--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: A subject to which few intellectuals ever…" description: "\"A subject to which few intellectuals ever give a thought is the right to be a vagrant, the freedom to wander. Yet vagrancy is a deliverance, and life o..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/805/isabelle-eberhardt-21732_bundles_a-subject-to-which-few-intellectuals-eve_2542602.jpg" --- # A subject to which few intellectuals ever give a thought… ![“A subject to which few intellectuals ever give a thought is the right to be a vagrant, the freedom to wander. Yet vagrancy is a deliverance, and life on the open road is the essence of freedom. To have the courage to smash the chains with which modern life has weighted us (under the pretext that…” quote by Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/805/isabelle-eberhardt-21732_bundles_a-subject-to-which-few-intellectuals-eve_2542602.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/805/isabelle-eberhardt-21732_bundles_a-subject-to-which-few-intellectuals-eve_2542602.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/805/isabelle-eberhardt-21732_bundles_a-subject-to-which-few-intellectuals-eve_2542602.jpg) > “A subject to which few intellectuals ever give a thought is the right to be a vagrant, the freedom to wander. Yet vagrancy is a deliverance, and life on the open road is the essence of freedom. To have the courage to smash the chains with which modern life has weighted us (under the pretext that it was offering us more liberty), then to take up the symbolic stick and bundle and get out.” [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote celebrates wandering as true freedom, opposing modern constraints that masquerade as liberty. **In simple terms:** Wandering equals freedom, modern life restricts us. Key Takeaway Embrace the open road and reject imposed limits. Themes freedom wanderlust rebellion Mood reflective adventurous Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - travel - creative work - personal growth - alternative lifestyles Key Concepts existentialism individualism liberation Questions to Reflect On - What constraints do you accept as freedom? - How can you responsibly pursue wandering? A Different Perspective Modern comforts may still offer genuine freedom if chosen mindfully. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bundles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bundles/) [Chains](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/chains/) [Deliverance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/deliverance/) [Essence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/essence/) [Freedom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/freedom/) [Freedom Wander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/freedom-wander-1446750/) [Giving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/giving/) [Journey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/journey/) [Liberty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/liberty/) [Modern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modern/) [Modern life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modern-life/) [Offering](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/offering/) [Offering Liberty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/offering-liberty-959249/) [Open road](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/open-road/) [Philosophy of Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/philosophy-of-mind/) [Pretext](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pretext/) [Sticks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sticks/) [Subjects](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subjects/) [Symbolic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/symbolic/) [Vagrant Freedom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/vagrant-freedom-1446751/) [Vagrants](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/vagrants/) [Wander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wander/) [Wander Vagrancy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wander-vagrancy-1446752/) ## Related quotes > [“Vagrancy is deliverance, and a life on the open road is the essence of freedom. To have the courage to smash the chains with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gunnar-kopperud/vagrancy-is-deliverance-and-a-life-on-the-open-road-is-the-essence-of/) [Gunnar Kopperud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gunnar-kopperud/) > [There in the city's steam-and-smoke-smudged harbor is the most extraordinary sight of all: a great copper-clad lady with a torch in one hand and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/libba-bray/there-in-the-city-s-steam-and-smoke-smudged-harbor-is-the-most/) [Libba Bray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/libba-bray/) > [It was so much fun to have the freedom to wander America, with no assignments. For 25 or 30 years I never had an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-kuralt/it-was-so-much-fun-to-have-the-freedom-to-wander-america-with-no/) [Charles Kuralt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-kuralt/) > [The lifestyle that an artist can have, the freedom to wander in the landscape with no real pressure or deadlines, was a very attractive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dyer/the-lifestyle-that-an-artist-can-have-the-freedom-to-wander-in-the/) [John Dyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dyer/) > [A superficial freedom to wander aimlessly here or there, to taste this or that, to make a choice of distractions, is simply a sham.