H. Rider Haggard

“Civilisation is only savagery silver-gilt.”

— H. Rider Haggard

We white people think that we know everything.

— H. Rider Haggard

“intense feeling is the mother of eloquence.”

— H. Rider Haggard

“Take up the tale," quoth Umslopogaas; "it is a merry one.”

— H. Rider Haggard

A sharp spear needs no polish.

— H. Rider Haggard

“pity has no place in politics,”

— H. Rider Haggard

“Never attack the strong until you are stronger.”

— H. Rider Haggard

“Take the goods the gods provide you.”

— H. Rider Haggard

“I have noted that those who desire to do the most good often work the greatest harm.”

— H. Rider Haggard

“Passion is like the lightening, it is beautiful and it links the earth to heaven, but it blinds.”

— H. Rider Haggard

Truly wealth, which men spend all their lives in acquiring, is a valueless thing at the last.

— H. Rider Haggard

There is no such things as magic, though there is such a thing as knowledge of the hidden ways of Nature.

— H. Rider Haggard

“everything has its balance—in madness is much wisdom, and in wisdom much madness.”

— H. Rider Haggard

“...for women bring trouble as surely as night follows day...”

— H. Rider Haggard

Laughter and bitterness are often the veils with which a sore heart wraps its weakness from the world.

— H. Rider Haggard

“...For like a rugged tree you are hard and sound at the core.”

— H. Rider Haggard

The Almighty gave us our lives, and I suppose He meant us to defend them, at least I have always acted on…

— H. Rider Haggard

“I am glad to see that you have enough imagination not to be altogether a fool... Yes, it is want of imagination…

— H. Rider Haggard

We were like confirmed opium-eaters: in our moments of reason we well knew the deadly nature of our pursuit, but we certainly…

— H. Rider Haggard

“Shall a man grave his sorrows upon a stone when he hath but need to write them on the water? Nay, oh…

— H. Rider Haggard

Men and women, empires and cities, thrones, principalities, and powers, mountains, rivers, and unfathomed seas, worlds, spaces, and universes, all have their…

— H. Rider Haggard

“I was born a gentleman, though I have been nothing but a poor travelling trader and hunter all my life. Whether I…

— H. Rider Haggard

“The world is a great mart, my Holly, where all things are for sale to whom who bids the highest in the…

— H. Rider Haggard

As for the girl, since she is well favoured, she shall brew the king's beer, and be numbered amongst the king's wives-unless,…

— H. Rider Haggard

It is a hard thing when one has shot sixty-five lions or more, as I have in the course of my life,…

— H. Rider Haggard

“Now the western tempest was scrawled all over with lines of intolerable light, while the inky head of the cloud-giant to the…

— H. Rider Haggard

“The moon grows black before your eyes; soon there will be darkness—ay, darkness in the hour of the full moon. Ye have…

— H. Rider Haggard

“Fourth reason and last: Because I am going to tell the strangest story that I remember. It may seem a queer thing…

— H. Rider Haggard

Man doeth this and doeth that from the good or evil of his heart; but he knows not to what end his…

— H. Rider Haggard

Man's cleverness is almost indefinite, and stretches like an elastic band, but human nature is like an iron ring. You can go…

— H. Rider Haggard

“Listen! What is life? It is a feather, it is the seed of the grass, blown hither and thither, sometimes multiplying itself…

— H. Rider Haggard

“I closed my eyelids, and imagination, taking up the thread of thought, shot its swift shuttle back across the ages, weaving a…

— H. Rider Haggard

“No other white man shall cross the mountains, even if any man live to come so far. I will see no traders…

— H. Rider Haggard

“The moon went slowly down in loveliness; she departed into the depth of the horizon, and long veil-like shadows crept up the…

— H. Rider Haggard

“Though the face before me was that of a young woman of certainly not more than thirty years, in perfect health and…

— H. Rider Haggard

“. . . but of those Jews whom I hated, for they called me 'heathen' when I would have taught them my…

— H. Rider Haggard

“Yet man dies not whilst the world, at once his mother and his monument, remains. His name is lost, indeed, but the…

— H. Rider Haggard

“It was a wonderful thing to think for how many thousands of years the dead orb above and the dead city below…

— H. Rider Haggard

“Each religion claims the future for its followers; or, at least, the good thereof. The evil is for those benighted ones who…

— H. Rider Haggard

“Whatever She may have been thought to signify, its impact upon publication was tremendous. Everyone read it, especially men; a whole generation…

— H. Rider Haggard