Quotes from Karen Blixen

There is hardly any other sphere in which prejudice and superstition of the most horrific kind have been retained so long as in that of women, and just as it must have been an inexpressable relief for humanity when it shook off the burden of religious prejudice and superstition, I think it will be truly glorious when women become real people and have the whole world open before them.

She had what the Councillor knew, in the technical language of the ballet, as ballon, a lightness that is not only the negation of weight, but which actually seems to carry upwards and make for flight, and which is rarely found in thin dancers - as if the matter itself had here become lighter than air, so that the more there is of it the better it works.

Gud skapte mannen før kvinnen. Det er sånn som når jeg skriver. Først kladder jeg.

Love the pride of the conquered nations, and leave them to honour their father and their mother.

Perhaps to them the first condition for anything having real charm was this: that it must not really exist.

The cure for anything is salt water — sweat, tears, or the sea.

Eros colpisce come il fabbro con il martello sprizzando scintille dalla sfida. Hai spento il mio cuore tra lacrime e lamenti, come si spegne un fuoco incandescente del ruscello.

Msabu's bleeding. She does not have this ox. This lion is hungry. He does not have this ox. This wagon is heavy. It doesn't have this ox. God is happy, msabu. He plays with us.

Why the Kikuyu, who personally have so little fear of death, should be so terrified to touch a corpse, while the white people, who are afraid to die, handle the dead easily, I do not know. Here once more you feel their reality to be different from our realities.

When I heard this I became very sad, but I thought that now I would indeed have to take him with me so that the Virgin herself could enlighten him.

A medal is an inconvenient thing to give to a naked man, because he has got no place to fix it on to.

I general brzo isprazni ?ašu. Jer kamo razuman ?ovjek može pobje?i kad ne može vjerovati u svoj razum? Bolje biti pijan nego lud.

Iš vis? civilizacijos išradim? ?iabuviai daugiausia vertina degtukus, dvirat? ir šautuv?, jei jais žavisi, ta?iau ir j? nedvejodami atsisakys, jei tik užeis kalba apie karv?.

Sì, pensavo io, la sua vita è di quelle che bisogna vivere due volte prima di poter dire che è stata veramente vissuta. Si può ripetere da capo un'arietta, ma non una composizione intera, una sinfonia e neanche una tragedia in cinque atti. Se la si ripete, vuol dire che non è andata come doveva.

The thing which in the waking world comes nearest to a dream is night in a big town, where nobody knows one, or the African night. There too is infinite freedom: it is there that things are going on, destinies are made round you, there is activity to all sides, and it is none of your concern.

And I had by now become used to the idea of witchcraft, it seemed a reasonable thing, so many things are about, at night, in Africa.

Oh no,' said the moon, 'time means very little to me.

This strength, and love of life in them, to me seemed not only highly respectable, but glorious and bewitching.

Things are happening to you, and you feel them happening, but except for this one fact, you have no connection with them, and no key to the cause or meaning of them.

Qué pasaría si vuestro Luis Felipe dijera al vernos a nosotros tan a gusto en el infierno: Esto es una farsa, un engaño. Esta gente ha estado en el infierno desde su nacimiento.?

If there were one more thing I could do, it would be to go on safari again.

Språket mangler ord for alt man ser og opplever når man flyr. Med tiden kommer man til å finne nye ord for disse inntrykkene.

This woman, this Chef has the ability to transform a dinner into a kind of love affair, a love affair that makes no distinction between the bodily appetite and the spiritual appetite.

O poeta Para um campónio dinamarquês do seu tipo a ideia de acabar com a vida não custa a conceber. A vida nunca lhes parece - nem é, de resto - uma grande maravilha, e o suicídio, seja por que forma for,é, digamos, a sua maneira natural de morrer.(...) Ele sentira o destino comum dos seus iguais, que é ser, como se feitos de matéria essencialmente diferente do resto da humanidade, invisível para os outros.