The perpetual charm of Arabia is that the traveler finds his level there simply as a human being; the people's directness, deadly to the sentimental or pedantic, likes the less complicated virtues.

The greatest of mythologies divided its gods into creators, preservers and destroyers. Tidiness obviously belongs to the second category, which mitigates the terrific impact of the other two.

There are, I sometimes think, only two sorts of people in this world - the settled and the nomad - and there is a natural antipathy between them, whatever the land to which they may belong.

Manners are like zero in arithmetic. They may not be much in themselves, but they are capable of adding a great deal of value to everything else.

The art of learning fundamental common values is perhaps the greatest gain of travel to those who wish to live at ease among their fellows.

An absolute condition of all successful living, whether for an individual or a nation, is the acceptance of death.

... it is a matter of civilizing everyone or not being civilized at all: the decay has always come from a partial civilization.