I find nothing more depressing than optimism.

Tourism requires that you see conventional things, and that you see them in a conventional way.

And the ideal travel writer is consumed not just with a will to know. He is also moved by a powerful will to teach.

Wars damage the civilian society as much as they damage the enemy. Soldiers never get over it.

All the pathos and irony of leaving one's youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveller learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.

Understanding the past requires pretending that you don't know the present. It requires feeling its own pressure on your pulses without any ex post facto illumination.

If we do not redefine manhood, war is inevitable.