So much as been written about the beauty of travel, the struggles, the enigmatic siren song of the road that continues to call to a traveler. Words paint an image that a photograph cannot capture, the image of what’s happening on the inside, while the outside is changing.
I’ve come to be a collector of quotes, not just about travel, but about lots of things. Occasionally I’ll read through them and remember that I am not alone, that for lifetime upon lifetime people have walked this way before me. Some of them make me laugh. Others touch a deep place in my soul.
Occasionally I’ll read through them and remember that I am not alone, that for lifetime upon lifetime people have walked this way before me.
Of course there are a thousand snappy meme quotes circulating on social media, but these are a few from my file.
Perhaps they will resonate with you?
“Loneliness is an integral part of travelling. I used to think it was the downside to travelling, but now I realise it is a necessary educative part of it to be embraced.” – David Mitchell Tweet
“It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.” – John Green Tweet
“The Wanderlust has got me… by the belly-aching fire.” – Robert W. Service Tweet
“It’s not a real adventure when you have to pay for it.” – Edmund Hillary Tweet
“Long term travel doesn’t require a massive ‘bundle of cash’; it requires only that we walk through the world in a more deliberate way.” – Rolf Potts Tweet
“Now, they say that New Zealand is beautiful and I do not know – because after 22 hours on a plane any landmass would be beautiful.” – Lewis Black Tweet
“For mine is a generation that circles the globe and searches for something we haven’t tried before. So never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite and never outstay the welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience. And if it hurts, you know what? It’s probably worth it.” – Alex Garland, The Beach Tweet
“I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’re never going to find perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one. Letting the happy accident happen is what a lot of vacation itineraries miss, I think, and I’m always trying to push people to allow those things to happen rather than stick to some rigid itinerary.” – Anthony Bourdain Tweet
“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson Tweet
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber Tweet
“To travel is to take a journey into yourself.” – Danny Kaye Tweet
“Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” – Roy M. Goodman Tweet
“One main factor in the upward trend of animal life has been the power of wandering.” – A.N. Whithead Science & The Modern World Tweet
“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home.” – Anonymous Tweet
“Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did now know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places.” – Italo Calvino Tweet
“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey Tweet
“Adventure is not outside man; it is within.” – George Eliot Tweet
“The word ‘romance,’ according to the dictionary, means excitement, adventure, and something extremely real. Romance should last a lifetime.” – Billy Graham Tweet
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” – G.K. Chesterton Tweet
“Art flourishes where there is a sense of adventure.” – A.N. Whitehead Tweet
“When you’re safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you’re having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.” – Thornton Wilder Tweet
“I decided that adventure was the best way to learn about writing.” – Lloyd Alexander Tweet
“We in middle age require adventure.” – Carolyn Heilbrun Tweet
“Be careful going in search of adventure – it’s ridiculously easy to find.” – William Least Heat-Moon Tweet
What are your favorite travel quotes?
Photo credits: Manoj Vasanth