"Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere."
Eberhardt is a nomad, as the title of this book implies. She finds fulfillment in constantly seeing new places, meeting new people, and adapting. Possessing a unique skill set, she is able to learn new languages, adopt new habits, and form new relationships intuitively. While this lifestyle is not ideal for everyone, it is the best and only option for Eberhardt, which she realizes gradually as she leans into her work in Algeria.
“For those who know the value of and exquisite taste of solitary freedom (for one is only free when alone), the act of leaving is the bravest and most beautiful of all.”
In her travels, Eberhardt is always alone. She makes friends everywhere she goes, but eventually she feels the urge to leave again. She does so not because the situation has turned sour, but because she longs for consistently original input. In a sense, she becomes a master of leaving. She learns how to do it graciously and lovingly, so that all effected parties are satisfied.
"The savage hatred I feel for crowds is getting worse, natural enemies that they are of imagination and of thought."
In a crowd, Eberhardt feels stifled. The compulsive need to conform seems to seep into her mind, but it's corrosive. Eberhardt finds that her skills are best suited when she can express them individually, in order to serve a larger community. Within a crowd, she feels absolutely succumbed, overwhelmed and controlled by conformity so that her specific skills and experiences have no more bearing than the next person's. While this may be the natural course of events within or without a crowd, Eberhardt's expression of thought depends upon her freedom of movement.
"I will only ever be drawn to people who suffer from that special and fertile anguish called self-doubt, or the thirst for the ideal, and desire for the soul's mystical fire. Self-satisfaction because of some material accomplishment will never be for me. The truly great are those who quest for better spiritual selves."
Because Eberhardt bases her decisions upon her internal sense of self, she is almost exclusively interested in matters of the internal, spiritual world. She relates to people who struggle with self-doubt because their expressions of self, similarly, pertain to a desire to be known and to be realized. Pulling from her sense of self, Eberhardt builds skills from the proverbial ground up.
