Food for the Soul

Conversation is food for the soul.
- Mexican Proverb

Omo Valley, Ethiopia

 The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much;
always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends;
never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can;
to hearken to what is said and to answer to the purpose.
- Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790

Yemen

The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense,
the third good humor, and the fourth wit.
- Sir William Temple, 1628-1699

Tanzania

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another’s observation, not overturning it.
- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton, 1803 – 1873

Morocco

The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others.
- Jean de la Bruyere, 1803 – 1873

Italy

 The character of a man is known from his conversations.
- Menander, 342 – 292 BCE

Poet Khalil Khoury, Baghdad, Iraq

 

Japan

 

India

Conversation. What is it? A Mystery!
It’s the art of never seeming bored, of touching everything with interest,
of pleasing with trifles, of being fascinating with nothing at all.
- Guy de Maupassant, 1850 – 1893

Lourdes, France

 

China

The most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds is, in my opinion, conversation.
-  Michel de Montaigne, The Essays: A Selection, 1533 – 1592

Turkey

 

Russia

 

France

 

Afghanistan

A single conversation with a wise person is worth a month’s study of books.
- Chinese Proverb

Italy

India

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

Tanzania

In my opinion, the most fruitful and natural play of the mind is in conversation.
I find it sweeter than any other action in life; and if I were forced to choose,
I think I would rather lose my sight than my hearing and voice.
- Michel de Montaigne

Tibet

The very act of preparing and serving tea encourages conversation.
The little spaces in time created by teatime rituals call out to be filled with conversation.
Even the tea itself–warm and comforting-inspires a feeling of relaxation and trust that fosters shared confidences.
Emilie Barnes, If Teacups Could Talk

Italy

The highest good is prayer and conversation with God.
- St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, 347–407

Paraguay

 

Steve McCurry in Omo Valley with men from Surma Tribe

 

PLEASE VISIT
http://www.imagine-asia.org

Going Home

Home is where one starts from. 
- T.S. Eliot

Rajasthan, India

The ache for home lives in all of us…
- Maya Angelou

Omo Valley, Ethiopia

My home is my retreat and resting place …
I try to keep this corner as a haven against the tempest outside,
as I do another corner in my soul.
- Michel de Montaigne

Cave Homes in Bamiyan, Afghanistan

Tibet

He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan 

The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown.
It may be frail — its roof may shake — the wind may blow through it — the storm may enter — the rain may enter —
but the King of England cannot enter! — all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.
-William Pitt the Elder

India

All language is a longing for home.
- Jalaluddin Rumi, 13th-Century Persian poet

Russia

 Mali

Uganda

Peru

Mauritania

Home is any four walls that enclose the right person.
-Helen Rowland

 Tibet

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.
- Benjamin Franklin

Kashmir

Tihamah Plain, Yemen

A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
- George Edward Moore

Refugees returning to destroyed homes, Herat, Afghanistan

Russia

There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues,
the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained. 
- Winston Churchill

 Tanzania

Philippines

 Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.
- John Howard Payne

Afghanistan

Morocco

 My home is not a place; it is people.
- Lois McMaster Bujold

Bosnia

Brazil

Russia

Life’s a voyage that’s homeward bound.
- Herman Melville

Omo Valley, Ethiopia

It takes a lot of living to make a house a home
It doesn’t make any  difference how rich you get to be
How much your chairs and tables cost, how great your luxury;
It isn’t home to you though it be the palace of a king,
Until somehow your soul is wrapped round everything.
- Paraphrase of Edgar Guest poem, Home

Upcoming Exhibitions
Plazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy – Opens October 17, 2012
http://www.stevemccurrygenova.it/
Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, California, United States – November 15, 2012
 Kunstmuseum-Wolfsburg, Germany – January 19, 2013
Kunsthalle Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland – June 1, 2013