Quotes from David Livingstone

The largest tusks are yielded by the African elephant, and find their way hither from the port of Zanzibar: they are noted for being opaque, soft or "mellow" to work, and free from cracks or defects.

A large spear from my right lunged past and almost grazed my back, and stuck firmly into the soil. The two men from whom it came appeared in an opening in the forest only ten yards off and bolted, one looking back over his shoulder as he ran. As they are expert with the spear I don't know how it missed, except that he was too sure of his aim and the good hand of God was upon me.

Oh, that I could dedicate my all to God. This is all the return I can make Him.

I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office.

God had an only Son and He made Him a missionary.

I will try and remember always to approach God in secret with as much reverence in speech, posture, and behavior as in public. Help me, Thou who knowest my frame and pitiest as a father his children.

In this service I hope to live; in it I wish to die!

God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours.

I'll go anywhere as long as it's forward.

All that I am I owe to Jesus Christ, revealed to me in His divine Book.

If we have not enough in our religion . . . to share it with all the world, it is doomed here at home.

People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege.

It is my desire to show my attachment to the cause of Him who died for me by devoting my life to His service.

I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward.

If success attend me, grant me humility; If failure, resignation to Thy will.

I will go anywhere, provided it is forward.

Sympathy is no substitute for action.

Fastings and vigils without a special object in view are time run to waste.

It is hard to work for years with pure motives, and all the time be looked upon by most of those to whom our lives are devoted as having some sinister object in view.

Cannot the love of Christ carry the missionary where the slave-trade carries the trader? I shall open up a path to the interior or perish.

I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ.

It is far easier to travel than to write about it.

If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.

If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?