Cecil Rhodes Quotes

• I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. Just fancy those parts that are at present inhabited by the most despicable specimens of human beings what an alteration there would be if they were brought under Anglo-Saxon influence, look again at the extra employment a new country added to our dominions gives.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Country, Race, Giving

  "Confession of Faith". Essay by Cecil Rhodes, 1877.

  293 Copy quote

• Africa is still lying ready for us it is our duty to take it. It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race more of the best the most human, most honorable race the world possesses.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Lying, Mean, Eye

  "Confession of Faith". Essay by Cecil Rhodes, 1877.

  293 Copy quote

• We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labor that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Slave Labor, Land, Raw Materials

  223 Copy quote

• I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race... If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is paint as much of the map of Africa British Red as possible...

  Cecil Rhodes

  Thinking, Race, If There Is A God

  "Imperial racism". "The Story of Africa" by BBC World Service, www.bbc.co.uk. February 19, 2007.

  224 Copy quote

• Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Firsts, Remember, Englishmen

  In Peter Ustinov 'Dear Me' (1977) ch. 4

  200 Copy quote

• Why should we not form a secret society with but one object, the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole world under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, for making the Anglo Saxon race but one Empire? What a dream, but yet it is probable; it is possible.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Dream, Recovery, Race

  128 Copy quote

• To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Stars, Night, Thinking

  Cecil Rhodes (1902). “The last will and testament of Cecil John Rhodes: with elucidatory notes to which are added some chapters describing the political and religious ideas of the testator”

  120 Copy quote

• When people praise you, don't let it go to your head. When they criticize you, don't let it go to your heart.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Heart, People, Let It Go

  73 Copy quote

• If there be a God, I think he would like me to paint Africa British-Red as possible.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Thinking, If There Is A God, Red

  132 Copy quote

• Ask any man what nationality he would prefer to be, and ninety nine out of a hundred will tell you that they would prefer to be Englishmen

  Cecil Rhodes

  Men, Ninety Nine, Hundred

  133 Copy quote

• So little done, so much to do.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Life, Business, Done

  Said to Lewis Michell on the day he died, in Lewis Michell Life of Rhodes (1910) vol. 2, ch. 39

  103 Copy quote

• In order to save the 40,000,000 inhabitants of the United Kingdom from a bloody civil war, we colonial statesmen must acquire new lands to settle the surplus population, to provide new markets. [...] The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Country, War, Order

  "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism". Essay by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, www.marxists.org. 1917.

  89 Copy quote

• Having read the histories of other countries, I saw that expansion was everything, and that the world's surface being limited, the great object of present humanity should be to take as much of the world as it possibly could.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Country, Humanity, Expansion

  85 Copy quote

• You are an Englishman, and have subsequently drawn the greatest prize in the lottery of life.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Winning, Firsts, Born

  "The Life and Times of the Right Honourable Cecil John Rhodes 1853-1902, Volume 2". Book by Lewis Michell, New York and London: Mitchell Kennerly, p. 178, 1910.

  80 Copy quote

• Pure philanthropy is very well in its way but philanthropy plus five percent is a good deal better.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Way, Philanthropy, Plus

  "Voices of Indian Freedom Movement". Book by J. C. Johari, Anmol Publications, p. 207, 1993.

  67 Copy quote

• I have found out one thing and that is, if you have an idea, and it is a good idea, if you only stick to it you will come out all right.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Ideas, Sticks, Brilliant

  47 Copy quote

• Man begets, but land does not beget.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Men, Land, Doe

  59 Copy quote

• Wherever you turn your eye—except in science—an Oxford man is at the top of the tree.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Eye, Men, Oxford

  42 Copy quote

• I have too much work on my hands and I would not be a dutiful husband.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Husband, Hands, Too Much

  42 Copy quote

• The real fact is that I could no longer stand their eternal cold mutton.

  Cecil Rhodes

  Funny, Real, Humor

  47 Copy quote

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