"I had on the Congo under my orders three hundred men, English, Germans, Dutch, Portuguese, Belgians. I found no difference between them. All did their best according to their means. All were in the course of duty the object of some charge. I examined the charges minutely and always found them to be without foundation. That did not prevent these stories reaching Banana, and from there, Europe."

"They discharge their mission under the most difficult conditions, and I Relieve that I may assert that, from the Governor-General down to the humblest official, there is not one guilty of cruelty."

"When I was on the Congo and accused a tribe of cannibalism, it replied : "We are not cannibals, but our neighbors are." The neighboring tribe said : "It is not we, it is the next tribe that you will meet" ; and that tribe referred us on to the next, and so on continually. They seemed to be ashamed of their cannibalism. They concealed it. Yet there was no doubt as to the existence of the practice. It was very seldom that I could discover the guilty. How, then, in recruiting its troops, was the Congo to distinguish the black cannibals from those who were not cannibals?"

"To-day, with its forests pierced and open, its routes, its stations, it is in advance of all other African States. Take the French Congo, the German East Africa, Portuguese West Africa, and compare them. The Congo State prospers in a greater degree than any other part of the black continent."

"The recitals of atrocities and bad administrations which have of late been spread about are almost all, if not all, pure reports."

"I am certain that not one of the countries who are invited by the newspapers to put itself in its (Belgium's) place would have been able to do better."

"I do not believe in the accusations made in England against King Leopold II, the Congo and I do not share the feelings of those who inspire them. No state would be willing to spend the money spent by the King of the Belgians and Belgium in the most dark places of darkest Africa. When I consider the few years that have passed since the Congo became a state, I believe that the work accomplished is a great honor to Belgium. You can be sure that the King of the Belgians is interested in every detail of his administration. I do not claim that he can monitor all the actions of each individual, what Government could? The stories of the atrocities that have been spread are almost all gossip. The English note of month of August is based on biased reports. I am convinced that Leopold II has been doing his best to prevent any crime in the Congo, he is not responsible for the crimes anymore that could be committed there than those that are sometimes committed in Belgium. The reason of all these slanders? Jealousy! The Congo is doing better than any other African state. Those stories of atrocities will not stop, they will persist with the little basis they had, this was never anything but pure invention."

"[The whole Congo without—the lower Congo] isn't worth a penny."

"Socialism is a return to primitive conditions."

"Though many illusions are of a character we should gladly cherish, yet the sooner we lose some of them, the sooner we gain the power of seeing clearly into things. The one who possesses least has the best chance of becoming wise. The man who travels, and reflects, loses illusions faster than he who stays at home."

"Religion acts as a moral gardener, to weed out, or suppress, evil tendencies, which, like weeds: grow."

"As seen in my loneliness, there was this difference between the Bible and the newspapers. The one reminded one that, apart from God, my life was but a bubble of air, and it bade me remember my Creator; the other fostered arrogance and loneliness."

"I desire some generous and opulent philanthropist, who shall permit me a force for commerce in central Africa."

"We have attacked and destroyed 28 large towns, and 3 or 4 score villages."

"I was received with an overwhelming display of military and civilian tributes, all the way to the royal palace where I was to stay, troops were lined up behind which enthusiastic people were chanting their viva, it seemed to me that a major change had come in the Belgian public opinion on the importance of the Congo, when I first went there, the Belgian newspapers spouted nothing but criticism, they were completely dumbfounded, the king was recognized as the great benefactor of the nation."

"The barge was an invention of my own. It was 40 feet long, 6 feet beam, and 30 inches deep, of Spanish cedar 3/8 inches thick."

"You can find it on almost any tree. As we made our way through the forest, it was literally raining rubber juice. Our clothes were full of it. The Congo has so many tributaries that a well-organized company can easily extract a few tons of rubber per year here. You only have to sail up such a river and the branches with rubber hang almost up to your ship."

"Only by proving that we are superior to the savages, not only through our power to kill them but through our entire way of life, can we control them as they are now, in their present stage; it is necessary for their own well-being, even more than ours."

"The sentences in the book of providence are sometimes long, and you must read a great way before you understand their meaning."

"I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed."

"In all God's providences, it is good to compare His word and His works together; for we shall find a beautiful harmony between them, and that they mutually illustrate each other."

"An active faith can give thanks for a promise even though it be not yet performed, knowing that God's bonds are as good as ready money."

"The way to preserve the peace of the church is to preserve the purity of it."

"Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces."

"Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it."

"It is not fit the public trusts should be lodged in the hands of any, till they are first proved and found fit for the business they are to be entrusted with."

"It is good news, worthy of all acceptation; and yet not too good to be true."

"Wise anger is like fire from a flint: there is great ado to get it out; and when it does come, it is out again immediately."

"Men of polite learning and a liberal education."

"After a storm comes a calm."

"Whatever we have, the property of it is God's; we have only the use of it, according to the direction of our great Lord, and for his honour."

"Judas had given them the slip."

"Saying and doing are two things."

"Better late than never."

"Those that are above business."

"Not lost, but gone before."

"Those may justly be reckoned void of understanding that do not bless and praise God; nor do men ever rightly use their reason till they begin to be religious, nor live as men till they live to the glory of God. As reason is the substratum or subject of religion (so that creatures which have no reason are not capable of religion), so religion is the crown and glory of reason, and we have our reason in vain, and shall one day wish we had never had it, if we do not glorify God with it."

"None so blind as those that will not see."

"It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church."

"Blushing is the colour of virtue."

"It was a common saying among the Puritans, "Brown bread and the Gospel is good fare.""

"Those who will not be counselled, cannot be helped. More souls are ruined by pride than by any other sin whatever."

"Hearkners, we say, seldom hear good of themselves."

"Here is bread, which strengthens man's heart, and therefore called the staff of life."

"To fish in troubled waters."

"They that die by famine die by inches."

"None is so deaf as those that will not hear."

"Our creature comforts"

"He rolls it under his tongue as a sweet morsel."

"Were a man to live as long as Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must follow, would far outweigh them."