Not so many years ago there was no simpler or more intelligible notion than that of going on a journey. Travel—movement through space—provided the universal metaphor for change. One of the subtle confusions—perhaps one of the secret terrors—of modern life is that we have lost this refuge. No longer do we move through space as we once did.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney
A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
The time to enjoy a European tour is about three weeks after you unpack.
—George Ade (1866–1944) American Humorist, Playwright
Travelling makes a man wiser, but less happy.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
We travelers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
I traveled among unknown men, in lands beyond the sea; nor England! did I know till then what love I bore to thee.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
The country of the tourist pamphlet always is another country, an embarrassing abstraction of the desirable that, thank God, does not exist on this planet, where there are always ants and bad smells and empty Coca-Cola bottles to keep the grubby finger-print of reality upon the beautiful.
—Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South African Novelist, Short-Story Writer
Old men and far travelers may lie with authority.
—Unknown
Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The map is not the territory.
—Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish-American Scientist, Philosopher of Language
The average tourist wants to go to places where there are no tourists.
—Sam Ewing (1949–2018) American Writer, Humorist
Travel and society polish one, but a rolling stone gathers no moss, and a little moss is a good thing on a man.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
Does this boat go to Europe, France?
—Anita Loos (1888–1981) American Actor, Novelist, Screenwriter
Traveling, you realize that differences are lost: each city takes to resembling all cities, places exchange their form, order, distances, a shapeless dust cloud invades the continents.
—Italo Calvino (1923–85) Italian Novelist, Essayist, Journalist
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 (1835–1910) American Humorist
A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.
—John Steinbeck (1902–68) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Journalist
One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to come up to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider.
—Damon Runyon (1884–1946) American Journalist, Short-Story Writer
Every year it takes less time to fly across the Atlantic and more time to drive to the office.
—Unknown
I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, and of the bitter effects of staying at home with all the narrow prejudices of an Islander, that I think there should be a law amongst us to set our young men abroad for a term among the few allies our wars have left us.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.
—Charles Kuralt (1934–97) American Television News Journalist
Traveling is a fool’s paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Comes over one an absolute necessity to move. And what is more, to move in some particular direction. A double necessity then: to get on the move, and to know whither.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Critic
The bigger the summer vacation the harder the fall.
—Indian Proverb
Though there are some disagreeable things in Venice there is nothing so disagreeable as the visitors.
—Henry James (1843–1916) American-born British Novelist, Writer
The tourist who moves about to see and hear and open himself to all the influences of the places which condense centuries of human greatness is only a man in search of excellence.
—Max Lerner (1902–92) American Journalist, Educator, Author
Travel is the most private of pleasures. There is no greater bore than the travel bore. We do not in the least want to hear what he has seen in Hong-Kong.
—Vita Sackville-West (1892–1962) English Writer, Gardener
For the perfect idler, for the passionate observer it becomes an immense source of enjoyment to establish his dwelling in the throng, in the ebb and flow, the bustle, the fleeting and the infinite. To be away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere; to see the world, to be at the very center of the world, and yet to be unseen of the world, such are some of the minor pleasures of those independent, intense and impartial spirits, who do not lend themselves easily to linguistic definitions. The observer is a prince enjoying his incognito wherever he goes.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
The travel writer seeks the world we have lost—the lost valleys of the imagination.
—Alexander Claud Cockburn (1941–2012) Irish American Political Journalist
A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A route has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A route is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.
—Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech Novelist
The fool wanders; the wise man travels.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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