quotations about travel
I think especially in the jet age that the right to travel is a civil right and a human right which, except for health reasons, ought not to be restricted in any way. Why does the State Department have the right to issue passports? We are citizens. Not subjects.
SHANA ALEXANDER
"The Real Tourist Trap", Life, January 26, 1968
To be a good traveller ... a sweet landscape must sometimes be allowed to atone for an indifferent supper, and an interesting ruin charm away the remembrance of a hard bed.
HENRY T. TUCKERMAN
"The Philosophy of Travel", The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, May 1844
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
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"
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
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"
When one realizes that his life is worthless he either commits suicide or travels.
EDWARD DAHLBERG
Reasons of the Heart
He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
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
For many people, foreign travel can be transformational, changing how we think of our lives and our world. When we spend time in different cultures, everything is new and fascinating. We start living in the present, because the present is so intriguing. We feel revitalized. Because you let go of what is familiar and routine for you, your inner mind is inclined to take a fresh look at your life--how you feel about what's going on and what direction you want to go next.
LINDA BREEN PIERCE
Simplicity Lessons
Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI
attributed, Disraeli
Travel, then, is a voyage into that famously subjective zone, the imagination, and what the traveler brings back is -- and has to be -- an ineffable compound of himself and the place, what's really there and what's only in him.
PICO IYER
"Why We Travel"
I have been a stranger in a strange land.
BIBLE
Exodus 2:22
You were going to travel for love, without shoes, or cloak, or common sense. This is one of the things a woman can do when her lover leaves her. It's hard on the feet perhaps, but staying at home is hard on the heart.
KELLY LINK
Stranger Things Happen
Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.
ANITA DESAI
attributed, Constant Traveller
To embargo travel is like burning books or imprisoning journalists.
LARS-ERIC LINDBLAD
New York Times, July 13, 1994
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
Many a man who has gone but a few miles from home, understands human nature better, detects motives and weighs character more sagaciously, than another who has travelled over the known world, and made a name by his reports of different countries.
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
Self-Culture: An address introductory to the Franklin lectures
Strong and content I travel the open road.
WALT WHITMAN
Song of the Open Road
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