Lapham’s Quarterly

All of life is a foreign country.

I am a man: I consider nothing human alien to me.

This is not a clash between civilizations. It is a clash about civilization.

In settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse.

All men naturally hate each other. We have used concupiscence as best we can to make it serve the common good, but this is mere sham and a false image of charity, for essentially it is just hate.

The less intelligent the white man is, the more stupid he thinks the black.

When the missionaries first came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.

Other nations use “force”; we Britons alone use “might.”

To need to dominate others is to need others. The commander is dependent.

I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.