quotations about walking
I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least--and it is commonly more than that--sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walking
Walking is the very best exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 19, 1785
Being able to walk to shops, restaurants and other amenities enhances the liveability of a community and boosts the residents' enjoyment of living there. Not only does it save the hassle of getting in the car and finding parking but walking is a more enjoyable experience and you can more easily take advantage of living in a desirable, well-designed village where people want to be.
JONATHAN PORTER
"Brisbane's new development a masterclass in urban planning", Australian Financial Review, February 5, 2016
Most of us take walking for granted. In fact, I believe there's a growing movement to get rid of walking altogether. The prevalence of cars, buses, trams and bikes have reduced the need to walk. More to the point: We feel the need to justify walking altogether. Any instance of walking must be accompanied by some kind of crutch -- we need to walk with others, listen to music or find another way to make it productive. We walk to satisfy our Fitbit or step counters so at the end of the day we can look at our badge of honor that says we took 5,000 steps. We've convinced ourselves it's wearisome, that it's a form of procrastination that takes time out of our too-busy schedules. We treat it as if it's wasteful.
JACK PORTER
"People Need to Remember: Walking Is the Best Medicine", The Daily Utah Chronicle, January 27, 2016
Although there are many ways to achieve a healthier lifestyle, walking is proven to have the highest success rate because people are less likely to quit doing it than with other physical activities.
SAMANTHA MORGAN
"National Walking Day: First step to improving your health is to literally take a step", WAFB, April 5, 2017
Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called "walking."
GEORGE W. BUSH
attributed, 1001 Greatest Things Ever Said About Texas
Walking is the only form of transportation in which a man proceeds erect -- like a man -- on his own legs, under his own power. There is immense satisfaction in that.
EDWARD ABBEY
Postcards from Ed
In a car you are confined to roads, your pace too quick to experience a place. Bikes bring you closer and allow you to stop a bit more, but you are still encumbered with gear. Walking is entirely different; you are fully immersed in what is around you.
CHRIS ARNADE
"Take a long walk this weekend in the real New York: Queens", The Guardian, January 30, 2016
To walk is to lack a place.
MICHEL DE CERTEAU
The Practice of Everyday Life
Walking is a technique of solitude, a way into reverie. The walker is not a sleepwalker but a daydreamer.
DEIRDRE HEDDON
Walking, Writing and Performance
Two or three hours' walking will carry me to as strange a country as I expect ever to see. A single farmhouse which I had not seen before is sometimes as good as the dominions of the King of Dahomey.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walking
Walking is one typical result of biological evolution. Walking biological systems do not need any prepared areas like roads, places or tracks; they are able to cope with most of the surface structures developed on earth. But walking needs intelligence, some neurobiologists say it is intelligence.
FRIEDRICH PFEIFFER & TERESA ZIELINSKA
Walking: Biological and Technological Aspects
Walking is free, it feels good, it helps me think and it lets me see the city in a way that just isn't possible otherwise. Sticking to the same route brings the comfort of the familiar, and changing up the route brings new discoveries. Never before have I been so conscious of the seasons.
STEPHEN QUINN
"How I discovered that everyday walking is no mere pedestrian activity", The Globe and Mail, January 29, 2016
Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret.
BILL BRYSON
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
To saunter is a science; it is the gastronomy of the eye. To take a walk is to vegetate; to saunter is to live.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Physiology of Marriage
I learned how to walk by doing the moonwalk. I know, you're now picturing me sliding backwards across a polished floor, but no, I don't mean the Michael Jackson moonwalk -- a thing of grace and beauty -- but the charity fundraising MoonWalk: a 26-mile night-time march through London, performed by women in their bras to raise money for breast cancer research. I took part in it a few years ago as part of a fantastically glamorous media team that trained for weeks on end. We'd meet every Sunday and walk beside the Thames, gradually building up distances and endurance, until we were easily covering 20 miles and more. I say easily: I mean huffing and puffing, covered in blisters, and fuelled by Marmite sandwiches -- but still, we did it.
TRACY THORN
"How I learned to walk miles on a midnight marathon across London", New Statesman, January 28, 2016
Walkers are "practitioners of the city," for the city is made to be walked.... A city is a language, a repository of possibilities, and walking is the act of speaking that language.
REBECCA SOLNIT
Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Walking is a great exercise because it's low impact and the more you walk the better the benefits.
IRA CRONIN
"Your Healthy Family", KOAA, April 21, 2017
Our first steps are among the most celebrated milestones of our youth. But for some reason, as we age, walking gets taken for granted. That's puzzling, since walking is one of the most comprehensive, and safest, fitness routines available. All you need is a good pair of walking shoes and socks, and you are good to go.
BRION O'CONNOR
"Want a workout? Ramp up the intensity for a winter walk", Boston Globe, January 22, 2016
You don't realize how much a little thing like walking is taken for granted. You don't think about it, you just do it. But once that's taken away, it's tough.
TINA CUMINS
"Rio Vista's Tucker Downs walking again, aiming to play baseball", Cleburne Times-Review, January 17, 2016