Kim McMahill

“Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.”   Eudora Welty

  “Discovery is adventure. There is an eagerness, touched at times with tenseness, as man moves ahead into the unknown. Walking the wilderness is indeed like living. The horizon drops away, bringing new sights, sounds, and smells from the earth. When one moves through the forest, his sense of discovery is quickened. Man is back in the environment from which he emerged to build factories, churches, and schools. He is primitive again, matching his wits against the earth and sky. He is free of the restraints of society and free of its safeguards too.” William O. Douglas

"We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road / the one less traveled by / offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth." -  Rachel Carson

  “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” -  Pico Iyer

  “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” -   Eleanor Roosevelt

I love to travel, to see the world, to learn about other cultures. But there is so much more to travel than beaches, pretty scenery, checking off iconic sites, or participating in exciting activities. It’s also about changing how we see the world and our place in it. In one of my favorite PBS travel shows, the host closes each episode with the following quote. It struck a chord with me. I saw a lot of truth and wisdom in these words.     “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

“A man practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints.” Wilferd Peterson I couldn't agree more!

  “Wilderness has noise as when great winds make treetops roar, setting up the cadence of a pounding surf. Wilderness noise is also the murmur of brooks, the chatter of squirrels, the scolding of camp robbers. Wilderness noise is the sequence of birdcalls just before dawn, the ecstatic music of the whippoorwill at dusk, and the deep quiet of a darkened forest. The noise of wilderness is varied; it has no monotony; it is the music of the earth of which man is an integral part whether he knows it or not. The healing effects of wilderness are well known. Cares slough off; the conscious springs that create tension are relaxed; man comes to an understanding of his relation to the earth from which he came and to which he returns. —William O. Douglas, A Wilderness Bill of Rights , 1965

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”  Edward Abbey 

“There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and the wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbol of the great human principle.” Franklin D. Roosevelt (Photo: Grand Teton National Park)

“Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.”   Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginnings

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”   Henry David Thoreau

  “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”  Edward Abbey 

“Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.”   Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginnings

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” -   Eleanor Roosevelt

“A man practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints.” Wilferd Peterson

Here’s one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes, though I have many. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

Over the years, I’ve posted Theodore Roosevelt quotes fairly often. I find he had a great deal of wisdom on a number of topics from conservation to patriotism to doing what’s right. Here’s one of my favorites. “Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.” Theodore Roosevelt 

"We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road / the one less traveled by / offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth." — Rachel Carson