This is part of BootsnAll’s 30 Days of Indie Travel project, a daily blogging challenge with a prompt for every day in November 2011. Check out the prompt at the bottom of this post to find out how you can participate!
Motivation is a funny thing. As personal as it is, each of us needs some kind of carrot to keep moving toward a goal – especially if it’s a challenging one. Travel goals, when they’re not challenging in and of themselves, are often the reward for doing something we’d rather not do (like, umm, working).
The right set of words can be the carrot that keeps you pointed in the right direction. Some may stick a photograph of a beach on their bulletin board to remind them of an upcoming vacation, and some may get a clearer mental image from a particular phrase.
For today’s 30 Days of Indie Travel prompt, “Quote,” I’m sharing not just some of my favorite travel quotes but also some submitted by other BootsnAll staffers, gathered (loosely) into three categories. I’m a quote-a-holic, so I couldn’t post just one. I hope at least one of these resonates with you – and if not, I hope you’ll share the one that does.
Going
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain [submitted by Adam Seper]
So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible. – Norton Juster, “The Phantom Tollbooth”
A ship is safe at harbor, but that is not what ships are for. – William Shedd
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. – Robert Louis Stevenson [submitted by Chris Heidrich]
Without the instinct for adventure, any civilization, however enlightened; any state, however well-ordered, will wilt and wither. – Kurt Hahn
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. – Ayn Rand [submitted by Olivia Raymer]
Travel isn’t a luxury waiting for ideal circumstances in our lives. It is what we were made to do. – Erik Gauger
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. – Confucius [submitted by Cristina Puscas]
When a great adventure is offered, you don’t refuse it. – Amelia Earhart [submitted by Olivia Raymer]
You can’t stay in your corner of forest waiting for others to come to you. You’ve got to go to them sometimes. – Winnie the Pooh
Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. – David Lloyd George
Learning
The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. – St. Augustine [submitted by Cristina Puscas]
What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. – William Least Heat Moon [submitted by Katie Hammel]
I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world. – Mary Anne Radmacher Hershey
I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can’t read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can’t even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses. – Bill Bryson, “Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe” [submitted by Katie Hammel]
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. – Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
There are deeper reasons for travel – itches and tickles on the underbelly of the unconscious mind. We go where we need to go, and then try to figure out what we’re doing there. – Jeff Greenwald
Traveling is not just seeing the new; it is also leaving behind. Not just opening doors; also closing them behind you, never to return. – Jan Myrdal
When I travel, I can’t help myself: I turn into a grown-up version of the toddler who grabs fistfuls of chocolate birthday cake with both hands. – Daisann McLane
If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home. – James Michener
The border means more than a customs house, a passport officer, a man with a gun. Over there everything is going to be different; life is never going to be quite the same again after your passport has been stamped. – Graham Greene
Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to. – Alan Keightley
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. – Mark Twain [submitted by Chris Heidrich]
Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive – it’s such an interesting world. – Lucy Maud Montgomery
You gotta go to know. – Quincy Jones
Smiling
Travelers never think that they are the foreigners. – Mason Cooley
The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist. – Russell Baker [submitted by Cristina Puscas]
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be. – Douglas Adams
At this point, most of the world isn’t lonely enough. – Chuck Thompson
Go that way. Really fast. If something gets in your way, turn. – from the film “Better Off Dead”
Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate. Adventures do occur, but not punctually. – E.M. Forster
In the end, travel – good travel – is about being open to getting your hands dirty. – by Daisann McLane
As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes. – Mel Brooks
Don’t refuse to go on an occasional wild goose chase – that’s what wild geese are for. – Anonymous
30 Days of Indie Travel Project: How to Participate
We’re inviting bloggers from around the world (that means you, too!) to join us in a daily blogging effort designed to reflect on how our travel experiences over the last year – or whenever – have shaped us and our view of the world. Bloggers can follow the prompts as strictly or loosely as they like, interpreting them in various ways and responding via text, photos or video posted on their own blogs.
We’ll share some of our favorites via Twitter and Facebook throughout November, as well as a round-up article at the end of the month, so if you’re playing along make sure to let us know – use the #indie30 hashtag on Twitter, and link to the 30 Days of Indie Travel page in your post so we’ll be able to find it.
Find out all of the 30 Days of Indie Travel blogging prompts so far – it’s never too late to join in the fun!
Prompt #14: Quote
What’s your favorite quote about travel? Why does it stand out to you?
Tools and inspiration: Discover the origins of some popular travel expressions.
images: opensourceway, Mi Pah, blackwing_de, Nevit Dilmen
