Travel is one thing you can buy that makes you richer.

It taught me about the world and myself. Travel shapes me into a better person and forces me to deal with discomfort.

It has also made me more grateful and mindful.

Travel has also showed me how to appreciate places in my neighborhood.

I hope these quotes will give you a few more reasons to explore the world around you.

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta

A classic, but so relevant today. Ibn Battuta was a Muslim Berber Scholar who traveled everywhere from Morocco to China in the 1300s. In true Berber fashion, nomadism and storytelling go hand-in-hand, especially fireside at their desert camps.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” – Saint Augustine

The original meaning of this quote had more to do with theology, since Saint Augustine didn’t like travel, but the liberal translation sounds better. Living in one city your whole life provides comfort and stability, but you miss out on a lot. Travel allows you to sample many lifestyles, and perhaps find one that suits you better.

“NOT ALL THOSE WHO WANDER ARE LOST” – J.R.R. TOLKIEN

A cliché at this point, but this quote had impact the first time you saw it. Travel is a big part of my life for its own sake, but it’s not the solution to everything. I still think it’s important to not use travel as a way to escape problems, but a way to gain a different perspective and better face them.

“Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aesop

Attributed to everyone from Aristotle to Amelia Earhart, this quote is simple but timeless.

“TWO ROADS DIVERGED IN A WOOD AND I – I TOOK THE ONE LESS TRAVELED BY, AND THAT HAS MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE” – ROBERT FROST

“The Road not Taken” has many interpretations. One is about how life is full of tradeoffs and it’s a waste of time to regret the paths you did not take. I prefer the version that encourages new experiences.

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This one is more straightforward with little room for interpretation. I’m a firm believer in going off the beaten path when it comes to travel. The most memorable experiences I’ve had excluded the main tourist attractions.

“YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, BUT IF YOU DO IT RIGHT, ONCE IS ENOUGH.” – MAE WEST

After 5 years of slow travel, I agree with this quote. I’ve been able to experience enough for a lifetime.

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

Seneca was a philosopher and statesman from 4 BC to 65 AD who was an advisor to Nero. He probably needed a few getaways to decompress from that job.

“We travel for romance, we travel for architecture, and we travel to be lost.” – Ray Bradbury

I can wholeheartedly agree with this one. Architecture intimidated me until I gained some firsthand experience. Traveling has a way of making what you learned in a textbook come to life with hands-on experience.

“TAKE ONLY MEMORIES, LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINTS” – CHIEF SEATTLE

I wasn’t too concerned about the environment until I saw how beautiful the world is and how important protecting it is. Now I look for the least disruptive way to wander by using public transport and consuming less.

“LIVE WITH NO EXCUSES AND TRAVEL WITH NO REGRETS” – OSCAR WILDE

Oscar Wilde was a quote machine in his heyday. This one definitely speaks to me, because no matter how much I didn’t like a place, I can be happy that I gave it a chance.

“IT’S BETTER TO TRAVEL WELL THAN TO ARRIVE” – BUDDHA

While loosely interpreted and originally about the to the path to Nirvana, the meaning still can be useful. It probably gets mixed up with the Robert Louis Stevenson quote, which was about labor being the aim rather than the rewards.

The message is relevant to most facets of life, regardless of the origin. The journey is more important than the destination.

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain

Sounds like something your mom would say if she won a Pulitzer Prize. Traveling not only increases your understanding of people in a positive light, but also amplifies the negative. It all comes down to which you focus on.

“Better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times.” – Asian Proverb

“The journey not the arrival matters.” – T.S. Eliot

Have you ever noticed that in the right company, the driving part of the road trip is more fun than the sites?

I set a simple goal in life, to be my own boss and travel the world. After accomplishing both in my mid-30s, I realized that I need to enjoy the process, regardless of what I do. Because attaining your goal may or may not happen, but the day-to-day should always be cherished.

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart!” – Confucius

Confucius has a very different image among westerners versus people from East Asia. There seems to be two of them depending on who you ask. Confucius was a strict conservative who put the emperor above family, and men firmly as the head of the household. Originally intended to mean “toil with all your heart”, the modern-day interpretation suits us just fine when applied to travel.

