No one knows the pleasure of wandering quite like a flâneur. Whether you’re aimlessly meandering through new streets or purposely exploring off the beaten path, there’s something inherently satisfying about discovering what lies beyond your comfort zone. And if you’re looking for a bit of inspiration, we’ve got you covered – here are some of our favorite quotes about wandering from famous adventurers and explorers. Bon voyage!
Quotes About Wandering
“Real travel requires a maximum of unscheduled wandering, for there is no other way of discovering surprises and marvels, which, as I see it, is the only good reason for not staying at home.”
Alan Watts
“By experience we find out a short way by a long wandering.”
Roger Ascham
“Time is the deepest wilderness in which we wander.”
Christopher Cokinos
“Wandering flushes a glory that fades with arrival.”
J. A. Baker
“Instead of insight, maybe all a man gets is strength to wander for a while.”
William Least Heat-Moon
“I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with”
Plato
“People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.”
St. Augustine
“The wandering photographer sees the same show that everyone else sees. He, however, stops to watch it.”
Edouard Boubat
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
“Wander a whole summer if you can. Time will not be taken from the sum of life. Instead of shortening, it will definitely lengthen it and make you truly immortal.”
John Muir
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The mind can wander while still focusing on one task.”
Herbert Benson
“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.”
Anatole France
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”Henry Miller
“I’ll never stop wandering. And when the time comes to die, I’ll find the wildest, loneliest, most desolate spot there is.”
Everett Ruess
“Meandering leads to perfection.”
Lao Tzu
“So we follow our wandering paths, and the very darkness acts as our guide and our doubts serve to reassure us.”Jean-Pierre de Caussade
“It is not easy to walk alone in the country without musing upon something.”
Charles Dickens
“We ought to take outdoor walks, to refresh and raise our spirits by deep breathing in the open air.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.”
Hilaire Belloc
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”
Søren Kierkegaard
“Improvising musicians are musical travelers, voyagers. There is a freedom to wander the musical landscape.”
Gary Burton
“Take a few minutes of every day to fantasize about how you would wander, travel, or explore if you could.”
Wayne Dyer
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
Marcel Proust
“Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!”
John Muir
“My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.”
Aldous Huxley
“A world of colors on the palette remaining…wandering…on canvases still emerging.”
Wassily Kandinsky
“Do not allow yourself to lose sight on the way to your future, while wandering in the darkness of the past.”
Lucas Hunter
“Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be born.”
Matthew Arnold
“The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy, walk and be healthy.”
Charles Dickens
“Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Before, I wandered as a diversion. Now I wander seriously and sit and read as a diversion.”
Walker Percy
“When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the sole leather has passed into the fibre of your body. I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out. He is the richest man who pays the largest debt to his shoemaker.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The world is vast and meant for wandering. There is always somewhere else to go.”
Nick Burd
“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Walking is also an ambulation of mind.”
Gretel Ehrlich
“But in every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
John Muir
“Early one morning, any morning, we can set out, with the least possible baggage, and discover the world.”
Thomas Clark
“I can just let my curiosity wander unleashed.”James C. Collins
“Walking is man’s best medicine.”
Hippocrates
“Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.”
Wallace Stevens
A Final Word
So there you have it! We hope this collection of quotes about wandering have shown you how travel is a great way of discovering your way. And while we can all agree it’s important to have goals at time, sometimes you just need to wander for awhile before you figure out what those are! If that sounds like something you could use right now, here are some of the best cities in the world to wander around on foot.
What’s your favorite quote about wandering? Leave a comment below!
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