It's so nice to be a spoke in the wheel, one that helps to turn, not one that hinders.
Gertrude BellTo wake in that desert dawn was like waking in the heart of an opal. ... See the desert on a fine morning and die - if you can!
Gertrude Bell...the holy men sat in an atmosphere reeking of antiquity, so thick with the dust of ages that you can't see through it -nor can they.
Gertrude BellWe as outsiders can't differentiate between Sunni and Shi'ah, but leave it to them and they'll get over the difficulty by some kind of hanky panky, just as the Turks did, and for the present it's the only way of getting over it. I don't for a moment doubt that the final authority must be in the hands of the Sunnis, in spite of their numerical inferiority; otherwise you will have a mujtahid-run, theocratic state, which is the very devil.
Gertrude Bell