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-merton/a-superficial-freedom-to-wander-aimlessly-here-or-there-to-taste-this/) [Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-merton/) > [The cowardly belief that a person must stay in one place is too reminiscent of the unquestioning resignation of animals, beasts of burden stupefied…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/the-cowardly-belief-that-a-person-must-stay-in-one-place-is-too/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [But the vagrant owns the whole vast earth that ends only at the nonexistent horizon, and his empire is an intangible one, for his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/but-the-vagrant-owns-the-whole-vast-earth-that-ends-only-at-the/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [Life on the open road is liberty... to be alone, to have few needs, to be unknown, everywhere a foreigner and at home, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/life-on-the-open-road-is-liberty-to-be-alone-to-have-few-needs-to-be/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [Men and women of high professional standing have been reduced to the status of vagrants.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elmer-rice/men-and-women-of-high-professional-standing-have-been-reduced-to-the/) [Elmer Rice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elmer-rice/) > [There is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream, a grotesque and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/there-is-no-god-no-universe-no-human-race-no-earthly-life-no-heaven/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [The Unexpected stalks a farm in big boots like a vagrant bent on havoc. Not every farmer is an inventor, but the good ones…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/verlyn-klinkenborg/the-unexpected-stalks-a-farm-in-big-boots-like-a-vagrant-bent-on/) [Verlyn Klinkenborg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/verlyn-klinkenborg/) > [To those who know the speech of hills and rivers straightening a stream is like shipping vagrants—a very successful method of passing trouble from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldo-leopold/to-those-who-know-the-speech-of-hills-and-rivers-straightening-a/) [Aldo Leopold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldo-leopold/) > [I grow up on the street down by the market, and all them vagrants was my friend, the ones who wasn't crazy and I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/glen-rambharack/i-grow-up-on-the-street-down-by-the-market-and-all-them-vagrants-was/) [Glen Rambharack](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/glen-rambharack/) > [Jesus: a wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barbara-ehrenreich/jesus-a-wine-guzzling-vagrant-and-precocious-socialist/) [Barbara Ehrenreich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barbara-ehrenreich/) > [My father saw two black men lynched on his street in Cartersville, as a child. And I think seeing two black businessmen - not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/toni-morrison/my-father-saw-two-black-men-lynched-on-his-street-in-cartersville-as/) [Toni Morrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/toni-morrison/) ## More by Isabelle Eberhardt > [The way I see it, there is no greater spiritual beauty than fanaticism, of a sort so sincere it can only end in martyrdom.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/the-way-i-see-it-there-is-no-greater-spiritual-beauty-than-fanaticism/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [For those who know the value of and exquisite taste of solitary freedom (for one is only free when alone), the act of leaving…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/for-those-who-know-the-value-of-and-exquisite-taste-of-solitary/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [Oh if at every moment of our lives we could know the consequences of some of the utterings, thoughts and deeds that seem so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/oh-if-at-every-moment-of-our-lives-we-could-know-the-consequences-of/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [From every ruin, life springs up again and everything that dies is born again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/from-every-ruin-life-springs-up-again-and-everything-that-dies-is/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/now-more-than-ever-do-i-realize-that-i-will-never-be-content-with-a/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [Civilization, that great fraud of our times, has promised man that by complicating his existence it would multiply his pleasures. ... Civilization has promised…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/civilization-that-great-fraud-of-our-times-has-promised-man-that-by/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [We are, all of us, poor wretches, and those who prefer not to understand this are even worse off than the rest of us.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/we-are-all-of-us-poor-wretches-and-those-who-prefer-not-to-understand/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [One must use the weapons one finds in one's path.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/one-must-use-the-weapons-one-finds-in-one-s-path/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [But the vagrant owns the whole vast earth that ends only at the nonexistent horizon, and his empire is an intangible one, for his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/but-the-vagrant-owns-the-whole-vast-earth-that-ends-only-at-the/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [Life on the open road is liberty... to be alone, to have few needs, to be unknown, everywhere a foreigner and at home, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/life-on-the-open-road-is-liberty-to-be-alone-to-have-few-needs-to-be/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/a-nomad-i-will-remain-for-life-in-love-with-distant-and-uncharted/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/i-will-always-be-haunted-by-thoughts-of-a-sun-drenched-elsewhere/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [I think it is impossible for human minds to think of Death as a