I've been busy with a long memorandum about the whole of our central Arabian relations, which I've just finished. It will now go to all the High and Mighty in every part. One can't do much more than sit and… — Gertrude Bell Copy Share Image
Until quite recently I've been wholly cut off from [the Shias] because their tenets forbid them to look upon an unveiled woman and my tenets don't permit me to veil Nor is it any good trying to make friends through the women - if they were allowed to see me they would veil before me as if I were a… — Gertrude Bell Copy Share
It's so nice to be a spoke in the wheel, one that helps to turn, not one that hinders. — Gertrude Bell Copy Share Image
We as outsiders can't differentiate between Sunni and Shi'ah, but leave it to them and they'll get over the difficulty by some kind of hanky panky, just as the Turks did, and for the present it's the only way of getting over it. I don't for a moment doubt that the final authority must be in the hands of the… — Gertrude Bell Copy Share
I've been busy with a long memorandum about the whole of our central Arabian relations, which I've just finished. It will now go to… — Gertrude Bell Copy Share Image
All the earth is seamed with roads, and all the sea is furrowed with the tracks of ships, and over all the roads and… — Gertrude Bell Copy Share Image
I have fallen a hopeless victim to the Turk; he is the most charming of mortals. — Gertrude Bell Copy Share Image
There is nothing more difficult to measure than the value of visible emotion. — Gertrude Bell Copy Share Image
The most degrading of human passions is the fear of death. It tears away the restraints and the conventions which alone make social life… — Gertrude Bell Copy Share Image
To wake in that desert dawn was like waking in the heart of an opal. ... See the desert on a fine morning and… — Gertrude Bell Copy Share Image
...the holy men sat in an atmosphere reeking of antiquity, so thick with the dust of ages that you can't see through it -nor… — Gertrude Bell Copy Share Image
... at times they are good and quiet company, the dead; they will not interrupt your musings, but when they speak, whether they be… — Gertrude Bell Copy Share Image
