Nature and Outdoors Travel Quotes: Verified Lines for the Wild Places

Every quote on this page is verified to its source, book and year. No Pinterest paraphrases, no borrowed signatures. Just the real words for mountains, coast and trail.

Jump to the quotes

Nature quotes are the most borrowed and the most mangled words on the internet. A line gets a mountain photo, a signature that may or may not belong to it, and a hundred thousand shares, and somewhere in there the real words and the real author come loose. This page goes the other way. Every quote here is traced to its book and its year, or labelled honestly when the trail runs cold. The lines are sorted below by the kind of wild they belong to: the high places, the coast, the forest and the trail, and the quiet of a camp under open sky.

Mountains

The perfect journey is never finished, the goal is always just across the next river, round the shoulder of the next mountain. There is always one more track to follow, one more mirage to explore.

I can speak to my soul only when the two of us are off exploring deserts or cities or mountains or roads.

We began rolling in the foothills before Oakland and suddenly reached a height and saw stretched out ahead of us the fabulous white city of San Francisco on her eleven mystic hills with the blue Pacific and its advancing wall of potato-patch fog beyond, and smoke and goldenness in the late afternoon of time.

Back to the themes ↑

The sea and the shore

They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea.

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.

If I'm an advocate for anything, it's to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes, or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody.

The trip doesn't exist that can set you beyond the reach of cravings, fits of temper, or fears. So long as you carry the sources of your troubles about with you, those troubles will continue to harass and plague you wherever you wander on land or on sea.

Back to the themes ↑

Forests and the trail

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

The journey itself is my home.

We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfilment.

Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.

It is part of wisdom never to revisit a wilderness, for the more golden the lily, the more certain that someone has gilded it.

Unlike Muir and Thoreau, McCandless went into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature or the world at large but, rather, to explore the inner country of his own soul.

Leave no path untaken.

Whither will my path yet lead me? This path is stupid, it goes in spirals, perhaps in circles, but whichever way it goes, I will follow it.

Back to the themes ↑

Camping and the night sky

Back to the themes ↑

Before you post it: check the attribution

Here is one you have probably seen laid over a forest photo: “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” It is a lovely line, and it is not Thoreau, whatever the caption says. It appears nowhere in his writing, and no one has traced it to a real source. What Thoreau actually wrote, in Walden, was quieter and better: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.” The gap between those two is the whole reason this page exists. You can see how we check every line on our fact-check hub.

The writers behind these lines

More nature and outdoors quotes

As the mountain, hiking, camping and beach collections publish, they will link from here, along with the author profiles behind the quotes.

{“@context”:”https://schema.org”,”@graph”:[{“@type”:”CollectionPage”,”@id”:”https://quotesontravel.net/nature-travel-quotes/#collection”,”url”:”https://quotesontravel.net/nature-travel-quotes/”,”name”:”Nature and Outdoors Travel Quotes, Verified”,”description”:”Nature and outdoors travel quotes traced to their book and year, sorted by mountain, coast, forest and camp. Verified attributions, no misquotes.”},{“@type”:”BreadcrumbList”,”itemListElement”:[{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:1,”name”:”Home”,”item”:”https://quotesontravel.net/”},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:2,”name”:”Travel Quotes”,”item”:”https://quotesontravel.net/travel-quotes/”},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:3,”name”:”Nature and Outdoors”,”item”:”https://quotesontravel.net/nature-travel-quotes/”}]},{“@type”:”ItemList”,”name”:”Verified Nature and Outdoors Travel Quotes”,”numberOfItems”:18,”itemListElement”:[{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:1,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”The perfect journey is never finished, the goal is always just across the next river, round the shoulder of the next mountain. There is always one more track to follow, one more mirage to explore.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Rosita Forbes”},”citation”:”From Red Sea to Blue Nile (1925)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:2,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”I can speak to my soul only when the two of us are off exploring deserts or cities or mountains or roads.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Paulo Coelho”},”citation”:”Aleph (2011)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:3,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”We began rolling in the foothills before Oakland and suddenly reached a height and saw stretched out ahead of us the fabulous white city of San Francisco on her eleven mystic hills with the blue Pacific and its advancing wall of potato-patch fog beyond, and smoke and goldenness in the late afternoon of time.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Jack Kerouac”},”citation”:”On the Road (1957)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:4,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Horace”},”citation”:”Epistles 1.11.27 (c. 20 BC)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:5,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Ralph Waldo Emerson”},”citation”:”Self-Reliance (1841)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:6,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else’s shoes, or at least eat their food, it’s a plus for everybody.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Anthony Bourdain”},”citation”:”No Reservations (2007)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:7,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”The trip doesn’t exist that can set you beyond the reach of cravings, fits of temper, or fears. So long as you carry the sources of your troubles about with you, those troubles will continue to harass and plague you wherever you wander on land or on sea.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Seneca”},”citation”:”Letters to Lucilius, Letter 28 (c. 64 AD)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:8,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Robert Frost”},”citation”:”The Road Not Taken (1916)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:9,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”The journey itself is my home.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Matsuo Basho”},”citation”:”Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Interior), 1689″}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:10,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfilment.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Hilaire Belloc”},”citation”:”The Path to Rome (1902)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:11,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”John Muir”},”citation”:”Letter, 1888 (The Life and Letters of John Muir, 1924)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:12,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”It is part of wisdom never to revisit a wilderness, for the more golden the lily, the more certain that someone has gilded it.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Aldo Leopold”},”citation”:”A Sand County Almanac (1949)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:13,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”Unlike Muir and Thoreau, McCandless went into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature or the world at large but, rather, to explore the inner country of his own soul.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Jon Krakauer”},”citation”:”Into the Wild (1996)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:14,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”Leave no path untaken.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Neil Gaiman”},”citation”:”The Graveyard Book (2008)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:15,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”Whither will my path yet lead me? This path is stupid, it goes in spirals, perhaps in circles, but whichever way it goes, I will follow it.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Hermann Hesse”},”citation”:”Siddhartha (1922)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:16,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Robert Louis Stevenson”},”citation”:”Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:17,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”The vast distances that separate the stars are providential. Beings and worlds are quarantined from one another. The quarantine is lifted only for those with sufficient self-knowledge and judgment to have safely traveled from star to star.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Carl Sagan”},”citation”:”Pale Blue Dot (1994)”}},{“@type”:”ListItem”,”position”:18,”item”:{“@type”:”Quotation”,”text”:”Only the road and the dawn, the sun, the wind, and the rain, and the watch fire under stars, and sleep, and the road again.”,”creator”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”John Masefield”},”citation”:”The Seekers, Salt-Water Ballads (1902)”}}]}]}