Few people can say of themselves that they are free of the belief that this world which they see around them is in reality the work of their own imagination. Are we pleased with it, proud of it, then?
Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) Danish writer [pseud. of Karen Christence, Countess Blixen]
“The Deluge at Norderney,” Seven Gothic Tales [Kasparson] (1934)
(Source)
Quotations by:
Dinesen, Isak
I walked in the woods and looked at the birds, and I thought: How dreadful that people shut up birds in cages. If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages, they should all be free —
Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) Danish writer [pseud. of Karen Christence, Countess Blixen]
“The Deluge at Norderney,” Seven Gothic Tales [Miss Malin] (1934)
(Source)
Love, with very young people, is a heartless business. We drink at that age from thirst, or to get drunk; it is only later in life that we occupy ourselves with the individuality of our wine.
Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) Danish writer [pseud. of Karen Christence, Countess Blixen]
“The Old Chevalier,” Seven Gothic Tales (1934)
(Source)
Coffee, according to the women of Denmark, is to the body what the word of the Lord is to the soul.
Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) Danish writer [pseud. of Karen Christence, Countess Blixen]
“The Supper at Elsinore,” Seven Gothic Tales (1934)
(Source)
All things can be cured by salt water: sweat, tears, or the ocean.
Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) Danish writer [pseud. of Karen Christence, Countess Blixen]
(Attributed)
I had seen a herd of Elephant traveling through dense Native forest, where the sunlight is strewn down between the thick creepers in small spots and patches, pacing along as if they had an appointment at the end of the world.
Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) Danish writer [pseud. of Karen Christence, Countess Blixen]
Out of Africa, Part 1 “Kamante and Lulu,” “The Ngong Farm” (1937)
(Source)
I had time after time watched the progression across the plain of the Giraffe, in their queer, inimitable, vegetative gracefulness, as if it were not a herd of animals but a family of rare, long-stemmed, speckled gigantic flowers slowly advancing.
Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) Danish writer [pseud. of Karen Christence, Countess Blixen]
Out of Africa, Part 1 (1937)
(Source)