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 more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Writer, Aviator
Unusual travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.
—Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
No one travelling on a business trip would be missed if he failed to arrive.
—Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) American Economist, Social Critic
The map is not the territory.
—Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish-American Scientist, Philosopher of Language
Nothing tends so much to enlarge the mind as travelling, that is, making visits to other towns, cities, or countries beside those in which we were born and educated.
—Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English Hymn writer
Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Those who visit foreign nations, but associate only with their own countrymen, change their climate, but not their customs.—They see new meridians, but the same men; and with heads as empty as their pockets, return home with travelled bodies, but untravelled minds.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
The accent of one’s birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one’s speech.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
He who would travel happily must travel light.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
Of dead kingdoms I recall the soul, sitting amid their ruins.
—Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–67) American Poet, Playwright, Essayist
The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Through the years, a man peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, tools, stars, horses and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the image of his own face.
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine Writer, Essayist, Poet
Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun. They have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work: they can take pictures.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
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
Those that say you can’t take it with you never saw a car packed for a vacation trip.
—Unknown
We are all travelers in the wilderness of the world, and the best that we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The time to enjoy a European tour is about three weeks after you unpack.
—George Ade (1866–1944) American Humorist, Playwright
The American arrives in Paris with a few French phrases he has culled from a conversational guide or picked up from a friend who owns a beret.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Comedian, Radio Personality
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
Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The important thing about travel in foreign lands is that it breaks the speech habits and makes you blab less, and breaks the habitual space-feeling because of different village plans and different landscapes. It is less important that there are different mores, for you counteract these with your own reaction-formations.
—Paul Goodman (1911–72) American Novelist, Essayist
The alternative to a vacation is to stay home and tip every third person you see.
—Unknown
Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.
—Lin Yutang (1895–1976) Chinese Author, Philologist
The idea that seeing life means going from place to place and doing a great variety of obvious things is an illusion natural to dull minds.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
He who is only a traveler learns things at second-hand and by the halves, and is poor authority. We are most interested when science reports what those men already know practically or instinctively, for that alone is a true humanity, or account of human experience.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.
—Freya Stark (1893–1993) British Explorer, Writer
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