final, irrevocable end to life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/i-think-it-is-impossible-for-human-minds-to-think-of-death-as-a-final/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [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,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/i-will-only-ever-be-drawn-to-people-who-suffer-from-that-special-and/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) > [I am full of the sorrow that goes with changes in surroundings, those successive stages of annihilation that slowly lead to the great and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabelle-eberhardt/i-am-full-of-the-sorrow-that-goes-with-changes-in-surroundings-those/) [Isabelle Eberhardt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) [Explore all 27 Isabelle Eberhardt quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabelle-eberhardt/) ## More Bundles quotes > [Critics are biased, and so are readers. (Indeed, a critic is a bundle of biases held loosely together by a sense of taste.) But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/whitney-balliett/critics-are-biased-and-so-are-readers-indeed-a-critic-is-a-bundle-of/) [Whitney Balliett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/whitney-balliett/) > [The male dares to be different to the degree that he accepts his passivity and his desire to be female, his fagginess. The farthest…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/valerie-solanas/the-male-dares-to-be-different-to-the-degree-that-he-accepts-his/) [Valerie Solanas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/valerie-solanas/) > [The Kabbalah describes angels as bundles of light, meaning intelligence, consciousness. Kabbalists believe that above every blade of grass is an angel crying "Grow!…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-pressfield/the-kabbalah-describes-angels-as-bundles-of-light-meaning/) [Steven Pressfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-pressfield/) > [I really hate those Internet freaks who take each thirty minute bundle of joy and turn it into a cult game of Where's Wally.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/danny-baker/i-really-hate-those-internet-freaks-who-take-each-thirty-minute/) [Danny Baker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/danny-baker/) > [A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lord-acton/a-liberal-is-only-a-bundle-of-prejudices-until-he-has-mastered-has/) [Lord Acton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lord-acton/) > [We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frances-harper/we-are-all-bound-up-together-in-one-great-bundle-of-humanity-and/) [Frances Harper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frances-harper/) > [I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of sticks, far too large…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-newton/i-compare-the-troubles-which-we-have-to-undergo-in-the-course-of-the/) [John Newton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-newton/) > [Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/let-us-remember-that-the-christmas-heart-is-a-giving-heart-a-wide/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“When I get honest I admit that I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and I get discouraged.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brennan-manning/when-i-get-honest-i-admit-that-i-am-a-bundle-of-paradoxes-i-believe/) [Brennan Manning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brennan-manning/) > [ In 1975, ... \[speaking with Shiing Shen Chern\], I told him I had finally learned ... the beauty of fiber-bundle theory and the profound… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chen-ning-yang/in-1975-speaking-with-shiing-shen-chern-i-told-him-i-had-finally/) [Chen-Ning Yang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chen-ning-yang/) > [. . . And so Charlie Asher . . . led an army of fourteen-inch-tall bundles of animal bits, armed with everything from knitting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-moore/and-so-charlie-asher-led-an-army-of-fourteen-inch-tall-bundles-of/) [Christopher Moore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-moore/) > [Now I have demonstrated, that the convolutions of the brain are nothing but the peripheric expansion of the bundles of which it is composed;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/franz-joseph-gall/now-i-have-demonstrated-that-the-convolutions-of-the-brain-are/) [Franz Joseph Gall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/franz-joseph-gall/) > [A bottle of wine Still to be drunk, A bundle of thoughts Still to be thunk.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-breault/a-bottle-of-wine-still-to-be-drunk-a-bundle-of-thoughts-still-to-be/) [Robert Breault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-breault/) > [Putting styles on lock, and making beats by the bundle, Scooping more props than Bryant Gumbel...and staying humble.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-rock/putting-styles-on-lock-and-making-beats-by-the-bundle-scooping-more/) [Pete Rock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-rock/) > [His entired life bundled into wenty refuse sacks. His and her memories bundle away in Holly's mind. Each item unearthed dust, tears, laughter and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cecelia-ahern/his-entired-life-bundled-into-wenty-refuse-sacks-his-and-her-memories/) [Cecelia Ahern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cecelia-ahern/) [Browse all 181 Bundles quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bundles/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "A subject to which few intellectuals ever give a thought is the right to be a vagrant, the freedom to wander. Yet vagrancy is a deliverance, and life on the open road is the essence of freedom. 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