Travel Quotes

Most people collect baseball cards, or fancy artwork, or beanie babies. (Side note: What do people collect these days?) I collect travel quotes. I have an old beat-up journal that was gifted to me many years ago in which I house all my beloved quotes. I find them in books, from friends, or other travelers. The world is full of brilliant inspirational travel quotes. They all ring true and remind me of why I love love love to travel. I read these when I’m road-weary, or (like now) when I’m itching to pack my bags and head off to a new adventure.

Like this one, for example:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that 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.

Or this one:

“Travel to new places...forces us to develop greater flexibility as we challenge our most cherished beliefs about the way things should be.” –Jeffrey Kottler

Some remind me that travel isn’t necessarily boarding an airplane bound for a foreign land, but is a state of mind or a way of life.

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
– Jawaharal Nehru

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller
Other quotes humble me, and remind me of how big and beautiful our world is.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
– St. Augustine

And my all-time, absolute favorite quote is the one below from On the Road. I read this (for the first of many times) on the plane heading for my semester abroad in Dublin. It fit so perfectly for the moment I was in.

“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain til you see their specks dispersing? It’s the too-huge world vaulting us and it’s goodbye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”
– Jack Kerouac

Just imparting a little wisdom for the week. So go pack your bags, travel, dream and grow.