105 Adventure Quotes to Inspire Your Next Epic Journey

Over my years of roaming the globe, I’ve heard many memorable lines about adventuring from fellow travelers—some of which I now wish I’d jotted down. Thankfully, I’ve also read a ton of travel books full of quotes about adventure from famous wanderers which are easier to recall or pull off the shelf whenever necessary. 

Those who’ve trodden trails before us, from Sir Edmund Hillary to Henry David Thoreau, have left painted literary pictures that inspire the next generation to push beyond their own perceived boundaries. Their wise observations about adventure are more than just words on paper. They breathe life into that part of our restless spirits longing for more than a weekend getaway.

For anyone looking for some quick inspiration to bust out of the daily routine, we’ve collected a list of our favorite unique adventure quotes and exploring quotes to light that adventurous fire. The rest is up to you. 

Top 3 Adventure Quotes

If you don’t have time to read through all 105 adventure quotes below, here are three favorites to inspire you to get out there—or read on. When we want inspiration for the next big adventure in life, these pithy gems really say it all.

• “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”—Sir Edmund Hillary
• “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”—Saint Augustine
• “Not all those who wander are lost."—J. R. R. Tolkien

Best Quotes About an Adventurous Outlook

Sometimes you need to recalibrate your view of the world. We get it. Sitting behind a desk gets old. These quotes are sure to stoke the adventurous spirit, and remind us to seize the day. 

• “Wake up and live.”—Bob Marley
• “Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance.”—Oprah Winfrey
• "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a Ride!'”—Hunter S. Thompson
• “Dream as if you will live forever. Live as if you will die today.”—James Dean
• “I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.”—Rita Mae Brown
• “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”—Mother Theresa
• “Don't count the days, make the days count.”—Muhammad Ali
• “Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretense.”—Marcus Aurelius
• “Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.”—Eleanor Roosevelt
• “We are the change we have been waiting for.”—Barack Obama
• “The future starts today, not tomorrow.”—Pope John Paul II
• “If you don't take risks, you'll have a wasted soul.”—Drew Barrymore
• “Forever is composed of nows.”—Emily Dickinson

Best Quotes About Adventure Travel

These unique adventure quotes from famed authors and wanderers, ranging from Edward Abbey to Jack Kerouac to Ralph Waldo Emerson, inspire us to grab our backpacks or suitcases and hit the road for a new adventure.

• “May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.”—Edward Abbey
• “Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”—J.K. Rowling
• “The world's big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.”—John Muir
• “I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.”—Herman Melville
• “What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? It's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”—Jack Kerouac
• “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”—G.K. Chesterton
• “I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone. I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!”—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
• “Until you step into the unknown, you don’t know what you’re made of.”—Roy T. Bennett
• “There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.”— Charlotte Eriksson
• “Here’s to freedom, cheers to art. Here’s to having an excellent adventure and may the stopping never start.”—Jason Mraz
• “Wilderness. The word itself is music.”—Edward Abbey
• “The sun shines today also.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Best Quotes About Outdoor Adventure

The great outdoors has stoked the adventure travel bug for centuries. Immersed in the wilds of nature, it’s hard not to get a healthy dose of it. Check out these out-there adventure quotes, old and new.

• "Not all those who wander are lost."—J. R. R. Tolkien
• “Adventure is worthwhile in itself.”—Amelia Earhart
• “And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”—John Muir
• “You can't study the darkness by flooding it with light.”—Edward Abbey
• “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down."—Ray Bradbury
• “Things never happen the same way twice.”—C.S. Lewis
• “Life's most beautiful and inspiring moments occur at 3 a.m., just prowling, looking for nothing but always finding something.”—Nigel Davis
• “The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.”—Claude Monet
• “Adventure is not outside man; it is within.”—George Eliot
• “In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life. No disgrace, no calamity, leaving me my eyes, which nature cannot repair.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."—Sir Edmund Hillary
• “The man on top of the mountain didn't fall there.”—Vince Lombardi
• “Wherever you go, there you are.”—Confucius
• “I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day’s work.”—Frank Lloyd Wright
• “Choose only one master. Nature.”—Rembrandt

Best Quotes About Thrill-Seeking

Whether it’s from getting lost (and found) in the woods or making some leap that’s out of our comfort zones, the thrilling side of adventure travel never fails to teach us adrenaline-fueled lessons about ourselves and the dramatic world around us. Start with these wise words about feeling the fear and doing it anyway.

