Quotes from Freya Stark

Christmas... is not an external event at all, but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart.

Revolution is man's normal activity, and if he is wise he will grade it slowly so that it may be almost imperceptible - otherwise it will jerk in fits and starts and cause discomfort.

Curiosity is the one thing invincible in Nature.

every frontier is doomed to produce an opposition beyond it. Nothing short of the universal can build the unfenced peace.

Things good in themselves ... perfectly valid in the integrity of their origins become fetters if they cannot alter.

The beckoning counts, not the clicking latch behind you

If we are strong, and have faith in life and its richness of surprises, and hold the rudder steadily in our hands. I am sure we will sail into quiet and pleasent waters for our old age.

All the feeling which my father could not put into words was in his hand-any dog, child or horse would recognize the kindness of it.

the main necessity on both sides of a revolution is kindness, which makes possible the most surprising things. To treat one's neighbor as oneself is the fundamental maxim for revolution.

Life, to be happy at all, must be in its way a sacrament, and it is a failure in religion to divorce it from the holy acts of everyday, of ordinary human existence.

Love of learning is a pleasant and universal bond since it deals with what one is and not what one has.

This is one of the charms of the desert, that removing as it does nearly all the accessories of life, we see the thin thread of necessities on which our human existence is suspended.

Risk is the salt and sugar of life.

If we are strong, and have faith in life and its richness of surprises, and hold the rudder steadily in our hands. I am sure we will sail into quiet and pleasant waters for our old age.

Absence is one of the most useful ingredients of family life, and to dose it rightly is an art like any other.

One life is an absurdly small allowance.

... there are few things that can reconcile us fully to our parting with a world of which the longest life can see so little and whose beauties have so extraordinary a variety.

Few are the giants of the soul who actually feel that the human race is their family circle.

To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure.

Curiosity is the one thing invincible in Nature.

One life is an absurdly small allowance.

Solitude, I reflected, is the one deep necessity of the human spirit to which adequate recognition is never given in our codes. It is looked upon as a discipline or penance, but hardly ever as the indispensable, pleasant ingredient it is to ordinary life, and from this want of recognition come half our domestic troubles.

I have no reason to go, except that I have never been, and knowledge is better than ignorance. What better reason could there be for travelling?

Love of learning is a pleasant and universal bond since it deals with what one is and not what one has.