As long as we rule India we are the greatest Power in the world. If we lose it, we shall drop straight away to a third-rate Power.

Letter to Arthur Balfour (31 March 1901), quoted in S. Gopal, 'Lord Curzon and Indian Nationalism – 1898–1905', in S. N. Mukherjee (ed.), South Asian Affairs, Number Two: The Movement for National Freedom in India (1966), p. 67