. They watched and did things that were good for the people…I have been to Hawaii, to Saipan, to Guam, to Tahiti, to Los Angeles. Don't they see that soon, very soon, change will crash on this island like a wave? […] I am afraid of what's happening to my island. […] I think money will break this island. Now on Woleai, Lamotrek, Pulusuk, and Puluwat, too, people fish in their motorboats and ask for money when they divide the catch. This was never our custom. In our custom everybody eats, not just those with money.”

The Last Navigator (1987)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Mau Piailug11

Micronesian navigator from the Carolinian island of Satawal… 1932–2010

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“The chief pleasure of his life in these days was to go down the road and look through the window in the wall in the hope of seeing the beautiful Island. … the sight of the Island and the sounds became very rare … and the yearning for the sight … became so terrible that John thought he would die if he did not have them again soon. … it came into his head that he might perhaps get the old feeling-for what, he thought, had the Island ever given him but a feeling?–by imagining. He shut his eyes and set his teeth again and made a picture of the Island in his mind.”

Clive Staples Lewis book The Pilgrim's Regress

Pilgrim’s Regress 12–13
The Pilgrim's Regress (1933)

“I am a rock.
I am an island.
And a rock feels no pain.
And an island never cries.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

I Am a Rock
Song lyrics, Sounds of Silence (1966)
Source: Lyrics 1964-2008
Context: I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock.
I am an island.
And a rock feels no pain.
And an island never cries.

“We are islands, but never too far
We are islands, and I need your light tonight…”

Mike Oldfield (1953) English musician, multi-instrumentalist

Song lyrics, Islands (1987)

“Come away with me, he said, we will live on a desert island. I said, I am a desert island. It was not what he had in mind.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

“Could I begin life again, knowing what I know now, and had money to invest, I would buy every foot of land on the island of Manhattan.”

John Jacob Astor (1763–1848) German-American businessman

Quoted in Matthew Hale Smith (1868), Sunshine and Shadow in New York

“This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time.”

Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960) Welsh politician

Daily Herald, 25 May 1945
Speech at Blackpool, 24 May 1945.
1940s

“Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here.”

Dan Quayle (1947) American politician, lawyer

Press comment in Hawaii (25 April 1989)

“The enemy may land on this island soon. Once they do, we must follow the fate of those on Attu and Saipan. Our officers and men know about “Death” very well. I am sorry to end my life here, fighting the United States of America, but I want to defend this island as long as possible and to delay the enemy air raids on Tokyo. Ah! You have worked well for a long time as my wife and the mother of my three children. Your life will become harder and more precarious. Watch out for your health and live long. The future of our children will not be easy either. Please take care of them after my death.”

Tadamichi Kuribayashi (1891–1945) Japanese general

Letter to his wife shortly before the Battle of Iwo Jima.

“Money is only one of the tools of survival; it stands useless if it can’t save people’s lives. After all, no man is an island. I always help where and wherever I can since my individual personal survival is only limited to a very narrow scope of basic needs.”

Hamis Kiggundu (1984) Ugandan business magnate, Internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author

Quoted when donating 15,000 COVID-19 Vaccine doses to the government of Uganda.
2020s
Source: [2021-03-10, Tycoon Kiggundu donates sh530m to procure Covid-19 vaccine, https://www.newvision.co.ug/articledetails/107712, 2021-10-03, New Vision, en-US]

“The island is in Kenya, the water is in Uganda… But the [Luos, a Kenyan ethnic group] are mad, they want to fish here but this is Uganda.”

Yoweri Museveni (1944) President of Uganda

On Migingo Island's ownership, as quoted in "Kenyan MPs' fury over island row" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8048771.stm (13 May 2009), BBC News, United Kingdom: British Broadcasting Corporation <br class="br">2000s

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Mau Piailug11

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