Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Suppressed introductory chapter, first published 1939
Penguin edition p. 23
All
men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of
their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of
the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes,
to make it possible.
You
wonder what I am doing? Well, so do I, in truth. Days seem to dawn, suns to
shine, evenings to follow, and then I sleep. What I have done, what I am doing,
what I am going to do, puzzle and bewilder me. Have you ever been a leaf and
fallen from your tree in autumn and been really puzzled about it? That's the
feeling.
Letter to Eric Kennington, 6 May 1935
I loved
you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the
sky in stars.
To earn
you Freedom
The opening lines of the dedication to Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Quotations from T.E. Lawrence