When a traveller gets a thorn in his foot,’ Mbejane went on softly, ‘and he is wise he plucks it out – and he is a fool who leaves it and says “I will keep this thorn to prick me so that I will always remember the road upon which I have travelled.” Nkosi, it is better to remember with pleasure than with pain.

— Wilbur Smith

Wilbur Smith Quotes

Herbert, my father, was born in Britain but went out to Africa in his teens to join his father and built up an 18,000-acre ranch in what was then Northern Rhodesia, providing work for the locals. He was my hero when I was a boy.

— Wilbur Smith

My first novel was rejected by some of the most eminent publishers in the world. Starting again was a real wrench.

— Wilbur Smith

The really disturbing thing about Somalia is that in a country where there are few economic opportunities, pirates are perceived as glamorous and are held in awe by young boys who aspire to their lifestyle.

— Wilbur Smith

There’s nothing so aphrodisiacal for a woman as money and success.

— Wilbur Smith

A man follows the path laid out for him. He does his duty to God and his King. He does what he must do, not what pleases him. God’s truth, boy, what kind of world would this be if every man did what pleased him alone? Who would plough the fields and reap the harvest, if every man had the right to say, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ In this world there is a place for every man, but every man must know his place.

— Wilbur Smith

Yet such is the perversity of human nature that I hungered for what I could never have and dreamed of the impossible.

— Wilbur Smith

Rage makes a man sick, my son. It spoils his appetite for life and keeps him from sleep at night. We cannot change our world, so we must look for the good things in life and enjoy those to the full.

— Wilbur Smith

Should five slaves dictate to a king? If five baboons bark, must the black-maned lion tremble?

— Wilbur Smith

Robin Hood was also a terrorist – but he had some style and a little class.

— Wilbur Smith

When a traveller gets a thorn in his foot,’ Mbejane went on softly, ‘and he is wise he plucks it out – and he is a fool who leaves it and says “I will keep this thorn to prick me so that I will always remember the road upon which I have travelled.” Nkosi, it is better to remember with pleasure than with pain.

— Wilbur Smith

If I have to die, then it’s best to do so before I see everything I love, the land, the animals, the people, all of it destroyed.

— Wilbur Smith

The man who drinks Zambezi waters must always return to drink again.

— Wilbur Smith

But those set to guard a treasure, are too often those who loot it.

— Wilbur Smith

Something always dies when the lion feeds – and yet there is meat for those that follow him.

— Wilbur Smith

Duplicity thy name is woman!

— Wilbur Smith

Play the game without mercy, play to win.

— Wilbur Smith

As they slithered up the muddy bank, scores of tiny silver fish that had been feasting on the open wounds were slow to relinquish their hold and were drawn out with the carcasses. Stranded upon the mud-banks, they flopped and quivered like stars that had fallen to earth.

— Wilbur Smith

We are all mere insects caught in the web that the gods spin for us.

— Wilbur Smith

The branch breaks that will not bend with the wind. You must learn to bend”.

— Wilbur Smith

Goodbye, my mistress”, I whispered. “Farewell, my heart”.

— Wilbur Smith
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