Ella Maillart was a Swiss writer and explorer whose travels across Central Asia and the Middle East inspired many with her courage and curiosity. Maillart's writing captured the essence of cultures she encountered and challenged readers to embrace the unknown with open hearts and minds. Her adventurous spirit in both life and literature continues to inspire explorers, artists, and those seeking to break boundaries. Maillart's life shows us that true growth comes from stepping out of our comfort zones and embracing new perspectives.

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



"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."



"It is always our own self that we find at the end of the journey. The sooner we face that self, the better."



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



"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."



"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."



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



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



"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."



"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."



"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."



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



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



"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."


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

