Inspiration

balzaccom

Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2014
Messages
741
Here are some of our favorite quotes about travel--which apply to hiking as well:

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” from Ibn Battuta, the remarkable Arab who toured the known world 1200 years ago.

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

“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” – A great line that explains why large groups always travel slower, by Henry David Thoreau, who supposedly was roughing at Walden Pond. But his sister brought him fresh baked cookies every day...

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

“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien. And we've wandered many times, on our trips.

“It is not down in any map; true places never are.” – Herman Melville--which is just the excuse you need to get off-trail and explore a little bit.

And an all-time favorite from Mark Twain: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
 
“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous

And an all-time favorite from Mark Twain: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

I really like the escape quote, as some accuse me of escaping my life when I try to get outside. I've always said it's tuning into whats real, but that quote might more eloquently put it.

As for Twain, he's the best American author IMO. I think I read that quote in Tramp Abroad, correct?
 
I may have posted this before, but this sentence inspired me to explore the Colorado Plateau, from John Wesley Powell's Canyons of the Colorado:

"On the summit of the opposite wall are rock forms that we do not understand."

He probably thought the rocks were beautiful and strange, but to not understand them takes the statement to another level. How often do we try to understand rock forms? Was he coming from a geological perspective, or spiritual? He was a geologist after all.
When I first read that, I decided right there that this is a place I wanted to try and understand. I have spent many hours contemplating that sentence, camping across from where Powell had his camp at the confluence of the Green and Colorado. I still do not understand them.
Maybe in 20 years I will be successful. It is my favorite quote.
 
I may have posted this before, but this sentence inspired me to explore the Colorado Plateau, from John Wesley Powell's Canyons of the Colorado:

"On the summit of the opposite wall are rock forms that we do not understand."

He probably thought the rocks were beautiful and strange, but to not understand them takes the statement to another level. How often do we try to understand rock forms? Was he coming from a geological perspective, or spiritual? He was a geologist after all.
When I first read that, I decided right there that this is a place I wanted to try and understand. I have spent many hours contemplating that sentence, camping across from where Powell had his camp at the confluence of the Green and Colorado. I still do not understand them.
Maybe in 20 years I will be successful. It is my favorite quote.

I like that a lot. When I started my own business, I had to come up with a name for the umbrella company that holds Backcountry Post, my photog business, freelance web work, etc. Those wonderful formations he had a hard time understanding inspired me to name my business Sandstone Logic, LLC, because at first glance it's so illogical, and I love it more than anyplace on earth.
 
Oh, I like this thread. There's lots of great inspirational quotes like this that I really enjoy.
  • Just about anything from John Muir of course, but I think my favorite is; “I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news”
  • "Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?" Hunter S. Thompson
  • “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” Edward Abbey
  • "It should not be denied that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape, from history and oppression and law and irksome obligations, with absolute freedom. And the road has always led West." Wallace Stegner
And this one is not a quote as such but a traditional Navajo blessing chant that sums up why I really enjoy hiking. I saw it pinned to a sign at the trailhead for Mt Humphreys, just outside Flagstaff.

"Today I will walk out; useless burden will leave me.

I will be as I was before; a cool breeze will wash me.
I will have a light body; I will be happy.
Nothing will hinder me.

I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me."
 
"He who would travel happily must travel light.” – Antoine de St. Exupery

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch
 
I may have posted this before, but this sentence inspired me to explore the Colorado Plateau, from John Wesley Powell's Canyons of the Colorado:

"On the summit of the opposite wall are rock forms that we do not understand."

He probably thought the rocks were beautiful and strange, but to not understand them takes the statement to another level. How often do we try to understand rock forms? Was he coming from a geological perspective, or spiritual? He was a geologist after all.
When I first read that, I decided right there that this is a place I wanted to try and understand. I have spent many hours contemplating that sentence, camping across from where Powell had his camp at the confluence of the Green and Colorado. I still do not understand them.
Maybe in 20 years I will be successful. It is my favorite quote.

I'm currently reading The Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons. I love Powell's way of writing and describing his surroundings. He seems to care much less about conquering and taming the wilderness than he does about experiencing and documenting it. A refreshing viewpoint when many of his contemporaries were more concerned with eradicating the wild aspects of the West.
 
May the road rise up to meet you and may God hold you in the palm of his hand."

Irish Blessing/Toast.
 
I'm currently reading The Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons. I love Powell's way of writing and describing his surroundings. He seems to care much less about conquering and taming the wilderness than he does about experiencing and documenting it. A refreshing viewpoint when many of his contemporaries were more concerned with eradicating the wild aspects of the West.

For all Beyond the Hundredth Meridian's faults, I think Stegner placed Powell in his time perfectly. While others were claiming, "The rain follows the plow!" His sensible appreciation of what was actually here was on point. If only we followed his state lines. Instead we're left with political lines based mostly on mining prospects, which has caused western states to constantly sue each other for water.
 
Similar threads

Similar threads

Back
Top