T.E. Lawrence Quotes

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

All men dream: but nor equally, Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

There was among the tribes in the fighting zone a nervous enthusiasm common, I suppose, to all national risings, but strangely disquieting to one from a land so long delivered that national freedom had become like the water in our mouths, tasteless.

She was not tall, and looked heavy, but was docile and smooth to ride, turning left or right if the saddle-horn were tapped on the required side. So I rode her without a stick, comfortably reading a book when the march permitted.

Afterwards the greedy Howeitat saw more oryx in the distance and went after the beasts, who foolishly ran a little; then stood still and stared till the men were near, and, too late, ran away again. Their white shining bellies betrayed them; for, by the magnification of the mirage, they winked each move to us from afar.

In his life he had air and winds, sun and light, open spaces and a great emptiness.

We were fond together because of the sweep of open places, the taste of wide winds, the sunlight, and the hopes in which we worked. The morning freshness of the world-to-be intoxicated us. We were wrought up with ideas inexpressible and vaporous, but to be fought for. We lived many lives in those whirling campaigns, never sparing ourselves: yet when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to remake in the likeness of the former world they knew. Youth could win, but had not learned to keep, and was pitiably weak against age. We stammered that we had worked for a new heaven and a new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made their peace.

Our feet were upon its southern boundary. To the east stretched the nomadic desert. To the west Syria was limited by the Mediterranean, from Gaza to Alexandretta.

Mankind has had ten-thousand years of experience at fighting and if we must fight, we have no excuse for not fighting well.

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.

Beduin proverb that a deserted head showed an ungenerous mind:

spent hours apart by myself, taking stock of where I stood, mentally, on this my thirtieth birthday. It came to me queerly how, four years ago, I had meant to be a general and knighted, when thirty.

"- "I say, Lawrence. You are a clown!"
- "Ah, well, we can't all be lion tamers" — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — "The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.

My chiefs were astonished at such favourable news, but promised help, and meanwhile sent me back, much against my will, into Arabia.

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream in the dark recesses of the night awake in the day to find all was vanity. But the dreamers of day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, and make it possible.

Мечтают все: но не одинаково. Те, кто по ночам грезит на пыльных чердаках своего ума, просыпаются днем и обнаруживают, что все это было тщетой; но те, кто мечтает днем, опасные люди, ибо они могут проживать свою мечту с открытыми глазами, воплощая ее.

Все люди мечтают, но по-разному. Одни грезят ночью, в тёмных закоулках разума, но стоит им проснуться, как мечты их обращаются прахом. Но есть и другие - те, кто грезит наяву. Опасные это люди, ибо они идут навстречу мечте с открытыми глазами.