Tahir Shah, In Search Of King Solomon's Mines Quotes

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

Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives.

Most journeys have a clear beginning, but on some the ending is less well-defined. The question is, at what point do you bite your lip and head for home?

I felt sure we could gain the upper hand by putting ourselves in the mindset of the Incas.

Usually, there is nothing more pleasing that returning to a place where you have endured hardship.

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

There's nothing like a pack of mules to give one a sense of entourage.

The first rule of an expedition is that everyone should stick together.

The first few hours in the cell were quite stimulating. I'd never been in a prison cell before and was quite enjoying the experience.

In any case, a little danger is a small price to pay for ridding a place of tourists.

But in Africa bureaucrats are usually too proud to accept a bribe, something I admire when I'm not the one being arrested.

As far as Samson was concerned I was just another foreigner in pursuit of a lunatic quest.

There's nothing quite like a good quest for getting your blood pumping.

I had learned years ago never to give original documents to anyone if I could help it.

As anyone who's ever taken an Ethiopian bus knows, there is an unwritten rule that the windows must remain firmly closed.

It was an awkward moment. We were burning down our host's house, a situation which any guest seeks to avoid.

Money spent on good-quality gear is always money well spent.

[T]hrough bitter experience I have learned that it is best to promise little and then to reward hard work with generosity.

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.