We’re on a journey, and it’s unfolding in real time. We’re never actually arriving, we’re always in a state of flux.
That’s why it’s important to savor every moment of the journey. The destination itself doesn’t ever really exist, it’s always just the starting point of the next leg.
I used to think life was just about reaching the next milestone, the next destination, the next checkpoint, the next to-do. But I’ve come to realize that it’s about the experiences and lessons we learn along the way. It’s watching ourselves evolve in real time as we continue on our paths.
That’s why I’ve put together this collection of life is a journey quotes, to celebrate and remind us of that.
Take it from these well-known thinkers, not from me: life is the journey.
Life is a Journey Quote
Life is a journey, not a destination.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ernest Hemingway
I tramp a perpetual journey.
Walt Whitman
You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.
C.S. Lewis
The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started.
T. S. Eliot
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!
Hunter S. Thompson
The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.
Carl Rogers
What you seek is seeking you.
Rumi
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.
Tony Robbins
Even journey has an end.
Seneca
Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.
Oliver Goldsmith
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao Tzu
Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.
J. P. Morgan
Life is a journey. How we travel up to us. We can just flow with the tide or follow our own dreams.
Paulo Coelho
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Lao Tzu
Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.
Seth Godin
Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.
Pat Conroy
To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but by all means keep moving.
Martin Luther King Jr.
The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are.
Thomas Dreier
You are an explorer, and you represent our species, and the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness.
Terence McKenna
To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.
Søren Kierkegaard
Life is a journey, and if you fall in love with the journey, you will be in love forever.
Peter Hagerty
Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be…Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you’ll live as you’ve never lived before.
Erich Fromm
The only journey is the one within.
Rainer Maria Rilke
The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.
Carl Rogers
One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.
Henry Miller
I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it if only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom.
Les Brown
The journey was a surreal dream. This world was about knowing the person you’d always wanted to be and setting your foot down to it, remembering the person you’d thought you were as a child and rejoicing in its living, breathing actuality.
Christopher Hawke
We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.
Marcel Proust
Roads were made for journeys not destinations.
Confucius
When setting out on a journey do not seek advice from someone who never left home.
Rumi
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.
Martin Buber
Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.
Anthony Bourdain
Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.
Jack Kerouac
We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
Paulo Coelho
Parting Words
Curiosity is a great compass. Follow it, follow the unknown, follow your intuition, and you just never know what the next leg of your journey will take you.
Use this collection of life is a journey quotes as inpsiration for your own adventures.
Have any other life is a journey quotes that you think deserve to be a part of this collection? Let me know!
P.S. If you liked this, you might also enjoy these related quote collections:
- Quotes About Vacation
- Quotes About Distance
- Quotes About Imagination for Flâneurs
- Quotes About Finding Yourself
- Quotes About Existence
Originally published on January 19, 2021. The date of the last significant edit is reflected at the top of this post.
