Martha Gellhorn Quotes

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• People often say, with pride, 'I'm not interested in politics.' They might as well say, 'I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.' ... If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Jobs, Mean, Pride

  134 Copy quote

• After a lifetime of war-watching, I see war as an endemic human disease, and governments are the carriers.

  Martha Gellhorn

  War, Government, Disease

  Martha Gellhorn (1988). “The Face of War”, p.7, Atlantic Monthly Press

  56 Copy quote

• Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Lying, People, Deceit

  Martha Gellhorn (1988). “The Face of War”, p.1, Atlantic Monthly Press

  64 Copy quote

• Americans did not acquire their fear neurosis as the result of a traumatic experience - war devasting their country, pestilence sweeping the land, famine wiping out helpless millions. Americans had to be taught to hate and fear an unseen enemy. The teachers were men in official positions, in government, men whom Americans normally trust without question.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Country, Teacher, Fear

  Martha Gellhorn (2015). “The View From The Ground”, p.154, Granta Books

  55 Copy quote

• I know enough to know that no woman should ever marry a man who hated his mother.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Love, Relationship, Marriage

  Martha Gellhorn, Caroline Moorehead (2006). “The letters of Martha Gellhorn”, Vintage

  79 Copy quote

• Nothing is better for self-esteem than survival.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Self Esteem, Self, Survival

  Martha Gellhorn (2001). “Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir”, p.13, Penguin

  51 Copy quote

• Dachau has been my own lifelong point of no return. Between the moment when I walked through the gate of that prison, with its infamous motto, 'Arbeit Macht Frei,' and when I walked out at the end of a day that had no ordinary scale of hours, I was changed, and how I looked at the human condition, the world we live in, changed ... Years of war had taught me a great deal, but war was nothing like Dachau. Compared to Dachau, war was clean.

  Martha Gellhorn

  War, Years, Holocaust

  55 Copy quote

• Why do people talk of the horrors of old age? It's great. I feel like a fine old car with the parts gradually wearing out, but I'm not complaining,... Those who find growing old terrible are people who haven't done what they wanted with their lives.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Car, People, Age

  34 Copy quote

• Freedom' is the most expensive possession there is; it has to be paid for with loneliness.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Freedom, Loneliness, Possession

  Martha Gellhorn, Caroline Moorehead (2006). “The letters of Martha Gellhorn”, Vintage

  33 Copy quote

• Public opinion, though slow as lava, in the end forces governments towards more sanity, more justice. My heroes and heroines are all private citizens.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Hero, Government, Justice

  Martha Gellhorn (2015). “The View From The Ground”, p.400, Granta Books

  44 Copy quote

• All politicians are bores and liars and fakes. I talk to people.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Liars, People, Fake

  39 Copy quote

• I do not see myself as a footnote to someone else's life.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Footnotes

  "Fictional character: Martha Gellhorn". "Hemingway & Gellhorn", www.imdb.com. 2012.

  46 Copy quote

• I tell you loneliness is the thing to master. Courage and fear, love, death are only parts of it and can easily be ruled afterwards. If I make myself master my own loneliness there will be peace or safety: and perhaps these are the same.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Love, Loneliness, Safety

  "Gellhorn: A Twentieth Century Life". Book by Caroline Moorehead, p. 88, 2003.

  43 Copy quote

• Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.

  Martha Gellhorn

  House, Citizens, Occupation

  Martha Gellhorn (1988). “The Face of War”, p.336, Atlantic Monthly Press

  27 Copy quote

• ... people miss a great deal by being sensible.

  Martha Gellhorn

  People, Missing, Sensible

  Martha Gellhorn (2014). “The View from the Ground”, p.223, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  19 Copy quote

• Once you get a tyranny, you don't easily get rid of it. Much better to remember about eternal vigilance.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Remember, Tyranny, Vigilance

  Martha Gellhorn (2015). “The View From The Ground”, p.332, Granta Books

  7 Copy quote

• the private conscience is the last and only protection of the civilized world.

  Martha Gellhorn

  World, Lasts, Protection

  Martha Gellhorn (2015). “The View From The Ground”, p.220, Granta Books

  5 Copy quote

• The only way I can pay back for what fate and society have handed me is to try, in minor totally useless ways, to make an angry sound against injustice.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Fate, Trying, Useless

  Martha Gellhorn, Caroline Moorehead (2006). “The letters of Martha Gellhorn”, Vintage

  28 Copy quote

• All amateur travellers have experienced horror journeys, long or short, sooner or later, one way or another. As a student of disaster, I note that we react alike to our tribulations: frayed and bitter at the time, proud afterwards. Nothing is better for self-esteem than survival.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Travel, Self Esteem, Journey

  Martha Gellhorn (2001). “Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir”, p.13, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

• In November you begin to know how long the winter will be.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Winter, Long, November

  "Martha Gellhorn: A Life". Book by Caroline Moorehead, 2003.

  35 Copy quote

• stop spying on the lawful citizenry. Democracy and dossiers go ill together. It is all right for God but all wrong for the State to keep its eye on sparrows.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Eye, Rights, Democracy

  Martha Gellhorn (2014). “The View from the Ground”, p.284, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  6 Copy quote

• Despite official drivel about clean bombs and tactical nuclear weapons, anyone who can read a newspaper or listen to a radio knows that some of us mortals have the power to destroy the human race and man's home on earth. We need not even make war; only by preparing, by playing with our new weapons, we poison the air, the water, the soil of our plants, damage the health of the living, and weaken the chances of the newborn.

  Martha Gellhorn

  War, Home, Men

  Martha Gellhorn (1959). “The Face of War”

  27 Copy quote

• perhaps these men in the House Caucus Room [Committee on Un-American Activities] are determined to spread silence: to frighten those voices which will shout no, and ask questions, defend the few, attack cruelty and proclaim the rights and dignity of man. ... America is going to look very strange to Americans and they will not be at home here, for the air will slowly become unbreathable to all forms of life except sheep.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Home, Men, Sheep

  23 Copy quote

• travel is compost for the mind

  Martha Gellhorn

  Mind, Compost

  12 Copy quote

• War happens to people, one by one. That is really all I have to say and it seems to me I have been saying it forever. Unless they are immediate victims, the majority of mankind behaves as if war was an act of God which could not be prevented; or they behave as if war elsewhere was none of their business. It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.

  Martha Gellhorn

  War, Imagination, People

  "Gellhorn: A Twentieth Century Life". Book by Caroline Moorehead, 2003.

  5 Copy quote

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