72 Travel Quotes + 5 Poems about Traveling

Jacqueline Eisenbraun (Senior Editor)

Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, traveling has a lot to offer those who need a break from the routines of daily life. With these sayings and travel quotes you come a little closer to a perhaps still distant journey.

Some like to take a vacation and relax at the beach, while others prefer to go hiking in the wilderness or visit a bustling city. Regardless of what you prefer, traveling can be exciting or stressing, so we collected some quotes to express common and uncommon insights about traveling.

Beautiful Quotes and Sayings about Travel

Beautiful Quotes and Sayings about Travel

With advances in technology and transportation the ability to travel the world is now more accessible than ever before, vast groups of people can now visit foreign lands and experience new cultures.

In this article we’ve collected some great quotes from historical sources and famous authors who undertook strenuous journeys when traveling wasn’t as easy as it is today. Some of them lived before the airplane or automobile making their efforts to see the world all the more inspirational.

Here you’ll find more inspirational and beautiful quotes.

Short Travel Quotes

Short Travel Quotes

As Shakespeare said, “brevity is the soul of wit” so we collected some of the shorter quotes about traveling in this section. If you are looking for succinct insights about traveling this is the right place to find them.

1. I have not told the half of what I saw.
   (Marco Polo, Italian explorer, 1254 – 1324)
2. A free ride is life’s most difficult journey.
   (James Cook, British explorer, 1728 – 1779)
3. You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
   (André Gide, French author, 1869 – 1951)
4. Life has more imagination than We carry in our dreams.
   (Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer, 1451 – 1506)
5. The World is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.
   (St. Augustine, theologian and philosopher, 354 – 430)
6. Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.
   (Seneca, Stoic philosopher, c. 4 BC – 65 AD)
7. Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.
   (Mark Twain, American humorist, 1835 – 1910)
8. 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, English writer, 1709 – 1784)
9. A wise traveler never despises his own country.
   (Carlo Goldoni, Italian playwright, 1707 – 1793)
10. A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
    (Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher, c. 6 – 5 century BC)
11. To travel is to live.
    (Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author, 1805 – 1875)
12. I tramp a perpetual journey.
    (Walt Whitman, American poet, 1819 – 1892)
13. Travel improves the mind wonderfully, and does away with all one’s prejudices.
    (Oscar Wilde, Irish poet, 1854 – 1900)

Best Travel Quotes and Captions for Instagram

Best Travel Quotes and Captions for Instagram

In case you need a caption for your social media, then this is where you’ll find it. We collected some of the most memorable quotes about traveling. The list includes philosophers and writers and is sure to contain something for everyone.

1. The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
   (Marcel Proust, French novelist, 1871 – 1922)
2. A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.
   (Moslih Eddin Saadi, Persian poet, 1210 – c. 1292)
3. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
   (Mark Twain, American humorist, 1835 – 1910)
4. Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.
   (Anatole France, French poet, 1844 – 1924)
5. Not till we are lost do we begin to find ourselves.
   (Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher, 1817 – 1862)
6. Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
   (Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, 1803 – 1882)
7. There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.
   (Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, 1850 – 1894)
8. Take only memories, leave only footprints.
   (Chief Seattle, Suquamish and Duwamish Chief, 1786 – 1866)
9. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
   (Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher, c. 6 – 5 century BC)
10. Travel brings power and love back into your life.
    (Rumi Jalalud-Din, Islamic scholar, 1207 – 1273)
11. Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.
    (Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, 1803 – 1882)
12. Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.
    (Ibn Battuta, Berber explorer, 1304 – c. 1368)

Encouraging Quotes about Traveling the World

Encouraging Quotes about Traveling the World

Many people have traveled the world and left some advice for those who are following in their footsteps. If you need some encouragement on your journey then this is the right place to find it, the quotes would also be great to share with any traveling friends.

1. There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.
   (Charles Dudley Warner, American essayist, 1829 – 1900)
2. A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
   (George Augustus Moore, Irish writer, 1852 – 1933)
3. It is always sad to leave a place to which one knows one will never return. Such are the melancolies du voyage: perhaps they are one of the most rewarding things about traveling.
   (Gustave Flaubert, French novelist, 1821 – 1880)
4. That’s the place to get to—nowhere. One wants to wander away from the world’s somewheres, into our own nowhere.
   (D.H. Lawrence, English writer, 1885 – 1930)
5. I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone, because they reflect more.
   (Thomas Jefferson, American president, 1743 – 1826)
6. Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
   (Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, 1803 – 1882)
7. We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfilment.
   (Hilaire Belloc, Franco-English writer, 1870 – 1953)
8. You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
   (André Gide, French author, 1869 – 1951)
9. A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not; but a man of superior talent will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place.
   (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer, 1756 – 1791)
10. Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
    (Confucius, Chinese philosopher, c. 551 – 479)
11. Adventure is worthwhile.
    (Aesop, Greek storyteller, c. 620 – 564 BC)
12. He who does not travel does not know the value of men.
    (Moorish proverb)

Funny Travel Quotes to Make You Laugh

Funny Travel Quotes to Make You Laugh

Traveling can be a funny experience, especially if you are encountering strange lands and people whose customs and way of life are radically different from your own. In this section we collected some humorous quotes about the pleasures of traveling from authors and politicians.