“Oh the places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss

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

“It is not down in any map; true places never are.” – Herman Melville

“PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA” – AUDREY HEPBURN

“To live will be an awfully big adventure.” – Peter Pan

“KEEP YOUR FACE ALWAYS TOWARD THE SUNSHINE – AND SHADOWS WILL FALL BEHIND YOU.” – WALT WHITMAN

“THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO EVER GET ANYPLACE INTERESTING ARE THE PEOPLE WHO GET LOST.” – HENRY DAVID THOREAU

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac

“I’m in love with cities I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met.” – Melody Truong

Was wrongly attributed to John Green by a New York Times author but Melody Truong had written it on her Tumblr page when she was 13 years old. Green gave her credit.

“DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE WORLD ENDING TODAY, IT’S ALREADY TOMORROW IN AUSTRALIA.” ~ CHARLES M. SCHULZ

“He who would travel happily must travel light.” – Antoine de St. Exupery

“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” – Henry David Thoreau

“CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN SO YOU CAN SEE THE WORLD, NOT SO THE WORLD CAN SEE YOU.” – DAVID MCCULLOUGH

“THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE CROWD USUALLY GET LOST IN IT.” – RICK WATSON

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

“A JOURNEY IS LIKE MARRIAGE. THE CERTAIN WAY TO BE WRONG IS TO THINK YOU CONTROL IT.” – JOHN STEINBECK

“TRY TO BE A RAINBOW IN SOMEONE ELSE’S CLOUD” – MAYA ANGELOU

“The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” – Shirley MacLaine

“LIFE IS EITHER A DARING ADVENTURE OR NOTHING AT ALL” – HELEN KELLER

“JOBS FILL YOUR POCKET BUT ADVENTURES FILL YOUR SOUL.” – JAMIE LYN BEATTY

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

“THE BIGGEST ADVENTURE YOU CAN EVER TAKE IS TO LIVE THE LIFE OF YOUR DREAMS” – OPRAH WINFREY

“IF YOU THINK ADVENTURE IS DANGEROUS, TRY ROUTINE, IT’S LETHAL” – PAUL COELHO

“IF YOUR SHIP DOESN’T COME IN, SWIM OUT TO IT.” – JOHNATHAN WINTERS

“GREAT THINGS NEVER CAME FROM COMFORT ZONES.” – ANONYMOUS

“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

“FEAR IS ONLY TEMPORARY. REGRETS LAST FOREVER.”

“No place is ever as bad as they tell you it’s going to be.” – Chuck Thompson

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Elliot

“I’m shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I’m gonna see the world.” – George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946)

“Don’t count the days. Make the days count.” – Muhammed Ali

“TWENTY YEARS FROM NOW YOU WILL BE MORE DISAPPOINTED BY THE THINGS YOU DIDN’T DO THAN BY THE ONES YOU DID DO” – H. JACKSON BROWN JR.

“Do not dare to dare” – C.S. Lewis

“To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark

“The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.” – Anna Quindlen

“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” –  Jim Rohn

“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Anonymous

“IF YOU’RE TWENTY-TWO, PHYSICALLY FIT, HUNGRY TO LEARN AND BE BETTER, I URGE YOU TO TRAVEL – AS FAR AND AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE. SLEEP ON FLOORS IF YOU HAVE TO. FIND OUT HOW OTHER PEOPLE LIVE AND EAT AND COOK. LEARN FROM THEM — WHEREVER YOU GO.” – ANTHONY BOURDAIN

“BECAUSE IN THE END, YOU WON’T REMEMBER THE TIME YOU SPENT WORKING IN AN OFFICE OR MOWING YOUR LAWN. CLIMB THAT DAMN MOUNTAIN.” – JACK KEROUAK

“Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” – Anonymous

“STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE POTHOLES IN THE ROAD AND ENJOY THE JOURNEY” – BABS HOFFMAN

“STOP BEING AFRAID OF WHAT COULD GO WRONG AND THINK OF WHAT COULD GO RIGHT.” – ANONYMOUS

“LIFE BEGINS AT THE END OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE.”

