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“But I have often notices that Westerners have an inborn tendency to minimize or ridicule whatever Persians do--not because it is badly done, but simply because they are exasperated by the pride of the Persian who boasts that what he has done is "the best in the world." They do not see that among Asiatics this attitude is the inevitable reaction to the condescension with which Westerners brought their mechanical progress to the East as if it were a revealed religion capable of healing all ills.”
― Ella K. Maillart, The Cruel Way: Switzerland to Afghanistan in a Ford, 1939

“I think that this sudden growth of transport facilities, especially in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, Manchoukuo, China, countries I have visited, discloses the background of our time: fear of too mighty neighbors.”
― Ella K. Maillart, The Cruel Way: Switzerland to Afghanistan in a Ford, 1939

“The Nazis would not have turned their backs on the ideas of freedom and Christian love which alone can help man get along, if these ideas had not put up such a miserable show during the last centuries.”
― Ella K. Maillart, The Cruel Way: Switzerland to Afghanistan in a Ford, 1939

“Five days after the food was Easter Sunday. The only church that had not been flooded in the neighborhood invited everyone to services, come as you are. Mom decreed we were going to church. "Church!?" I thought. What in the world was she thinking? We had been cleaning up flood mud for three days with no water to clean ourselves up. Mom insisted. She said that Calvary Baptist was going to allow women into the sanctuary in pants and that was something we were not going to miss. (In 1977 this was earthshattering for sure.) I guess we would take a stand for women's equality!”
― Donna L. Burgraff, Appalachian Magazine's Mountain Voice: 2017: A Collection of Memories, Histories, and Tall Tales of Appalachia