“You cannot have a society of angels except in heaven”

“Keep your head down, think small, look after yourself: these constituted the lessons of Leopold. The spirit, once comprehensively crushed, does not recover easily. For seventy-five years, from 1885 to 1960, Congo's population had marinated in humiliation. No malevolent witch-doctor could have devised a better preparation for the coming of a second Great Dictator.”

“I’m going to do what you did,” it ran, “only I’m going to do it quicker, better and for more money. Because I’m me.”

“There is a graceless human tendency to wish upon others the ills visited upon oneself. Instead of pointing successors towards short cuts, you relish seeing them clambering through identical hoops.”

“Spirituality can go hand-in-hand with ruthless single-mindedness when the individual is convinced his cause is just”

“Bantu Philosophy: People cling to life and are not yet at the stage where they wil fight for the quality of that life. They feel as long as they are surviving, that is enough.”

“What constitutes charm? A presence, a capacity to command attention, an innate conviction of one's own uniqueness, combined, as often as not, with the more manipulative ability of making the interlocutor believe he has one's undivided attention and has gained a certain indefinable something from the encounter.”