Archive

Quotes

When a traveler returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath traveled altogether behind him.

—Francis Bacon, 1625

All traveling becomes dull in exact proportion to its rapidity.

—John Ruskin, 1856

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

—Saint Augustine, c. 390

The traveler with nothing on him sings in the robber’s face.

—Juvenal, c. 125

Travelers, poets, and liars are three words all of one significance.

—Richard Brathwaite, 1631

Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.

—Charles Kuralt, c. 1980

Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.

—Blaise Pascal, c. 1640

Traveling is the ruin of all happiness! There’s no looking at a building here after seeing Italy.

—Fanny Burney, 1782

One should always have one’s boots on and be ready to leave.

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will—whatever we may think.

—Lawrence Durrell, 1957

More and more I like to take a train. I understand why the French prefer it to automobiling—it is so much more sociable, and of course these days so much more of an adventure, and the irregularity of its regularity is fascinating.

—Gertrude Stein, 1943

There is nothing worse for mortals than a wandering life.

—Homer, c. 750 BC

Travel is like adultery: one is always tempted to be unfaithful to one’s own country. To have imagination is inevitably to be dissatisfied with where you live.

—Anatole Broyard, 1989