H. Rider Haggard

Then he went off to bed.

. . . they [the Walloos] are but the rotting stump of a tree that once was tall and fair. The dust of Time hides many such stumps . . . But what of that? Other fine trees are growing which also will become stumps in their season, and so on …

. . . little in the world is pretty, except the world itself.

The world is very old and there have been peoples in it of whom we have heard nothing

Life is more than gold . . . and great honour is better than both.

. . . those who worship the Black One [i.e. the Devil], at last the Black One takes by the throat.

. . . the devil never dies

. . . now and again it is wise to cease from being wise, lest Heaven should grow jealous of our wisdom and want to share it.

. . . I thought I saw the mind of Providence acting through Hans. Yes, the cunning of the Hottentot had been used by the Powers above to sweep from the earth a vile tyranny and to destroy a blood-soaked idol and its worshippers.

It is what is in a man that matters . . . not what he looks like outside, as women often used to say to me when I was young

. . . disillusionment is often painful, you know

Never before was there such a sudden disrobement of an ecclesiastical dignitary draped in all his trappings.

You may all have noticed that however piously disposed, there is a point at which the majority of women become very practical indeed.

. . . if you live long enough, you will learn that this world is full of deceptions

. . . is there anything so mighty as water in the world, I wonder

Superstition is still king of most of the world, though often it calls itself Religion.

. . . we are all fools in our different ways, and how can any one dig out of his heart the folly that his mother put there before he was born?

. . . there is a way out of most difficulties if only it can be hit upon.

While we breathe there is hope, and all that seems lost still may be won

. . . these priests, after the fashion of priests all the world over, now aspired to the absolute rule of the race

So kick away the burning sticks from beneath the water of your anger and let it cease from boiling, and go forth as you have promised, to see wonderful things and do wonderful deeds and snatch the pure and innocent out of the hands of evil …

. . . all men are cowards . . . in one matter or another, though in the rest they may be brave enough.

. . . there are always plenty of fools in the world and the fool who comes after is just as big as the fool who went before. Death spills the water of wisdom upon the sand . . . and sand is thirsty stuff that soon grows dry again. If it …

. . . the dead keep their wisdom to themselves