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

“TRAVEL DOESN’T BECOME ADVENTURE UNTIL YOU LEAVE YOURSELF BEHIND”

“Travel is never a matter of money, but of courage.” — Paulo Coelho

“ALL WE HAVE TO DECIDE IS WHAT TO DO WITH THE TIME THAT IS GIVEN US.” – J.R.R. TOLKIEN

“And then there is the most dangerous risk of all — the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.” – Randy Komisar

“The best dreams happen when you’re awake.” – Cherie Gilderbloom

“Life is short and the world is wide, the sooner you start exploring it, the better.” – Simon Raven

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

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination with reality, and instead of thinking of how things may be, see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson

“I travel because it makes me realize how much I haven’t seen, how much I’m not going to see, and how much I still need to see.” – Carew Papritz

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

“TRAVEL IS FATAL TO PREJUDICE, BIGOTRY, AND NARROW MINDEDNESS, AND MANY OF OUR PEOPLE NEED IT SORELY ON THESE ACCOUNTS.” – MARK TWAIN

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” – Anita Desai

“THE REAL VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY CONSISTS NOT IN SEEKING NEW LANDSCAPES, BUT IN HAVING NEW EYES.” – MARCEL PROUST

“TRAVEL HAS A WAY OF STRETCHING THE MIND.” – RALPH CRAWSHAW

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” – Anais Nin

“LIKE ALL GREAT TRAVELLERS, I HAVE SEEN MORE THAN I REMEMBER AND REMEMBER MORE THAN I HAVE SEEN.” – BENJAMIN DISRAELI

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

“WHENEVER YOU FIND YOURSELF ON THE SIDE OF MAJORITY, IT’S TIME TO PAUSE AND REFLECT.” – MARK TWAIN

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

“IF YOU ARE ALWAYS TRYING TO BE NORMAL, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW HOW AMAZING YOU CAN BE.” – MAYA ANGELOU

“Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.” – Ray Bradbury

“Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions.” — Peter Hoeg

“WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU DID SOMETHING FOR THE FIRST TIME?” – ANONYMOUS

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener

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

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

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson

“Every man can transform the world from one of monotony and drabness to one of excitement and adventure.” – Irving Wallace

“I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine.” – Caskie Stinnett

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” – Alan Keightley

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

“Little by little, one travels far.” – JRR Tolkien

“So much of who we are is where we have been.” – Willian Langewieshce

“Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone.” – Wendell Berry

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

“I WOULD RATHER OWN A LITTLE AND SEE THE WORLD THAN OWN THE WORLD AND SEE A LITTLE OF IT.” – ALEXANDER SATTLER

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

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber

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

“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do — especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru

“Travel makes a wise man better but a fool worse.” – Thomas Fuller

“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

“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

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comforts of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things — air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky. All things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese

“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” – Susan Heller

“IT IS NOT THE DESTINATION WHERE YOU END UP BUT THE MISHAPS AND MEMORIES YOU CREATE ALONG THE WAY.” – PENELOPE RILEY

“PERHAPS TRAVEL CANNOT PREVENT BIGOTRY, BUT BY DEMONSTRATING THAT ALL PEOPLES CRY, LAUGH, EAT, WORRY AND DIE, IT CAN INTRODUCE THE IDEA THAT IF WE TRY AND UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER, WE MAY EVEN BECOME FRIENDS.” – MAYA ANGELOU

“THE WORLD IS CHANGED BY YOUR EXAMPLE, NOT YOUR OPINION.” – PAUL COELHO

“THERE IS NO MOMENT OF DELIGHT IN ANY PILGRIMAGE LIKE THE BEGINNING OF IT” – CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER

“THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IN THE WORLD IS, OF COURSE, THE WORLD ITSELF.” – WALLACE STEVENS

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

“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.” – Truman Capote