West with the Night

by Beryl Markham

It is really this that makes death so hard — curiosity unsatisfied.

that the world once lived and grew without adding machines and newsprint and brick-walled streets and the tyranny of clocks.

when I had no specific destination I always ran as fast as I could in the hope of finding one — and I always found it.

If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.

‘Days of toil and nights of gladness!’

Still, since men cherish the paradox requiring that to insure immortality they must preserve what is most mortal about them, wood was gathered and a fire was built.

I learned what every dreaming child needs to know — that no horizon is so far that you cannot get above it or beyond it.