As a pilgrim at the shrine of beauty I have visited them, but as a priest in the temple of duty have I charged myself with their reverent custody and their studious repair.
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Source, in full
Speech in the Legislative Council at Calcutta on the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act 1904 (18 March 1904), quoted in Lord Curzon in India, Being A Selection from His Speeches as Viceroy & Governor-General of India 1898–1905 (1906), p. 198