7 Stimulating Travel Quotes Full of Meaning ...

One of the great American writers knew the value of travel. Mark Twain said "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." This is one of the most inspirational travel quotes. It is about taking steps to move away from your home comforts to discover what is waiting for you in the big, wide world. And, if you don’t take those steps, you’ll forever regret it.

When Susan Sontag said "I have not been everywhere, but it's on my list" I feel she could almost have been writing my epitaph. I don’t have a bucket list because there simply isn’t a bucket big enough to hold everywhere I want to go and everything I want to see. That’s the thing about travel – there’s always somewhere to go and something to see, new cultures to explore and strangers to become friends.

No-one has ever been given the credit for saying “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer” which is shame because it is one of most quotable quotes about travel. I think this is so true. It goes hand in hand with “Money can’t buy you love” and “The best things in life are free”. A view that takes your breath away or a travel experience that becomes an everlasting memory is truly priceless.

St. Augustine was one of the world’s first great travelers, taking his teachings to various locations in North Africa and Southern Europe in the late 4th/early 5th centuries. A prolific producer of theological works, he knew completely that “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” Says it all I think!

"Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey." Pat Conroy was totally right. There are magnificent memories to hold on to forever of places visited, sights seen and people met.

One of my favorite travel quotes is from English writer, G.K. Chesterton. I think whenever the question is asked “what is the difference between going on a holiday and traveling?” the answer should be “The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see." I believe there is a huge difference between going on a vacation to spend 2 weeks by the pool with a few excursions thrown in and exploring somewhere and getting to know the nitty-gritty of a place. Both have their merits and neither is “better” than the other, but I like to think I am a traveler not a tourist.

So many of the world’s problems are due to prejudice which comes from a lack of understanding or an acceptance of differences. I believe Maya Angelou gave us all a great way to make a leap forward into acceptance of diversity when she said “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." One of the best travel quotes ever.

Probably the most famous and well known of all travel quotes is "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." (Lao Tzu). This is so true. That first step takes you on an incredible adventure. Embrace travel and your life is all the richer for it. Are you a traveler or a tourist?