Ella Maillart

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

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

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. ”

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. ”

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. ”

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. ”

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