The beginning and ending of the secret of handling Arabs is unremitting study of them.

Some of the evil of my tale may have been inherent in our circumstances. For years we lived anyhow with one another in the naked desert, under the indifferent heaven.

The desert was held in a crazed communism by which Nature and the elements were for the free use of every known friendly person for his own purposes and no more.

An opinion can be argued with; a conviction is best shot. The logical end of a war of creeds is the final destruction of one, and Salammbo is the classical text-book instance.

To me an unnecessary action, or shot, or casualty, was not only waste but sin.

We lived always in the stretch or sag of nerves, either on the crest or in the trough of waves of feeling.

It is difficult to keep quiet when everything is being done wrong, but the less you lose your temper the greater your advantage. Also then you will not go mad yourself.