To lose a passport was the least of one’s worries. To lose a notebook was a catastrophe.
Bruce ChatwinRead
I pictured a low timber house with a shingled roof, caulked against storms, with blazing log fires inside and the walls lined with all the best books, somewhere to live when the rest of the world blew up.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote describes an idealized retreat from the chaos of the world, emphasizing comfort and intellectual fulfillment.
Bruce Chatwin envisions a cozy, secure home filled with warmth and knowledge, representing a personal sanctuary from turmoil. This imagery reflects a longing for peace and solace amidst a chaotic universe, where one's environment becomes a refuge for the mind and spirit.
Themes
SanctuaryComfortKnowledgeRetreatHomeBooks
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about finding inner peace, one could quote this to illustrate the importance of having a safe haven.
More from Bruce Chatwin
All quotes →The history of Buenos Aires is written in its telephone directory. Pompey Romanov, Emilio Rommel, Crespina D. Z. de Rose, Ladislao Radziwil, and Elizabeta Marta Callman de Rothschild - five names taken at random from among the R's - told a story of exile, desolation, disillusion, and anxiety behind lace curtains.
Bruce ChatwinRead
Even today, when an Aboriginal mother notices the first stirrings of speech in her child, she lets it handle the "things" of that particular country: leaves, fruit, insects and so forth. "We give our children guns and computer games," Wendy said. "They gave their children the land."
Bruce ChatwinRead
When people start talking of man's inhumanity to man it means they haven't actually walked far enough.
Bruce ChatwinRead
Sluggish and sedentary peoples, such as the Ancient Egyptians-- with their concept of an afterlife journey through the Field of Reeds-- project on to the next world the journeys they failed to make in this one.
Bruce ChatwinRead
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Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed . . . I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.
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