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Isak Dinesen

Isak Dinesen Books

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Out of Africa

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Last Tales

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Winter's Tales

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The Ring

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“From my journeys in southern Europe I have gained the impression that in our time the Virgin Mary is the only heavenly creature who is really beloved by millions. But I believe these millions would be uncomprehending and perhaps even offended if I were to tell them that the Virgin Mary had made a significant discovery, solved difficult mathematical problems, or masterfully organized and administered an association of housewives in Nazareth.”

WomenWomen And MenVirgin Mary
Book:Daguerreotypes and Other Essays
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“Dr Sass…maintained that in paradise, until the time of the fall, the whole world was flat, the back-curtain of the Lord, and that it was the devil who invented a third dimension. Thus are the words ‘straight’, ‘square’, and ‘flat’ the words of noblemen, but the apple was an orb, and the sin of our first parents, the attempt at getting around God. I myself much prefer the art of painting to sculpture”

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Author:Isak Dinesen
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“To be so at one with one's own destiny that no one will be able to tell the dancer from the dance, that the answer to the question, Who are you? will be the Cardinal's answer, "Allow me ... to answer you in the classic manner, and to tell you a story," is the only aspiration worthy of the fact that life has been given us. This is also called pride, and the true dividing line between people is whether they are capable of being"in love with {their} destiny" or whether they "accept as success what others warrant to be so ... at the quotation of the day. They tremble, with reason, before their fate.”

DestinyHannah Arendt
Book:Daguerreotypes and Other Essays
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“Idet hun forsigtigt havde banet sig vej gennem græsset, da hun med ét kommet til en lysning midt inde i det, en ganske lille åben plads, som en alkove med gyldengrønne omhæng. Hun havde pludselig følt, at hun her var lige i hjertet af sit kongerige, hun var blevet så lykkelig bevæget derved. Ak, mon hun kunne finde det hellige hemmelighedsfulde sted igen? Hvis hun fandt det, ville hun stå ganske stille derinde, skjult for hele verden.”

NatureSolitudePantheism
Book:The Ring
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“The propaganda that has here reached such a state of perfection covers all aspects of existence and constantly surprises one by finding new fields of endeavor. But once a new generation has grown up that has wholly emancipated itself from the tradition of a union between word and fact, the substance of the word will have been juggled out of it, and it will be like paper money which is nowhere backed by gold, and the propaganda itself will have lost its savor. "And with what shall it be salted? It will no longer be good for anything ... "(Matthew 5:13)”

PropagandaNazismTrumpism
Book:Daguerreotypes and Other Essays
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“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.”

PeopleThinkingWorldKindLongHas BeensRealWholeHumanityReligiousPrejudiceBurdenWhole WorldGloriousReliefSpheresSuperstitionsHorrificReligious Prejudice
Author:Isak Dinesen
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“The consolations of the vulgar are bitter in the royal ear. Let physicians and confectioners and servants in the great houses be judged by what they have done, and even by what they have meant to do; the great people themselves are judged by what they are. I have been told that lions, trapped and shut up in cages, grieve from shame more than from hunger.”

PeopleHas BeensDoneHouseEarsShameHungerBitterServantGrievingLionsJudgedTrappedPhysiciansShut UpCagesRoyalVulgarConsolationGreat People
Author:Isak Dinesen
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“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the North, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up, near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold.”

BookRunningNightFeltMorningSunFeetColdThousandSixHundredLaysMilesEveningHillsFarmsEarly MorningRestfulEquator
Book:Out of Africa
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“Nobody has seen the trekking birds take their way towards such warmer spheres as do not exist, or rivers break their course through rocks and plains to run into an ocean which is not to be found. For God does not create a longing or a hope without having a fulfilling reality ready for them. But our longing is our pledge, and blessed are the homesick, for they shall come home.”

WayDoeHomeRealityRunningCoursesFoundBreakRocksReadyOceanBirdRiversBlessedLongingComing HomeSpheresFulfillingPledgeTrekkingHomesick
Book:Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard
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“When we are young the idea of death or failure is intolerable to us; even the possibility of ridicule we cannot bear. But we have also an unconquerable faith in our own stars, and in the impossibility of anything venturing to go against us. As we grow old we slowly come to believe that everything will turn out badly for us, and that failure is in the nature of things, but then we do not much mind what happens to us one way or the other. In this way a balance is obtained.”

WayMindBelieveIdeasHappensYoungTurnsStarsGrowsGenerationsPossibilityYouthBearsBalanceOne WayRidiculeImpossibilityUnconquerable
Author:Isak Dinesen
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“The flamingoes are the most delicately colored of all the African birds, pink and red like a flying twig of an oleander bush. They have incredibly long legs and bizarre and recherché curves of their necks and bodies, as if from some exquisite traditional prudery they were making all attitudes and movements in life as difficult as possible.”

IfsLongBodyDifficultAttitudeMovementBirdRedLegsFlyingTraditionalNecksBizarreCurvesExquisiteTwigsLong LegsOleanders
Book:Out of Africa
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“In Africa, when you pick up a book worth reading, out of the deadly consignments which good ships are always being made to carry out all the way from Europe, you read it as an author would like his book to be read, praying to God that he may have it in him to go on as beautifully as he has begun. Your mind runs, transported, upon a fresh deep green track.”

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Author:Isak Dinesen
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“the true art of the gods is the comic. The comic is a condescension of the divine to the world of man; it is the sublime vision, which cannot be studied, but must ever be celestially granted. In the comic the gods see their own being reflected as in a mirror, and while the tragic poet is bound by strict laws, they will allow the comic artist a freedom as unlimited as their own.”

MenWorldArtLawArtistVisionComedyDivinePoetMirrorsBoundsGrantedComicTragicStrictSublimeUnlimitedCondescensionStrict Laws
Book:Winter's Tales
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“I belong to an ancient, idle, wild and useless tribe, perhaps I am even one of the last members of it, who for many thousands of years, in all countries and parts of the world, has, now and again, stayed for a time among the hard-working honest people in real life, and sometimes has thus been fortunate enough to create another sort of reality for them, which in some way or another, has satisfied them. I am a storyteller.”

PeopleWorldWayYearsRealCountrySometimesHardEnoughRealityLastsHonestHard WorkMembersAncientReal LifeSatisfiedStorytellingUselessFortunateIdleTribesStorytellerHonest People
Book:On Modern Marriage and Other Observations
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