179 Quotes by Isak Dinesen

I felt that Paris was illuminated by a splendor possessed by no other places.

It is not the visions but the activity which makes you happy, and the joy and glory of the flier is the flight itself.

The best of my nature reveals itself in play, and play is sacred.

I have before seen other countries, in the same manner, give themselves to you when you are about to leave them ...

Real art must always involve some witchcraft.

Be not afraid of absurdity; do not shrink from the fantastic. Within a dilemma, choose the most unheard-of, the most dangerous solution. Be brave, be brave.

There is hardly any other sphere in which prejudice and superstition of the most horrific kind have been retained so long as in that of women, and just as it must have been an inexpressable relief for humanity when it shook off the burden of religious prejudice and superstition, I think it will be truly glorious when women become real people and have the whole world open before them.

Do you know a cure for me?" Why yes," he said, "I know a cure for everything. Salt water." Salt water?" I asked him. Yes," he said, "in one way or the other. Sweat, or tears, or the salt sea.

For really, dreaming is the well-mannered people's way of committing suicide.