Mankind has had ten-thousand years of experience at fighting and if we must fight, we have no excuse for not fighting well. T. E. Lawrence More Quotes by T. E. Lawrence More Quotes From T. E. Lawrence 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. T. E. Lawrence finalswarbook The printing press is the greatest weapon in the armoury of the modern commander. T. E. Lawrence modernarabiaweapons A skittish motorbike with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals on earth, because of its logical extension of our faculties, and the hint, the provocation, to excess conferred by its honeyed untiring smoothness. T. E. Lawrence ridinganimalblood I've been and am absurdly over-estimated. There are no supermen and I'm quite ordinary, and will say so whatever the artistic results. In that point I'm one of the few people who tell the truth about myself. T. E. Lawrence artisticordinarypeople To make war upon rebellion is messy and slow, like eating soup with a knife. T. E. Lawrence knivessoupwar 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. T. E. Lawrence maddonequiet To me an unnecessary action, or shot, or casualty, was not only waste but sin. T. E. Lawrence wastesinaction The Beduin of the desert, born and grown up in it, had embraced with all his sour this nakedness too harsh for volunteers, for the reason, felt but inarticulate, that there he found himself indubitably free. T. E. Lawrence desertvolunteerreason They taught me that no man could be their leader except he ate the ranks' food, wore their clothes, lived level with them, and yet appeared better in himself. T. E. Lawrence clothesmilitarymen 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! T. E. Lawrence ornamentsdetailsworld Half a calamity is better than a whole one. T. E. Lawrence calamityhalfwhole 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. T. E. Lawrence clothesdressesease It seems to me that the conquest of the air is the only major task for our generation. T. E. Lawrence our-generationtasksair He feared his maturity as it grew upon him with its ripe thought, its skill, its finished art; yet which lacked the poetry of boyhood to make living a full end of life. T. E. Lawrence maturityskillsart Many men would take the death-sentence without a whimper, to escape the life-sentence which fate carries in her other hand. T. E. Lawrence fatemenhands I wrote my will across the sky, in stars T. E. Lawrence pillarsstarssky 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. T. E. Lawrence hatsprotectionsun We lived always in the stretch or sag of nerves, either on the crest or in the trough of waves of feeling. T. E. Lawrence wavenervesfeelings Club Secretary: I say, Lawrence. You are a clown! Lawrence: We can't all be lion tamers. T. E. Lawrence arabialionsclubs 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. T. E. Lawrence desertpurposefriendly
