My 65 Favorite Inspirational Walking Quotes

No other form of exercise is as simple as walking. It’s a kind of activity that almost anyone can engage in and one that comes with a plethora of physical and mental benefits. People are even able to hike for charity. Walking allows people to reconnect with their thoughts, challenge their bodies, as well as meet and befriend many like-minded people and it can also change their life.

However, even though most of us know about the benefits of walking, sometimes we still may need a tiny bit of inspiration. Whether you’re planning an afternoon wander along the coast, a strenuous mountain climb, or a long trip through the woods, the following walking quotes will motivate you to take your hiking shoes and get out on the trail.

1. Pain reminds me I am alive – Me while walking the Camino with blisters.
2. “Walking is a man’s best medicine.” – Hippocrates
3. “If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.” – Rachel Wolchin
4. “History begins at ground level, with footsteps.” – Michel de Certeau
5. “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
6. “If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.” – Raymond Myers
7. “After a day’s walk everything has twice its usual value.” – George Macauley Trevelyan
8. “Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.” – Henry David Thoreau
9. “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Sills
10. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
11. “Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking.” – Antonio Machado
12. “There is nothing healthier for a man than to walk on his own two legs.” – José Saramago
13. “Walking makes the world much bigger and therefore more interesting.” – Edward Abbey
14. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
15. “Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.” – Rachel Carson
16. “Jobs fill your pockets, but adventures fill your soul.” – Jaime Lyn
17. “Every step of the walk unburdens us of what we have just seen and thought while it simultaneously thrusts us into the previously unknown.” – Jeffrey Robinson
18. “It is not talking but walking that will bring us to heaven.” – Matthew Henry
19. “Man’s real home is not a house, but the Road, and that life itself is a journey to be walked on foot.” – Bruce Chatwin
20. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.” – Robert Frost
21. “To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles.” – Mary Davis
22. “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.” – Soren Kierkegaard
23. “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir
24. “If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” – Frank A. Clark
25. “I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” – Rosalia de Castro
26. “It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks.” – Anatole France
27. “Truth itself wanders through the forests.” – Werner Herzog
28. “I could never resist the call of the trail.” – Buffalo Bill
29. “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.” – Edward Abbey
30. “Not all who wander are lost” – J.R.R. Tolkien
31. “Walking is good for solving problems – it’s like the feet are little psychiatrists.” – Pepper Giardino
32. “Walking is the favorite sport of the good and wise.” – A. L. Rowse
33. “I can remember walking as a child. It was not customary to say you were fatigued. It was customary to complete the goal of the expedition.” – Katharine Hepburn
34. “Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.” – Gary Snyder
35. “Go out, go out I beg of you, and taste the beauty of the wild. Behold the miracle of the earth with all the wonder of a child.” – Edna Jaques
36. “Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.” – Thomas Jefferson
37. “I can only meditate when I am walking, when I stop I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
38. “Make your feet your friend.” – James M. Barrie
39. “He who limps is still walking.” – Stanislaw Lec
40. “I believe in evolution. But I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of God is there also.” – John McCain
41. “My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.” – Aldous Huxley
42. “The destiny of every walking man is to immerse himself in the panorama surrounding him, to the point of becoming one with it, and ultimately, to vanish.” – Federico Castigliano
43. “We don’t stop hiking because we grow old, we grow old because we stop hiking.” – Finis Mitchell
44. “May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.” – Edward Abbey
45. “If you are in a bad mood go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood go for another walk.” – Hippocrates
46. “The long-distance hiker, a breed set apart, from the likes of the usual pack. He’ll shoulder his gear, be hittin’ the trail; long gone, long ‘fore he’ll be back.” – M.J. Eberhart
47. “Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints.” – Chief Seattle
48. “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods… I love not Man the less, but Nature more…” – Lord Byron
49. “We live in a fast-paced society. Walking slows us down.” – Robert Sweetgall
50. “People don’t take trips, trips take people.” – John Steinbeck
51. “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” – John Burroughs
52. “Walking . . . is how the body measures itself against the earth.” – Rebecca Solnit
53. “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” – Henry David Thoreau
54. “The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk.” – Joseph Joubert
55. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
56. “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” – T.S. Eliot
57. “A walk in nature walks the soul back home.” – Mary Davis
58. “Thoughts come clearly while one walks.” – Thomas Mann
59. “Happiness walks on busy feet.” – Kitte Turmell
60. “Walking is the natural recreation for a person who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season.” – Leslie Stephen
61. “Walking has something in it which animates and heightens my ideas: I can scarcely think when I stay in one place.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
62. “The longest journey begins with a single step, not with a turn of the ignition key.” – Edward Abbey
63. “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for.” – John A. Shedd
64. “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” – John Muir
65. “The danger of adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort.” – Paulo Coelho
66. “Walking takes longer…than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed.” – Edward Abbey

Those are my favorite walking quotes. If you have any to add to the list just let me know in the comments below.