In view of my services in Africa, I have the chance of dying by poison. Two generals have brought it with them. It is fatal in three seconds. If I take the poison, none of the usual steps will be taken against my family; that is, against you. They will also leave my staff alone.

The battle is going very heavily against us. We're being crushed by the enemy weight. We are facing very difficult days, perhaps the most difficult that a man can undergo

To every man of us, Tobruk was a symbol of British resistance and we were now going to finish with it for good.

Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas.

One must not judge everyone in the world by his qualities as a soldier: otherwise we should have no civilization.

In the absence of orders, go find something and kill it.

The peril of the hour moved the British to tremendous exertions, just as always in a moment of extreme danger things can be done which had previously been thought impossible. Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas.