Ella Maillart Quotes

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

Ella Maillart



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.

Ella Maillart



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

Ella Maillart



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

Ella Maillart



I am sure that instinctively we wish to be everything, to possess it-why cut the rose or marry the man, otherwise?

Ella Maillart



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.

Ella Maillart



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

Ella Maillart



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.

Ella Maillart



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

Ella Maillart