Ella Maillart
Ella Maillart
Ella Maillartwas a French-speaking Swiss adventurer, travel writer and photographer, as well as a sportswoman...
NationalitySwiss
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth20 February 1903
CountrySwitzerland
cruise far following journey left question sooner
No sooner had I left to cruise the Mediterranean than the following question preoccupied me: How far does one kill a journey by making it become real?
analyse led obeying strong today urge
When I started travelling, I was 18; I was instinctively obeying a strong urge. Today I can analyse that urge and see where it has led me.
distance talking horizon
The wideness of the horizon has to be inside us, cannot be anywhere but inside us, otherwise what we speak about is geographic distances.
sea sailing nautical
The sooner we learn to be jointly responsible, the easier the sailing will be.
boys climbing laughing
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.
able
Only when one is able to grasp wideness can one possess it.
towns poor bigs
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.
depressing ambition literature
I did not want to be depressed by the gap existing between my weakness and my ambition.
confidence dream usual
The usual channels of university studies or secretarial work did not appeal to me. I cherished difficult dreams through confidence in myself.
self giving judging
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.
wind desire tides
From the beginning, I wanted to live my own life, and patiently I shored up that desire against wind and tide.
mind states angle
The state of minds vary according to the angle under which one examines them.
ideas escapism
That idea of escapism... these words could sum up my life.
humanity infinity different
Humanity is made up of an infinity of different individuals. Each of us travels for motives exclusively his own.