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Ella Maillart Quotes

Powerful Ella Maillart for Daily Growth

About Ella Maillart

Ella Maillart (1903-1997), a Swiss traveler, writer, and photographer, was born on March 6th, 1903, in Lausanne, Switzerland. She is best known for her adventurous travels across Asia, Africa, and Europe during the mid-20th century. Influenced by her father's love for travel and her mother's artistic spirit, Maillart developed a keen interest in exploration from an early age. After completing her education, she embarked on a series of journeys that took her to remote corners of the world. One such journey was a motorcycle trip across Asia with American adventurer Peter Fleming, documented in their book "The Cruise of the SuSan," published in 1936. Maillart's most famous work, "The Forbidden Journey" (1952), chronicled her overland journey from Istanbul to India during the early 1930s. This adventure saw her crossing the Himalayas and traversing Tibet, a region that was largely closed off to Westerners at the time. Her accounts offer unique insights into Tibetan culture and lifestyle before its transformation under Chinese rule. In addition to her travel writings, Maillart also made significant contributions as a photographer. Her photographs showcase the beauty and diversity of the landscapes and peoples she encountered during her travels. Maillart's life and works continue to inspire travelers and adventurers alike. She passed away in 1997, leaving behind a rich legacy of stories, images, and insights about the world beyond the familiar paths.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer."

This quote by Ella Maillart emphasizes the value and enrichment derived from travel experiences beyond mere financial wealth. Travel allows individuals to explore different cultures, broaden their perspectives, gain knowledge, and develop personal growth, making them 'richer' in a holistic sense. It encourages an open-minded approach towards life, fostering empathy and understanding for diverse societies, thereby enriching one's inner world.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear."

This quote emphasizes that courage isn't about having no fear, but rather choosing to act in spite of fear when faced with situations where other values or goals are deemed more significant. It suggests that fear is a natural human emotion, but it should not deter us from pursuing important matters that require our action and determination.

"The art of travel is to make every place seem like home, and yet each place remain unforgettable."

This quote suggests that a skillful traveler manages to find comfort and familiarity in various destinations, making them feel like "home", but simultaneously preserves the unique charm and distinctiveness of each location, ensuring they remain memorable. Essentially, it's about striking a balance between immersion and exploration, cultivating a sense of belonging while maintaining awe and wonder for the world.

"To travel is to live."

Ella Maillart's quote, "To travel is to live," highlights the transformative power that exploration holds over our lives. Traveling encourages personal growth by exposing us to new cultures, perspectives, and experiences that broaden our understanding of the world and ourselves. It challenges our comfort zones, fosters empathy, and enriches our souls. Essentially, travel allows us to truly live - not just exist - by embracing life's boundless opportunities for learning, connection, and self-discovery.

"It's not the destination, it's the journey."

This quote emphasizes that the process or experience of a journey is more significant than merely reaching the final destination. It encourages an appreciation for the learning, growth, and memories gathered along the way, rather than solely focusing on the end result. It's about enjoying the journey itself, as each step contributes to our personal development and understanding of life.

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

- Ella Maillart

Beginning, Desire, Tide, Patiently

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.

- Ella Maillart

Down, Unknown, Feel, Pub

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

- Ella Maillart

Own, Motives, Made, Infinity

When I crossed Asia with my friend Peter Fleming, we spoke to no one but each other during many months, and we covered exactly the same ground. Nevertheless my journey differed completely from his.

- Ella Maillart

Other, Spoke, Nevertheless, Fleming

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

- Ella Maillart

Aesthetic, Move, Reasons, Traveller

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.

- Ella Maillart

Heat, Other, Gliding, Natives

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

- Ella Maillart

Simple, Activity, Direct, Tribes

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

Travel, Going, Took, Every Time

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

- Ella Maillart

Travel, Give, Alive, Travellers

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

- Ella Maillart

Through, University, Usual, Channels

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.

- Ella Maillart

Here, Abroad, Passengers, Board

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.

- Ella Maillart

Concept, Woven, Vertical, Horizontal

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

- Ella Maillart

Travel, Run, Away, Dreadful

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

- Ella Maillart

Ambition, Weakness, Existing, Depressed

Shall we ever see the 10 million things of the universe simultaneously in order to be the all? I am convinced that to live is to travel towards the world's end.

- Ella Maillart

Shall, Towards, Am, Simultaneously

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

- Ella Maillart

Mind, Cannot, Travels, Escape

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

- Ella Maillart

Minds, Vary, Which, Angle

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

- Ella Maillart

Nature, Green, Before, Ditch

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

- Ella Maillart

Refuse, Sentences, Acts, Rigid

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

Big, Feared, Direct, Mechanism

The benefits of the accomplished journey cannot be weighed in terms of perfect moments, but in terms of how this journey affects and changes our character.

- Ella Maillart

Journey, Perfect, Benefits, Weighed

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.

- Ella Maillart

Learn, Artist, Alive, Wonder

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

- Ella Maillart

Learn, Will, Sooner, Sailing

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.

- Ella Maillart

Own, Aspects, Fore, Broadened

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

- Ella Maillart

Yourself, Afraid, Reveals, Unknown

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

References, No Sense, Spin

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

- Ella Maillart

Otherwise, Distances, Horizon

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

- Ella Maillart

My Life, Idea, Could, Escapism

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

- Ella Maillart

Abroad, Foreign Languages, Therefore

One of the main points about travelling is to develop in us a feeling of solidarity, of that oneness without which no better world is possible.

- Ella Maillart

Travelling, About, Which, Points

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