A Winter in Arabia Quotes

“I have no reason to go, except that I have never been, and knowledge is better than ignorance. What better reason could there be for travelling?”
― Freya Stark, A Winter in Arabia

“I had to write a decalogue for journeys, eight out of the ten virtues should be moral, and I should put first of all a temper as serene at the end as at the beginning of the day. Then would come the capacity to accept values and to judge by standards other than our own. The rapid judgement of character; and a love of nature which must include human nature also. The power to dissociate oneself from one’s own bodily sensations. A knowledge of the local history and language. A leisurely and uncensorious mind. A tolerable constitution and the capacity to eat and sleep at any moment. And lastly, and especially here, a ready quickness in repartee.”
― Freya Stark, A Winter in Arabia: A Journey Through Yemen

“When it is impossible to get exacitude even for the present, it is simply a waste of time to wrangle for it in the past.”
― Freya Stark, A Winter in Arabia