A foreign swear-word is practically inoffensive except to the person who has learnt it early in life and knows its social limits.

Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.

There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment.

The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume.

I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.

You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back.

You can't save the rhinos and you can't preserve a culture. I'm very pessimistic. Once it's gone, it's over.

All travel is circular. I had been jerked through Asia, making a parabola on one of the planet's hemispheres. After all, the grand tour is just the inspired man's way of heading home.

Travel is an attitude, a state of mind. It is not residence, it is motion.

Railways are irresistible bazaars, snaking along perfectly level no matter what the landscape, improving your mood with speed, and never upsetting your drink.

Tibet has a very proud people but it's culturally gone and overrun ever since the Chinese took over. It's like saving the rhino. When a species is endangered, it's gone.

I couldn't bear the thought of Alex looking at me like I was a freak. It was bad enough that the looked at me as Jack's sister.

I always think that in a big city, anything is possible, including reinventing yourself.

Tessa touched his wrist lightly with her hand. "Be brave," she said. "It's not a duck, is it?

The prophet Zechariah warns that any nation that touches Jerusalem will be cut off.

There is something in the character of every man which cannot be broken in--the skeleton of his character; and to try to alter this is like training a sheep for draught purposes.

Commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic.

No no, we ALL teach each other, whether it's dancing, whether it's singing, whether it's talking, we all listen to each other. That's progress.

As a child I was very into gadgets and machines and robots.

A good name is better than precious ointment.

I'm trying as hard as I possibly can each and every day to get my life better and better and stronger. And if I win championships along the way, so be it.