“The Romans were fortunate; their civilization reached as far as hot baths without touching the fatal knowledge of machinery.”
This phrase is closely connected with the theme of uncontaminated society. Here the Romans are actually compared with the inhabitants of Shangri-La. They are not affected by voidness/worldliness of modern society. Although they have all modern conveniences, they don’t need any super-advanced technologies and computer revolutions. Thus Conway implies in some way, that the society must try to be like these people, to use mind and time for more valuable things than pursuit for technological revolutions.
“The exhaustion of the passions is the beginning of wisdom”
Conway says these words about himself, thus answering to the High Lama, when the last says him that he is very wise and prudential for his age. This phrase is actually one of the philosophical aspects of Shangri-La. Local people don’t have passions. They live moderately, in harmony with themselves and with the surrounding world. And the absence of any passions cleans their minds up, gives them ability to develop their understanding of the world more and more.
“Time means less to you than it does to most people.”
Conway said these words about the locals and the High Lama agreed with them. The locals don’t pursue time, they live with its passage. Thus they are always in time and that’s why they’re happy.
“The whole game's going to pieces.”
First thinking so just about Barnard, Conway decides that it concerns also the whole world, “and Barnard's cropper had only, perhaps, been better dramatized than his own. The whole game WAS doubtless going to pieces, but fortunately the players were not as a rule put on trial for the pieces they had failed to save. In that respect financiers were unlucky.” There Conway shows how deeply he’s despaired in the world, in society. And comparing this society with the life in Shangri-La, the reader actually agrees with Conway.
