Quotes from Ella Maillart

You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown, that reveals you with yourself.

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.

You can feel as brave as Columbus starting for the unknown the first time you enter a Chinese lane full of boys laughing at you, or when you risk climbing down in a Tibetan pub for a meal of rotten meat.

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

I had to live in the desert before I could understand the full value of grass in a green ditch.

The wideness of the horizon has to be inside us, cannot be anywhere but inside us, otherwise what we speak about is geographic distances.

We want to feel that this earth is all ours, like our parents' house when we were children.

The state of minds vary according to the angle under which one examines them.

I did not want to be depressed by the gap existing between my weakness and my ambition.