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Isak Dinesen

Isak Dinesen Quotes

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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.”

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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.”

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Book:On Modern Marriage and Other Observations
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“I do not know if you remember the tale of the girl who saves the ship under mutiny by sitting on the powder barrel with her lighted torch... and all the time knowing that it is empty? This has seemed to me a charming image of the women of my time. There they were, keeping the world in order... by sitting on the mystery of life, and knowing themselves that there was no mystery.”

IfsKnowsWorldRememberOrderGirlKnowingMysterySittingEmptyTalesShipsMy TimeCharmingSailingTorchesBarrelsPowderMystery Of LifeMutiny
Author:Isak Dinesen
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“It is when one begins to lose the consciousness of freedom, and when the idea of necessity enters the world at all, when there is any hurry or strain anywhere, a letter to be written or a train to catch, when you have got to work, to make the horses of the dream gallop, or to make the rifles go off, that the dream is declining, and turning into the nightmare, which belongs to the poorest and most vulgar class of dreams.”

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Book:Out of Africa
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“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
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“What is life when you come to think upon it, but a most excellent, accurately set, infinitely complicated machine for turning fat playful puppies into old mangy blind dogs, and proud war horses into skinny nags, and succulent young boys, to whom the world holds great delights and terrors, into old weak men, with running eyes, who drink ground rhino-horn?”

ThinkingMenWorldWarEyeRunningYoungBoysDogProudDrinkWeakMachinesHorseBlindTerrorDelightComplicatedFatsExcellentOld ManSkinnyHornsPuppyWhat Is LifeWeak ManRhinosWar HorseSucculents
Author:Isak Dinesen
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