quotations about travel
Why do you wonder that globe-trotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you? The reason which set you wandering is ever at your heels.
SOCRATES
attributed, Moral Letters to Lucilius
A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
Letters from a Citizen of the World
To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change.
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY
Human Nature and the Social Order
There are some who say that sitting at home reading is the equivalent of travel, because the experiences described in the book are more or less the same as the experiences one might have on a voyage, and there are those who say that there is no substitute for venturing out into the world. My own opinion is that it is best to travel extensively but to read the entire time, hardly glancing up to look out of the window of the airplane, train, or hired camel.
DANIEL HANDLER
as Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid
He who is everywhere is nowhere.
SENECA THE YOUNGER
Epistolae Ad Lucilium
Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.
KURT VONNEGUT, JR.
Cat's Cradle
We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again -- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.
PICO IYER
"Why We Travel"
My favorite thing is to go where I have never gone.
DIANE ARBUS
attributed, The Quotable Traveler
A traveller without observation is a bird without wings.
SAADI
attributed, Day's Collacon
Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.
ANITA DESAI
attributed, Constant Traveller
Travel far enough, you meet yourself.
DAVID MITCHELL
Cloud Atlas
I am fevered with the sunset,
I am fretful with the bay,
For the wander-thirst is on me
And my soul is in Cathay.
RICHARD HOVEY
A Sea Gypsy
Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.
MAYA ANGELOU
"Passports to Understanding"
The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON
Tremendous Trifles
Ourselves are cosmic and capacious beyond conjecture, and to experience some notion of the planetary perspective is the richest income from travelling. It takes all to inform and educate all. Sallies forth from our cramped firesides into other homes, other hearts, are wonderfully wholesome and enlarging. Travel opens prospects on all sides, widens our horizon, liberates the mind from geographical and conventional limitations, from local prejudices and national, showing the globe in its differing climates, zones, and latitudes of intelligence.
AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT
Table Talk
Of course, even foreign places grow familiar given enough time; even novelty grows old. Some would argue that this is what makes travel pointless. And in a sense, it's true--childhoods never last. But everyone deserves one.
WENDY DALE
Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals
Travel is theater: It invites us to extend our boundaries and to "play" new roles. Is that you sipping ouzo, singing fado, tasting eel, donning a caftan, riding a donkey, boarding a helicopter, ogling a kilt?
MARTY LESHNER
Cruise Travel, October 2004
Travel is intensified living--maximum thrills per minute and one of the last great sources of legal adventure. Travel is freedom. It's recess, and we need it.
RICK STEVES
Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door
When one realizes that his life is worthless he either commits suicide or travels.
EDWARD DAHLBERG
Reasons of the Heart
To embargo travel is like burning books or imprisoning journalists.
LARS-ERIC LINDBLAD
New York Times, July 13, 1994