Quotes from Ella Maillart

Others are keen to see if natives other than us live better than we do, without heat in pipes, ice in boxes, sunshine in bulbs, music on disks, or images gliding over a pale screen.

Humanity is made up of an infinity of different individuals. Each of us travels for motives exclusively his own.

The sooner we learn to be jointly responsible, the easier the sailing will be.

I can see now that a concept or even a feeling makes no sense unless out of our substance we spin around it a web of references, of relationships, of values.

Only when one is able to grasp wideness can one possess it.

The benefits of the accomplished journey cannot be weighed in terms of perfect moments, but in terms of how this journey affects and changes our character.

Words are impotent to describe certain emotions.

That idea of escapism... these words could sum up my life.

We must develop a deeper interest and greater understanding of the people we meet here or abroad. Like us, they are passengers on board that mysterious ship called life.

I gained direct knowledge of the life of the poor in big towns: I have lived the narrowing mechanism of its conditioning and feared it.

The true traveller is the one urged to move about for physical, aesthetic, intellectual as well as spiritual reasons.

One travels so as to learn once more how to marvel at life in the way a child does. And blessed be the poet, the artist who knows how to keep alive his sense of wonder.

It is always our own self that we find at the end of the journey. The sooner we face that self, the better.

The timelessness of a concept has to be woven into the running warp of dying time, vertical power has to be wedded to the horizontal earth.

From the beginning, I wanted to live my own life, and patiently I shored up that desire against wind and tide.

Every time I took a long leave from home, I felt as if I were going to conquer the world. Or rather, take possession of what is my birthright, my inheritance.

The usual channels of university studies or secretarial work did not appeal to me. I cherished difficult dreams through confidence in myself.

Every time I took a long leave from home, I felt as if I were going to conquer the world. Or rather, take possession of what is my birthright, my inheritance.

One travels to run away from routine, that dreadful routine that kills all imagination and all our capacity for enthusiasm.

I gained direct knowledge of the life of the poor in big towns: I have lived the narrowing mechanism of its conditioning and feared it.

Travel can also be the spirit of adventure somewhat tamed, for those who desire to do something they are a bit afraid of.

Certain travellers give the impression that they keep moving because only then do they feel fully alive.

Shall we ever see the 10 million things of the universe simultaneously in order to be the all? I am convinced that to live is to travel towards the world's end.

Not only does travel give us a new system of reckoning, it also brings to the fore unknown aspects of our own self. Our consciousness being broadened and enriched, we shall judge ourselves more correctly.