Alexandra David-Neel Quotes

Neglecting small things under the pretext of wanting to accomplish large ones is the excuse of a coward.

The wise expect nothing, hope for nothing, thus avoiding all disappointment and anxiety.

The unsuspected is the daily fare of the traveler in Thibet.

Nature has a language of its own, or maybe those who have lived long in solitude read in it their own unconscious inner feelings and mysterious foreknowledge.

One must be very strong, or very stupid, or completely exhausted to face life with indifference.

As a stoic I must despise injury or, rather, I must not feel it, must not be affected by it so that it cannot violate the freedom of my soul.

Landscapes have a language of their own, expressing the soul of the things, lofty or humble, which constitute them, from the mighty peaks to the smallest of the tiny flowers hidden in the meadow’s grass.

To the one who knows how to look and feel, every moment of this free wandering life is an enchantment.

Why do you pray if you doubt you are heard?

Who knows the flower best? – the one who reads about it in a book, or the one who finds it wild on the mountainside?

There is nothing truly serious in life. All words sound hollow when one listens to them carefully.

Very few of us are capable of being Free Thinkers, needing neither to adore nor to insult God, the insult often being an act of faith more profound than adoration.