Richard Francis Burton

“Of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Civilization, man feels once more happy.”

“Support a compatriot against a native, however the former may blunder or plunder.”

“Wherever we halted we were surrounded by wandering troops of Bedouins.”

“One death to a man is a serious thing: a dozen neutralize one another.”

“Between 2 and 3 in the morning of the 19th inst. I was aroused by the cry that the enemy was upon us.”

“Travellers, like poets, are mostly an angry race: by falling into a daily fit of passion, I proved to the governor and his son, who were profuse in their attentions, that I was in earnest.”

“I was surrounded at the time by about a dozen of the enemy, whose clubs rattled upon me without mercy, and the strokes of my sabre were rendered uncertain by the energetic pushes of an attendant who thus hoped to save me.”