Ella Maillart

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

When I look at something, it is certain that for an instant I am one with what I see.

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

One travels to escape from it all, but that is the great illusion: It cannot be done, since one travels with one's mind.

I wanted to learn a few foreign languages, and therefore I had to go abroad.

I refuse to imprison our acts in the rigid mould of sentences.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Those who appreciate the ways of simple tribes, where every activity is direct and immediately understandable, are able to live among them.

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.

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

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

There is only one valid species of voyage, which is walk towards the men.

Words are impotent to describe certain emotions.

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