Quotes about travel

Take my advice, don't carry bags,

For bags are just as bad as swags;

They're never made to measure.

To see the world, your simple trick

Is but to take a walking-stick—

Assume an air of pleasure,

And tell the people near and far

You stroll about because you are

A Gentleman of Leisure.

Some people feel more alive when they travel and visit unfamiliar places or foreign countries because at those times sense perception – experiencing – takes up more of their consciousness than thinking. They become more present. Others remain completely possessed by the voice in the head even then. Their perceptions and experiences are distorted by instant judgments. They haven't really gone anywhere. Only their body is traveling, while they remain where they have always been: in their head.

Anyone who needs more than one suitcase is a tourist, not a traveller.

She said, "When you've seen all the new places you've got no more new places to see. And anyway, one new place is just like another new place. . . . I used to like meeting new people every trip - and I still do. But those things, meeting new people, seeing new places, they aren't everything. And while you go on in that sort of life you can't have any real friends or any real home. Because you're never there . . ."

That's the attraction of the conference circuit: it's a way of converting work into play, combining professionalism with tourism, and all at someone else's expense. Write a paper and see the world! I'm Jane Austen – fly me!

I sought trains; I found passengers.

You define a good flight by negatives: you didn’t get hijacked, you didn’t crash, you didn’t throw up, you weren’t late, you weren’t nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.

You have to find out for yourself. Take the leap. Go as far as you can. Try staying out of touch. Become a stranger in a strange land. Acquire humility. Learn the language. Listen to what people are saying.

Even the most distant and exotic place has its parallel in ordinary life.

Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind.

You must not judge people by their country. In South America, it is always wise to judge people by their altitude.

I felt I could no longer take the roller-coaster of emotions of travel, its surges of exaltation, its troughs of despondency, it’s large stretches of boredom and inconvenience (p. 202).