Cling tight to your sense of humour. You will need it every day.
Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pool, and that is the test of generals.
All the revision in the world will not save a bad first draft: for the architecture of the thing comes, or fails to come, in the first conception, and revision only affects the detail and ornament, alas!
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.
The printing press is the greatest weapon in the armoury of the modern commander.
To me an unnecessary action, or shot, or casualty, was not only waste but sin.
If you wear Arab things, wear the best. Clothes are significant among the tribes, and you must wear the appropriate, and appear at ease in them. Dress like a Sherif, if they agree to it.
It seems to me that the conquest of the air is the only major task for our generation.
I prefer lies to truth, especially when the lies are about me.
Club Secretary: I say, Lawrence. You are a clown! Lawrence: We can’t all be lion tamers.
Many men would take the death-sentence without a whimper, to escape the life-sentence which fate carries in her other hand.
Men have looked upon the desert as barren land, the free holding of whoever chose; but in fact each hill and valley in it had a man who was its acknowledged owner and would quickly assert the right of his family or clan to it, against aggression.
Immorality, I know. Immortality, I cannot judge.
It seemed that rebellion must have an unassailable base, something guarded not merely from attack, but from the fear of it: such a base as we had in the Red Sea Parts, the desert, or in the minds of the men we converted to our creed.
The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor.
I had dropped one form and not taken on the other, and was become like Mohammed’s coffin in our legend, with a resultant feeling of intense loneliness in life, and a contempt, not for other men, but for all they do.
If I could talk it like Dahoum, you would never be tired of listening to me.
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.
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.
A thick headcloth forms a good protection against the sun, and if you wear a hat your best Arab friends will be ashamed of you in public.