Travel Quotes That Will Inspire You To See The World

I collect quotes, in journals, on sticky notes, in Evernote, in spreadsheets. I admit to being a bit of a digital hoarder when it comes to quote images too, there are several folders of these on my external drive. While I love inspirational quotes and I shared several of them in a post here, the ones that truly speak to my soul are travel quotes.

Here are some of my travel favorites, and as a bonus I’ve included affiliate links to books written by the authors:

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” ~ James Michener, author of The Drifters, the book I read as a teenager that ignited my wanderlust).

“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” ~ Aldous Huxley, author of Island, another of my early favorites.

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” ~ Anais Nin, author of Henry and June, a memoir of a momentous year in her life in Paris.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” ~ Helen Keller

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” ~ Ibn Battuta, an early travel writer who set out for Mecca in 1325 at age 21 and didn’t get home for 29 years, 40 countries later.

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by.” ~ Robert Frost, a prolific American poet we all studied in high school.

“Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” ~ Lawrence Block, a famous American crime novelist famous for his Keller series among others.  Start with Hit Man, the first in the series.

“To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” ~ Freya Stark, author of Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark

“Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone.” ~ Wendell Berry

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.” ~ Mark Twain, self explanatory 😉 a compilation of his writing here.

“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

“The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” ~ Shirley MacLaine, renowned actress, nutjob, and author of Above the Line: My Wild Oats Adventure, a book about her experiences in the Canary Islands.

“I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine.” ~ Caskie Stinnett, author of One Man’s Island: Reflections on Maine Life from Slightly Offshore, a book I’d like to read based on the title alone.

“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.” ~ Babs Hoffman, author of Aquamarine, and if you know me at all, you know I wish I was a mermaid.