50 Inspiring Travel Quotes to Ignite Your Wanderlust

Travel is an enlightening journey that is deeply impactful to the lives of countless people across the globe. An overseas adventure is what first brought us together in Bruges, Belgium as we solo traveled from opposite ends of the planet. Travel is what brought my father from Greece to the United States, where he resided for over 50 years.

Travel opens doors to a wonderland of vacations, new opportunities and romantic encounters. So I decided to compile a list of some favorite travel quotes by influential writers, politicians, celebrities and those who left the world a little richer because they walked and journeyed among us.

1) “The world is a canvas to the imagination.” – Henry David Thoreau

2)“A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill

3)“I love the feeling of being anonymous in a city I’ve never been before.” – Bill Bryson

4) “Investment in travel is an investment in yourself.” – Matthew Karsten

5) “See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream.” – Ray Bradbury

6) “Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life.” – Michael Palin

7) “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag

8) “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

9) “Take only memories, leave only footprints.” – Chief Seattle

10) “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” – Fitzhugh Mullan

11) “Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Dalai Lama

12) “To travel is to live.” – Hans Christian Andersen

13)“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley

14)“If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.” – Cesare Pavese

15) “Not all those who wander are lost.” – JRR Tolkien

16) “Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert

17) “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous

18) “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

19) “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain

20) “People don’t take trips, trips take people.” – John Steinbeck

21)“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you’d be better staying at home.” – James Michener

22) “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll

23) “I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

24)“Only one who wanders finds new paths.” – Norwegian proverb

25)“A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.” – Moslih Eddin Saadi

26) “Through we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

27) “The further I go, the closer to me I get.” – Andrew McCarthy

28) “Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” Jack Kerouac

29) “Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground.” – Judith Thurman

30) “Who lives sees much. Who travels sees more.” – Arab Proverb

31) “If you think adventure is dangerous try routine. It is lethal.” – Paulo Coelho

32) “Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aristotle

33) “Travel teaches tolerance” – Benjamin Disraeli

34) “I would rather own a little and see the world than own the world and see a little of it.” – Alexander Sattler

35) “Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” – Lawrence Block

36) “When overseas you learn more about your own country, than you do the place you’re visiting.” – Clint Borgen

37) “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

38) “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

39) “The world is a canvas to the imagination.” – Henry David Thoreau

40) “To travel is to evolve.” – Pierre Bernardo

41) Live with no excuses and travel with no regrets.” – Oscar Wilde

42) “With age, comes wisdom. With travel, comes understanding.” – Sandra Lake

43) “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide

44) “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca

45) Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

46) “Oh, the places you’ll go!” – Dr Seuss

47) “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure.” – Freya Stark

48) “We must go and see for ourselves” – Jacques Cousteau

49) “If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.” – Rachel Wolchin

50) “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

In Memory of Alexander D. Kallimanis (1928-2024)

“It is worth seeing the world, even if all you can afford to eat is bread and cheese.” – Alexander Dennis Kallimanis Sr. (my father)

My father, who previously served as a director of airport terminal services around the United States, after previously immigrating from Greece, imparted those words upon me over the years. He was passionate about travel, education, art and charity – instilling their importance while raising his children.

Dad recently passed away at nearly 96 years of age in April 2024. He lived an inspiring life, traveling around the world for work and pleasure long into his golden years. He also served as a Korean war veteran.

Dad is fondly remembered for his wisdom, warm smile, love, sacrifice and poetic writing. He was inspired by great writers and spent countless hours in his retirement working on two great books.

The travel memories we created as adults are something that I will always cherish. Dad visited us when we lived in Amsterdam, Dublin, Boston, Washington, DC and we met up multiple times in Greece. He will always be missed and remembered for as long as I continue my journey. “Kalo taxidi” – have a great trip in the heavens beyond, in his native Greek language.

Have a Favorite Travel Quote?

Do any of the above travel quotes especially resonate with your wanderlust? Feel free to leave a comment below.