"When Marco Polo came at last to Cathay, seven hundred years ago, did he not feel--and did his heart not falter as he realized--that this great and splendid capital of an empire had had its being all the years of his life and far longer, and that he had been ignorant of it? That it was in need of nothing from him, from Venice, from Europe? That it was full of wonders beyond his understanding? That his arrival was a matter of no importance whatever? We know that he felt these things, and so has many a traveler in foreign parts who did not know what he was going to find. There is nothing that cuts you down to size like coming to some strange and marvelous place where no one even stops to notice that you stare about you."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Fantasy authorsNovelists from EnglandChildren's authorsUniversity of Oxford alumniCivil servants from the United Kingdom
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Adams
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Richard Adams
Richard George Adams (9 May 1920 – 24 December 2016) was an English novelist. He is best known for his debut novel Watership Down which achieved international acclaim. His other works included Maia, Shardik and The Plague Dogs
17 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Richard Adams →
Related Quotes
"I dislike the whole business of experiments on animals, unless there's some very good and altogether exceptional reas…"
"Dangerous thing, a name. Someone might catch hold of you by it, mightn't they?"
"When the man was disgraced and told to go away, he was allowed to ask all the animals whether any of them would come …"
"Animals don't behave like men. If they have to fight, they fight; and if they have to kill they kill. But they don't …"
"El-ahrairah, your people cannot rule the world, for I will not have it so. All the world will be your enemy, Prince w…"
"Look. Look. That's the place for us. High, lonely hills, where the wind and the sound carry, and the ground's as dry …"
"You know how you let yourself think that everything will be all right if you can only get to a certain place or do a …"
"To come to the end of a time of anxiety and fear! To feel the cloud that hung over us lift and disperse—the cloud tha…"
"The full moon, well risen in a cloudless eastern sky, covered the high solitude with its light. We are not conscious …"
"There's terrible evil in the world. It comes from men. All other elil do what they have to do and Frith moves them as…"