If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time longer than a single post (for which I can’t thank you enough), you will have no doubt noticed I’m slightly obsessed with quotes.

Okay fine, I’m really obsessed with them.

Travel quotes, life quotes, anything I can tuck away in my notebook or on a post-it note for inspiration on a rainy day – I’m not picky.

Yesterday was such a day in southern India – not rainy, per se (in fact quite the opposite) but a day when things didn’t exactly go according to plan. After two hours of unsuccessfully hunting for a guesthouse in my beloved Pondicherry, I found myself sitting in a restaurant in a little town called Villuparam, moving on to my next destination early, waiting for the bus to leave.

Over the past week, two of my best friends sent quotes my way – pretty epic quotes, if I do say so myself – and someone else left a comment with yet another epic quote in it, and so while putting this post together yesterday – a day filled with that particular breed of frustration that occurs when your best-laid travel plans go awry – I thought I’d share the inspiration that kept coming my way all week.

And because I had some time to kill, I turned to PicMonkey, and set the quotes against a few recent landscape photos I’ve taken across India and Indonesia. And lastly, I’ve uploaded them as quite large files (about 2,000 pixels in width), so feel free to download any or all of them if your desktop wallpaper needs refreshing!

1. “Whatever you dream you can do, begin it…”

Big thanks to my best friend Jennifer for sending this one to me this week. What is equally timely about it is that it comes from Murray’s 1951 book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, which is wonderfully fitting given my recent trip up to the Himalayan foothills of Dharamsala.

Life Quotes

And because it’s awesome but just too long for one photo, here’s the full quote:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

2. “Life is about not knowing…”

Not even a day after Jen emailed me, I got another note from my friend Micaela in London, again with a quote in it. Micaela and I have had a lot of conversations about uncertainty and embracing the unknown (or at least not panicking too terribly much about it), so this one fit right in.

Life Quotes

3. “Go and look behind the Ranges…”

A recent comment from a reader named Ines on my About page was chock-full of some of my favorite travel quotes, but I’d never heard this one from Rudyard Kipling before. I love the sense of discovery and adventure it captures – thanks for sharing it, Ines!

Life Quotes

4. “I hope you see things that startle you…”

I stumbled across this last one on my own this week while watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Don’t you love it when a random movie turns out to be just the thing you need to hear at that moment?

Life Quotes

And again, here’s the full quote, which comes from a letter that Benjamin writes to his daughter:

“For what it’s worth, it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”

What are some of your favorite quotes about travel and/or life? I’d love to hear them.

33 Comments

Comments are closed.