Africa has her mysteries, and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them.

Other nations use “force”; we Britons alone use “might.”

Intolerance is evidence of impotence.

When the missionaries first came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.

The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.

“Abroad,” that large home of ruined reputations.

Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind.

There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.

Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

In settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse.

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

Nothing is more narrow-minded than chauvinism or racial hatred. To me all men are equal; there are flatheads everywhere and I despise them all equally.

Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.