About Ella Maillart: Ella Maillart was a French-speaking Swiss adventurer, travel writer and photographer, as well as a sportswoman.
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.
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.
One travels to run away from routine, that dreadful routine that kills all imagination and all our capacity for enthusiasm.
The usual channels of university studies or secretarial work did not appeal to me. I cherished difficult dreams through confidence in myself.
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 gained direct knowledge of the life of the poor in big towns: I have lived the narrowing mechanism of its conditioning and feared it.
From the beginning, I wanted to live my own life, and patiently I shored up that desire against wind and tide.
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.
That idea of escapism... these words could sum up my life.
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.
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.
Certain travellers give the impression that they keep moving because only then do they feel fully alive.
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.
Travel can also be the spirit of adventure somewhat tamed, for those who desire to do something they are a bit afraid of.
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.
You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown, that reveals you with yourself.
When the heart speaks, its language is the same under all latitudes.
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.
There is only one valid species of voyage, which is walk towards the men.
