“When I am about to embark on a difficult journey, I comfort myself by reading the accounts of the great nineteenth-century travellers, men like Stanley, Burton, Speke, Burckhardt and Barth.”

“A man who embarks on a journey must know when to end it.”

“In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that I will come to no harm.”

“A journey, I reflected, is of no merit unless it has tested you.”

“Inscribed on it was a verse from the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, the eleventh-century Persian mystic. Reading the words aloud I prepared for a most amazing journey:The sages who have compassed sea and land,Their secret to search out and understand,My mind misgives me if they ever solveThe scheme on which the universe is planned.”

“I believe that Marrakech ought to be earned as a destination. The journey is the preparation for the experience. Reaching it too fast derides it, makes it a little less easy to understand.”

“As I saw it, a little threatening was a good thing. It kept the men on their toes.”