Today is Thomas Edward Lawrence’s birthday. Otherwise popularly known as Lawrence of Arabia thanks to the film of the same title based on his life and exploits. Lawrence served an important role during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. In celebration of this tremendous hero, here are 20 inspiring quotes by the British soldier, archaeologist, diplomat, and writer otherwise known as T. E. Lawrence.
Image Via Wikipedia
1. All men dream, but not 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 on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
2. The printing press is the greatest weapon in the armory of the modern commander.
3. Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pool, and that is the test of generals.
4. To me an unnecessary action, or shot, or casualty, was not only waste but sin.
5. 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 re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew.
6. I’ve been & am absurdly over-estimated. There are no supermen & I’m quite ordinary, & will say so whatever the artistic results. In that point I’m one of the few people who tell the truth about myself.
7. Some of the evil of my tale may have been inherent in our circumstances. For years we lived anyhow with one another in the naked desert, under the indifferent heaven.
8. 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!
9. When I am angry, I pray God to swing our globe into the fiery sun and prevent the sorrows of the not-yet-born: but when I am content, I want to lie forever in the shade, till I become a shade myself.
10. Freedom is enjoyed when you are so well armed, or so turbulent, or inhabit a country so thorny that the expense of your neighbor’s occupying you is greater than the profit.
11. An opinion can be argued with; a conviction is best shot.
Featured Image Via The New York Times