Skip to content

"They have every good reason to fear those from the outside world. We, ironically known as the civilizados—in practically everything that matters they're a damned sight more civilised than we are—bring them so-called progress, which harms them, so-called change, which harms them, so-called civilisation, which harms them even more, and disease, which kills them."

— Alistair MacLean River of Death (1981)

Another quote →

More quotes by Alistair MacLean

To all things an end, to every night its dawn; even to the longest night when dawn never comes, there comes at last the dawn.

HMS Ulysses (1955)

Every man is what environment and heredity make him.

HMS Ulysses (1955)

“It is no small thing, Major, to be lost in a blizzard in the night skies over war-torn Europe.”

Where Eagles Dare (1967)

"The intolerance of ignorance, not wanting to know – that is the last real frontier on earth."

The Last Frontier (1959)

Being at the wrong end of a Schmeisser machine pistol does not make for an easy cordiality in relationships.

Where Eagles Dare (1967)

All Alistair MacLean quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alistair MacLean (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.