Elaine

“I have no reason to go, except that I have never been, and knowledge is better than ignorance. What better reason could there be for travelling?”
― Freya Stark, A Winter in Arabia

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
― Marie Curie

“Well, I suppose there’s no place like home,” she said. “No,” said Granny Weatherwax, still looking thoughtful. “No. There’s a billion places like home. But only one of ’em’s where you live.”
― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

“Democracy suits Europeans today partly because it is associated with the triumph of capitalism and partly because it involves less commitment or intrusion into their lives than any of the alternatives. Europeans accept democracy because they no longer believe in politics. It is for this reason that we find both high levels of support for democracy in cross-national opinion polls and high rates of political apathy.”
― Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century