Mark Twain Quote About Hawai’i

Well, it is refreshment to the jaded, water to the thirsty, to look upon men who have so lately breathed the soft airs of those Isles of the Blest, and had before their eyes the inextinguishable vision of their beauty. No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one, no other land could so longingly and so beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done. Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change, but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun, the pulsing of its surf beat is in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud rack; I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitudes, I can hear the splash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago. And these world wanderers who sit before us here have lately looked upon these things! and with eyes of flesh, not the unsatisfying vision of the spirit, I envy them that!

Mark Twain
This speech was published in the May 1889 edition of Recreation. The speech was given at a banquet in New York to celebrate the Chicago and All American baseball teams return from their worldwide tour promoting baseball as a sport. One of the stops on the tour was Hawai’i. Mark Twain was known for his enthusiasm for the sport of baseball.

Mark Twain Quote About Hawai'i with Hawai'i Map by CTG Publishing