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.

— Karen Blixen Seven Gothic Tales (1934)

More quotes by Karen Blixen

Out of Africa (1937)

On Modern Marriage and Other Observations (1986)

Last Tales (1957)

Winter's Tales (1942)

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Karen Blixen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.