Quotessence
Home / Authors / Isak Dinesen
Isak Dinesen

Isak Dinesen Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleWorldWayKnowsThinkingStoriesLongMindMenDreamNightRealHas BeensHeartIdeasDoeLyingMadePersons

Famous Isak Dinesen Quotes

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“It is a sad hardship and slavery to people who live in towns, that in their movements they know of one dimension only; they walk along the line as if they were led on a string. The transition from the line to the plane into the two dimensions, when you wander across a field or through a wood, is a splendid liberation to the slaves, like the French Revolution. But in the air you are taken into the full freedom of the three dimensions; after long ages of exile and dreams the homesick heart throws itself into the arms of space.”

PeopleIfsKnowsHeartLongTwoDreamAgeThreeLinesSpaceWalksTakenAirMovementFieldsRevolutionArmsTownsSlaverySlaveWoodsWanderLiberationPlanesDimensionsStringsHardshipTransitionExileSplendidFrench RevolutionHomesickThree Dimensions
Book:Out of Africa
Create image

“People who dream when they sleep at night know of a special kind of happiness which the world of the day holds not, a placid ecstasy, and ease of heart, that are like honey on the tongue. They also know that the real glory of dreams lies in their atmosphere of unlimited freedom. It is not the freedom of the dictator, who enforces his own will on the world, but the freedom of the artist, who has no will, who is free of will.”

PeopleKnowsWorldHeartKindRealDreamLyingArtistNightSleepSpecialGloryTongueAtmosphereEaseEcstasyHoneyDictatorUnlimitedPlacid
Book:Out of Africa
Create image