Inspirational Quotes by David Livingstone (Scottish Missionary, Explorer)

David Livingstone (1813–73) was a Scottish missionary and explorer in Africa. Often considered the greatest of all African voyagers and antislavery advocates, he exercised a seminal influence on Western attitudes toward Africa. He tried to provide an alternative to the slave trade for the continent by opening Africa to Christian commerce and missionary posts.

Born to mill-workers living in a single room in Blantyre, near Glasgow, Livingstone studied medicine in London to become a missionary, first in Bechuanaland (now Botswana.) For the next 30 years, Livingstone traveled and did Christian missionary work in southern, central, and eastern Africa—often in places where no European had formerly ventured. He discovered Lake Ngami (1849,) the Zambezi River (1851,) and the Victoria Falls (1855.) The vast amount of information he gathered about the land and the native tribes—geographic, anthropological, medical—provided a complex body of knowledge that is being explored even today.

Livingstone died in present-day Zambia from malaria and dysentery. His devoted followers embalmed his body and carried it over 1000 miles to the coast. It was taken to Britain and buried in London’s Westminster Abbey.

Livingstone remains a highly respected humanitarian in many of the territories that he visited during his expeditions in Africa.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by David Livingstone