39 quotes
I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.
Out of Africa (1937)
God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.
The best of my nature reveals itself in play, and play is sacred.
On Modern Marriage and Other Observations (1986)
The entire being of a woman is a secret which should be kept.
Last Tales (1957)
Human talk is a centrifugal function, ever in flight outwards from what is on the talker's mind.
Winter's Tales (1942)
Man and woman are two locked caskets, of which each contains the key to the other.
Winter's Tales (1942)
It never has happened, and it never will happen, and that is why it is told.
Anecdotes of Destiny (1953)
I have a feeling that wherever I may be in the future, I will be wondering whether there is rain at Ngong.
All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.
The Human Condition (1958)
The cure for anything is salt water — sweat, tears, or the sea.
Tragedy should remain the right of human beings, subject, in their conditions or in their own nature, to the dire law of necessity. To them it is salvation and beatification.
Winter's Tales (1942)
Man reaches the highest point of lovableness at 12 to 17 — to get it back, in a second flowering, at the age of 70 to 90.
Shadows on the Grass (1960)
The vain illusions of this earth had dissolved before their eyes like smoke, and they had seen the universe as it really is. They had been given one hour of the millennium.
Anecdotes of Destiny (1953)
My love was both humble and audacious, like that of a page for his lady...
Seven Gothic Tales (1934)
To me, the explanation of life seems to be its melody, its pattern. And I feel in life such an infinite, truly inconceivable fantasy.
I don't believe in evil, I believe only in horror. In nature there is no evil, only an abundance of horror: the plagues and the blights and the ants and the maggots.
Voices: A Memoir (1983)
What is man, when you come to think upon him, but a minutely set, ingenious machine for turning, with infinite artfulness, the red wine of Shiraz into urine?
Seven Gothic Tales (1934)
The true aristocracy and the true proletariat of the world are both in understanding with tragedy. To them it is the fundamental principle of God, and the key, the minor key, to existence.
Out of Africa (1937)
It is little silly to be a caricature of something of which you know very little, and which means very little to you, but to be your own caricature — that is the true carnival!
Carnival: Entertainments and Posthumous Tales (1971)
Love, with very young people, is a heartless business. We drink at that age from thirst, or to get drunk; it is only later in life that we occupy ourselves with the individuality of our wine. A young man in love is essentially enraptured by the forces within himself.
Seven Gothic Tales (1934)