The more I see of life in these 'undeveloped countries' and of the methods adopted to 'improve' them, the more depressed I become. It seems criminal that the backwardness of a country like Afghanistan should be used as an excuse… — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
“Even a brief glimpse of what we were is valuable to help understand what we are” — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
one feels guilty on behalf of Western civilisation. What damage are we doing, blindly and swiftly, to those races who are being taught that because we are materially richer we must be emulated without question? What compels us to infect everyone else with our own sick urgency to change, soften and standardise? How can we have the effrontery to lord… — Dervla Murphy Copy Share
The Irish have a flair for wringing from death the last drop of emotion and they do not quite understand those who react otherwise. — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
On my tenth birthday a bicycle and an atlas coincided as presents and a few days later I decided to cycle to India. — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
Undoubtedly the Afghans must be, by our standards, the best-looking people in the world. They have everything; height, proportions, carriage, features and complexion. — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
“I thank God for my sanguine temperament, which refuses to allow me to believe in disaster until it is finally manifest” — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
[On Addis Ababa:] Among the city's handicaps are an immaturity for which no one can be blamed, as it was founded only eighty years… — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
Buying a bicycle is a momentous event, akin to marriage: you are acquiring a partner. — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
one of the advantages of cycling is that it automatically prevents a journey from becoming an Expedition. — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
hatred, however apparently justifiable, excusable or inevitable, always damages the hater. — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
On my tenth birthday a bicycle and an atlas coincided as gifts, and a few days later I decided to cycle to India...However, I… — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
Is this something else our age does - on the one hand make communication easier than ever before, while on the other hand widening… — Dervla Murphy Copy Share Image
![“[On Addis Ababa:] Among the city's handicaps are an immaturity for which no one can be blamed, as it was founded only eighty years ago, and a proliferation of architectural excesses for which many people can and should be blamed.” quote by Dervla Murphy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ec0/dervla-murphy-20135_architecture_on-addis-ababa-among-the-city-s-handicap_1176958.jpg)
