John

“In the evening [the Iraqi interim governor of Maysan province] asked me for fifty dollars to repair his windows, which had been destroyed in a recent demonstration. Although he was the governor, his salary was only four hundred and fifty dollars a month, and Baghdad had still not agreed to give the governors an independent budget.... For the sake of a tiny sum of money - a couple thousand dollars a month from the hundred billion we had spent on the invasion - we were alienating our key partner and successor.
p. 264”
― Rory Stewart, The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq

“Unlike most travel writers, he [Babur] is honest.”
― Rory Stewart, The Places in Between

“I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't.”
― Jules Renard

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”
― Mark Twain