Inspiring quotes about travel. Photo by Lily.

Whether you’re starting to plan a trip of a lifetime or you’re already on the road, quotes are a great way to get a dose of inspiration when the travel process gets frustrating.

Some milestones I had before starting my current year-long trip included figuring out how much it’d cost to travel, how to letting go of my belongings and trying to break free of a status quo mentality.

Along my travel journey, I’ve been at the crossroad between returning home or continuing to travel (I chose to travel longer). I’ve had my mental resilience and on a few rare moments I wondered why I left the comfort of my home in Toronto in the first place.

I just celebrated my one year travelversary two weeks ago in Chiang Mai, Thailand and here are some travel quotes that have inspired me or made me smile this past year around the world.

Top travel quotations and sayings

1. “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” — Martin Buber
2. “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. “A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not; but a man of superior talent will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place.” — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
4. “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.”
5. “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” — Lao Tzu
6. Don’t be a tourist. Plan less. Go slowly. I traveled in the most inefficient way possible and it took me exactly where I wanted to go. — National Geographic’s Andrew Evans, on his 40 day, 40 bus journey from Washington D.C. to Antarctica. Watch his refreshing TEDx Talk (18 min).
7. “Not all those who wander are lost.” — J. R. R. Tolkien
8. “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
9. “Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.” – Kurt Vonnegut



10. “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag
11. “A person needs at intervals to separate from family and companions and go to new places. One must go without familiars in order to be open to influences, to change.”
    - Katharine Butler Hathaway
12. “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.” – G. K. Chesterton
13. “A ship is safe in the harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for.” – Gael Attal
14. “I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” — Mark Twain
15. “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
16. “Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.” – Frank Herbert
17. ‎”If at some point you don’t ask yourself, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ then you’re not doing it right.” — Roland Gau
18. “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” — Oscar Wilde
19. “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” — Aldous Huxley
20. “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” — James Michener
21. “He who is outside his door already has the hardest part of his journey behind him.” — Dutch proverb
22. The greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” — Bill Bryson



23. “Home is where the heart is, and my heart is wherever I am at the moment.” — Lily Leung
24. “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller
25. “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” — Tim Cahill
26. “No matter where you go, there you are.”
27. “I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” — Rosalia de Castro
28. “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
29. “How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterwards.” — Spanish Proverb
30. “I travel light. I think the most important thing is to be in a good mood and enjoy life, wherever you are.” — Diane von Furstenberg
31. “Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” — Lawrence Block
32. “One of the great things about travel is that you find out how many good, kind people there are.” — Edith Wharton
33. “To travel is to take a journey into yourself.” — Danny Kaye



34. “If you look like your passport photo, you’re too ill to travel.” — Will Kommen
35. “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
36. “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” – Fitzhugh Mullan
37. “The further one goes, the less (he realizes he) one knows.” — Lao-Tzu
38. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.”
39. “Travel makes one modest, you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”— Gustave Flaubert
40. “Travel is like love, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.” — Pico Iyer
41. “Travel is like a giant blank canvas, and the painting on the canvas is only limited by one’s imagination.” — Ross Morley
42. “When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” — Susan Heller
43. “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” — Henry David Thoreau
44. “Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.” — Eudora Welty
45. “You lose sight of things… and when you travel, everything balances out.” — Daranna Gidel
46. “The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them.” — Amelia E. Barr



47. “Let your heart guide you. It whispers so listen closely.”
48. “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” — Steve Jobs
49. “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” – Yogi Berra
50. “I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” — Robert Frost

Final words

1. “If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears.” — Glenn Clark
2. ‎”Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of men, instead, seek what they sought.” — Matsuo Basho
3. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” — Andre Gide
5. “Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.” – Carol Pearson

>> Which travel quote is your favourite? Which sayings would you add to this list?

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