1. All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.
   (Samuel Johnson, English writer, 1709 – 1784)
2. Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.
   (Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister, 1804 – 1881)
3. 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, American humorist, 1835 – 1910)
4. The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.
   (Rudyard Kipling, English novelist, 1865 – 1936)
5. The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.
   (G. K. Chesterton, English writer, 1874 – 1936)
6. The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.
   (Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher, 1817 – 1862)
7. I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.
   (George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, 1856 – 1950)
8. An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
   (G.K. Chesterton, British author, 1874 – 1936)
9. Run from what’s comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.
   (Rumi, Persian poet, 1207 – 1273)
10. The course of love never did run smooth.
    (William Shakespeare, English playwright, 1564 – 1616)
11. If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
    (Seneca the Younger, Stoic philosopher, 4 BC 65 AD)
12. I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.
    (Oscar Wilde, Irish poet, 1854 – 1900)
13. He who is outside his door has the hardest part of his journey behind him.
    (Dutch Proverb)

Are you looking for more funny quotes? Here you’ll find them.

Sayings about Safe Travel

Sayings about Safe Travel

While traveling can be fun it can also be a dangerous undertaking, exploring new and unfamiliar places always caries some risk that something could go wrong.

With that in mind we collected some quotes about being a conscientious traveler aware of your surroundings. Unless cited, some of these quotes are from anonymous authors.

1. A good traveler leaves no tracks.
   (Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher, c. 6 – 5 century BC)
2. A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships were built for.
   (John A. Shedd, American author, 1859-1928)
3. He who would travel happily must travel light.
   (Antoine de St. Exupery, French author and pilot, 1900 – 1944)
4. May angels fly with you wherever you roam and guide you back safely to family and home.
   (Traditional Irish blessing)
5. May your voyage go well! May you see many interesting sights, and may you return home in one piece.
6. May good luck be your friend in whatever you do and may trouble be always a stranger to you.
   (Traditional Irish farewell)
7. It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage.
   (George William Curtis, American writer, 1824 – 1892)
8. If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
   (Seneca the Younger, Stoic philosopher, 4 BC 65 AD)
9. It’s better to travel well than arrive.
   (Buddha, ascetic and religious teacher, c. 6th – 5th century BC)
10. The more you weigh the harder you are to kidnap. Stay safe. Eat cake.

Travel Quotes about the Love of Adventures

Travel Quotes about the Love of Adventures

Exploring new places will always carry the air of adventure with it, so we collected quotes from some great authors about the love of traveling and adventure. You’re sure to find something that speaks to you here.

1. I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.
   (Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, 1850 – 1894)
2. Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere.
   (Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and author, 1877 – 1904)
3. To travel is to live.
   (Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author, 1805 – 1875)
4. The journey itself is my home.
   (Matsuo Basho, Japanese poet, 1644 – 1694)
5. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
   (Herman Melville, American author, 1819 – 1891)
6. They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea.
   (Horace, Roman poet, 65 – 8 BC)
7. How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!
   (Walter Benjamin, German Jewish philosopher, 1892 – 1940)
8. Let those who wish have their respectability- I wanted freedom, freedom to indulge in whatever caprice struck my fancy, freedom to search in the farthermost corners of the earth for the beautiful, the joyous, and the romantic.
   (Richard Halliburton, American adventurer, 1900 – 1939)
9. Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends.
   You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.
   (Cesare Pavese, Italian novelist, 1908 – 1950)
10. A subject to which few intellectuals ever give a thought is the right to be a vagrant, the freedom to wander. Yet vagrancy is a deliverance, and life on the open road is the essence of freedom.
    (Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and author, 1877 – 1904)
11. A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships were built for.
    (John A. Shedd, American author, 1859-1928)
12. 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.
    (Mark Twain, American humorist, 1835 – 1910)

Poems about Traveling

Poems about Traveling

Here we collected five poems about traveling that reflect a desire for adventure, travel, and the novelty to reach some new country. They might speak to you if you are looking for the right words to express your emotions.

1)

Ebb and Flow

I walked beside the evening sea
And dreamed a dream that could not be;
The waves that plunged along the shore
Said only: "Dreamer, dream no more!"

(George William Curtis)

2)

The Fairy Tale of My Life

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,
To gain all while you give,
To roam the roads of lands remote,
To travel is to live.

(Hans Christian Andersen)

3)

The Farewell

The Farewell

We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way,
begin no day where we have ended
another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us.
Even while the earth sleeps we travel.
We are the seeds of the tenacious plant,
and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart
that we are given to the wind and are scattered.

(Kahlil Gibran)

4)

Eldorado

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
But he grew old –
This knight so bold –
And o’er his heart a shadow
Fell, as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow –
‘Shadow,’ said he,
‘Where can it be –
This land of Eldorado?’

‘Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,’
The shade replied,
‘If you seek for Eldorado!’

(Edgar Allan Poe)

5)

Travel

The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn’t a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.

All night there isn’t a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.

My heart is warm with the friends I make,
And better friends I’ll not be knowing,
Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take,
No matter where it’s going.

(Edna St. Vincent Millay)

Tips on How to Use Travel Quotes

Tips on How to Use Travel Quotes

These quotes are great if you are planning your next vacation and need some inspiration. Perhaps you are yearning for a break from your day-to-day routine and need a reminder of all the world that’s out there waiting for you.

You can share these quotes with your friends and acquaintances whether you or someone you know is going on vacation or exploring some part of the world that is new to them. Post them on social media or message them to your loved ones before a big trip.

1. Caption your vacation photos with a good poem or quote.
2. Send your loved ones a location relevant saying from a famous explorer.
3. Be open minded when you are traveling.

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