T. E. Lawrence Quotes

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.

Cling tight to your sense of humour. You will need it every day.

The desert is an ocean in which no oar is dipped.

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.

Dream your dreams with open eyes and make them come true.

Your success will be proportioned to the amount of mental effort you devote to it.

Do not try and do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not win it for them.

As long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous and cruel.

You wonder what I am doing? Well, so do I, in truth. Days seem to dawn, suns to shine, evenings to follow, and then I sleep. What I have done, what I am doing, what I am going to do, puzzle and bewilder me. Have you ever been a leaf and fallen from your tree in autumn and been really puzzled about it? That’s the feeling.

He was old and wise, which meant tired and disappointed.

Misery, anger, indignation, discomfort-those conditions produce literature. Contentment-never. So there you are.

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.

The dreamers of the day are dangerous... for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

Half a calamity is better than a whole one.

Yet when we achieved, and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to remake it 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.

This creed of the desert seemed inexpressible in words, and indeed in thought.

I prefer lies to truth, especially when the lies are about me.

The printing press is the greatest weapon in the armoury of the modern commander.

I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands/and wrote my will across the sky in stars

To make war upon rebellion is messy and slow, like eating soup with a knife.

The greatest commander is he whose intuitions most nearly happen.

To me an unnecessary action, or shot, or casualty, was not only waste but sin.

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.

Many men would take the death-sentence without a whimper, to escape the life-sentence which fate carries in her other hand.

There is an ideal standard somewhere and only that matters and I cannot find it. Hence the aimlessness.