• “The mountains are calling and I must go.”—John Muir
• “There are people who prefer to say 'yes' and others who prefer to say 'no'. Those who say 'yes' are rewarded by the adventures they have. Those who say 'no' are rewarded by the safety they attain.”—Keith Johnstone
• “The Edge. There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”—Hunter S. Thompson
• “All great adventures have moments that are really crap.”—Ellen Potter
• “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”—C.S. Lewis
• “Adventure is allowing the unexpected to happen to you. Exploration is experiencing what you have not experienced before. How can there be any adventure, any exploration, if you let somebody else—above all, a travel bureau—arrange everything before-hand?”—Richard Aldington
• “Don't ever live vicariously. This is your life. Live.”—Lavinia Spalding
• “The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Adventure is worthwhile.”—Aesop
• “Of all the things I am not very good at, living in the real world is perhaps the most outstanding.”—Bill Bryson
• “In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.”—Walt Whitman

Best Quotes About Exploration

The following exploration quotes capture that feeling of breaking a new trail and uncovering unseen vistas—and confirm that there’s always a worthy path less traveled.

• “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” ― John Muir
• “Life is just a lot of everyday adventures.”—Carol Ryrie Brink
• “A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles.”—Edward Abbey
• “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”—C.S. Lewis
• “I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.”—Bill Bryson
• “Have mountains, and waves, and skies, no significance but what we consciously give them, when we employ them as emblems of our thoughts?”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."—Saint Augustine
• “You must have a compelling response for, 'Why the hell am I doing this?'”—Elana Carter
• “It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.”—Babe Ruth
• “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.”—T.S Eliot
• “You should not confuse your career with your life.”—Dave Barry
• “There is pleasure in the pathless woods. There is rapture on the lonely shore. There is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea and music in its roar. I love not man the less, but Nature more.”—Lord Byron

Best Quotes About Romantic Adventures for Couples

Who better to see the world with than someone you love? These quotes about joint adventures capture the coupled essence of romance and travel.

• “It doesn’t matter where you are going, it’s who you have beside you.”—Unknown
• “I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame.”—W. B. Yeats
• “We were together. I forget the rest.”—Walt Whitman
• “Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.”—Ernest Hemingway
• “Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness.”—C.S. Lewis
• “The earth has music for those who listen."—Shakespeare
• “The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom."—Teddy Roosevelt
• “Wilderness is not a luxury, but a necessity of the human spirit.”—Edward Abbey
• “There’s no time to be bored in a world as beautiful as this.”—Unknown
• “Travel brings power and love back into your life.”—Rumi
• “Actually, the best gift you could have given her was a lifetime of adventures.”—Lewis Carroll
• “Any day spent with you is my favorite day.”—A. A. Milne
• “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”—Confucius
• “You keep me safe. I’ll keep you wild.”—Atticus

Best Adventure Quotes for the Whole Family

When the whole crew is involved in the adventure, it’s bound to inspire some of classic lines. These quotes may not have all been specifically tailored for families, but they can definitely apply to them.

• “A road trip is a way for the whole family to spend time together and annoy each other in interesting new places.”—Tom Lichtenheld
• “Kids don’t remember their best day of television.”—Unknown
• “Kid, you’ll move mountains”—Dr. Seuss
• “This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy.”—Clark Griswold, Vacation
• “Blessed are the curious for they will have adventures.”—Unknown
• “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status, or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe that we are above-average drivers.”—Dave Barry
• “Not all classrooms have four walls.”—Anonymous
• “Take only memories, leave only footprints”—Chief Seattle
• “Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled.”—Mohammed
• “Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.”—Frank Herbert
• “Travel is like an endless university. You never stop learning”—Harvey Lloyd
• “Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.”—Dalai Lama
• “The world is your playground”—Unknown

Funniest Quotes About Adventure

• Sometimes there’s nothing to do on adventures but laugh. These adventure quotes highlight the levity of travel and exploring.
• “No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch.”—Unknown
• “What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die of course.”—Bill Bryson
• “There are seven days in the week and ‘someday’ isn’t one of them.”—Shaquille O’Neal
• “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.”—Babs Hoffman
• “I suspect that LaGuardia is an elaborate prank, and New York has a real airport nearby that only locals know about.”—Dave Barry
• “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”—Yogi Berra
• “I can’t control the wind but I can adjust the sail.”—Ricky Skaggs
• “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status, or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe that we are above-average drivers.”—Dave Barry
• “The man who goes alone can start today, but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.”—Henry David Thoreau“
• To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping.”—Chinese Proverb
• “Go as far as you can see. When you get there you’ll be able to see further.”—Tomas Carlyle
• “Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.”— Hunter S. Thompson 

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