"Travel-writers are in one respect the very reverse of prophets, for whatever honour they gain is in their own country. In the regions and amongst the people whom they profess to describe, not only their errors, but their partialities, and the cause of them, their want of attention and assiduity, their blind credulity, and the weakness of the authorities on which they have confided, are too well known to allow them the enjoyment of any great reputation."
-- from Journey Through Albania and Other Provinces of Turkey, 1813
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Quote: Roald Amundsen ...
"I simply cannot travel into the depths of North Dakota again ... I retch when I think of it."
-- communication to F. Herman Gade, 1908
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Quote: Edna St. Vincent Millay ...
The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn't a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.
All night there isn't a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.
My heart is warm with friends I make,
And better friends I'll not be knowing;
Yet there isn't a train I'd rather take,
No matter where it's going.
-- "Travel," published in Second April, 1921
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn't a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.
All night there isn't a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.
My heart is warm with friends I make,
And better friends I'll not be knowing;
Yet there isn't a train I'd rather take,
No matter where it's going.
-- "Travel," published in Second April, 1921
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Quote: Hermann Hesse ...
"The first small town on the southern side of the mountains. Here the true life of wandering begins, the life I love, wandering without any special direction, taking it easy in sunlight, the life of a vagabond wholly free. I am much inclined to live from my rucksack, and let my trousers fray as they like."
--from Wandering: Notes and Sketches, 1972
--from Wandering: Notes and Sketches, 1972
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Quote: Dick Francis ...
"In time we left the M1 and traveled northeast on the difficult old A1, and I thought that no one in their senses would drive from London to York when they could go by train."
-- from Straight, 1989
-- from Straight, 1989
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Quote: Vilhjálmur Stefánsson ...
"My favorite thesis is that an adventure is a sign of incompetence."
-- from My LIfe with the Eskimo, 1913
-- from My LIfe with the Eskimo, 1913
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Quote: Thomas Bell ...
"Like cities, railroad stations were most exciting at night; and beyond question the finest way to begin a journey was to board a midnight train."
from Out of this Furnace, 1941
from Out of this Furnace, 1941
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Quote: Jonathan Raban ...
Life, as the most ancient of all metaphors insists, is a journey; and the travel book, in its deceptive simulation of the journey's fits and starts, rehearses life's own fragmentation. More even than the novel, it embraces the contingency of things.
-- from For Love and Money, 1987
-- from For Love and Money, 1987
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Quote: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu ...
"We travelers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic."
-- from a letter, written March 10, 1718
-- from a letter, written March 10, 1718
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Quote: Lisa St. Aubin de Teran ...
"Traveling is like flirting with life. It's like saying, "I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station."
--from Off the Rails, 1989
--from Off the Rails, 1989
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Quote: Paul Theroux ...
"Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind."
-- from The Great Railway Bazaar, 1975
-- from The Great Railway Bazaar, 1975
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Quote: Robert Louis Stevenson ...
"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive."
-- from "El Dorado," Virginibus Puerisque, 1881
-- from "El Dorado," Virginibus Puerisque, 1881
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Quote: Walt Whitman ...
The earth expanding right hand and left hand,
The picture alive, every part in its best light,
The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is not wanted,
The cheerful voice of the public road—the gay fresh sentiment of the road.
O highway I travel! O public road! do you say to me, Do not leave me?
Do you say, Venture not? If you leave me, you are lost?
Do you say, I am already prepared—I am well-beaten and undenied—adhere to me?
O public road! I say back, I am not afraid to leave you—yet I love you;
You express me better than I can express myself;
You shall be more to me than my poem.
I think heroic deeds were all conceiv’d in the open air, and all great poems also;
I think I could stop here myself, and do miracles;
(My judgments, thoughts, I henceforth try by the open air, the road;)
I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like, and whoever beholds me shall like me;
I think whoever I see must be happy.
-- from "Song of the Open Road," 1856
The picture alive, every part in its best light,
The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is not wanted,
The cheerful voice of the public road—the gay fresh sentiment of the road.
O highway I travel! O public road! do you say to me, Do not leave me?
Do you say, Venture not? If you leave me, you are lost?
Do you say, I am already prepared—I am well-beaten and undenied—adhere to me?
O public road! I say back, I am not afraid to leave you—yet I love you;
You express me better than I can express myself;
You shall be more to me than my poem.
I think heroic deeds were all conceiv’d in the open air, and all great poems also;
I think I could stop here myself, and do miracles;
(My judgments, thoughts, I henceforth try by the open air, the road;)
I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like, and whoever beholds me shall like me;
I think whoever I see must be happy.
-- from "Song of the Open Road," 1856
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Quote: Vita Sackville-West ...
"Travel is the most private of pleasures. There is no greater bore than the travel bore. We do not in the least want to hear what he has seen in Hong-Kong."
--from Passenger to Tehran, 1926
--from Passenger to Tehran, 1926
Friday, October 2, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Quote: A. E. Housman ...
Towns and countries woo together,
Forelands beacon, belfries call;
Never lad that trod on leather
Lived to feast his heart with all.
Up, lad: thews that lie and cumber
Sunlit pallets never thrive;
Morns abed and daylight slumber
Were not meant for man alive.
Clay lies still, but blood's a rover;
Breath's a ware that will not keep.
Up, lad: when the journey's over
There'll be time enough to sleep.
from A Shropshire Lad, 1896
Forelands beacon, belfries call;
Never lad that trod on leather
Lived to feast his heart with all.
Up, lad: thews that lie and cumber
Sunlit pallets never thrive;
Morns abed and daylight slumber
Were not meant for man alive.
Clay lies still, but blood's a rover;
Breath's a ware that will not keep.
Up, lad: when the journey's over
There'll be time enough to sleep.
from A Shropshire Lad, 1896
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