My 65 Favorite Inspirational Walking & Hiking Quotes

If I wasn’t a hiker I would never have started this blog, I wouldn’t have walked the Camino, hiked all over the Rockies, and into the bargain found something that I love and keeps me reasonably fit.

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

However, even though most of us know about the benefits of walking, sometimes we may need a little 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.

Best Mountain Hiking Quotes From Inspired Storytellers

1. Pain Reminds me I am Alive

Me

I don’t know what this says about me when my favorite hiking quote is my own creation. This was one that I came up with while walking the Camino de Santiago. I started off in the South of France with blisters before taking my first step. The previous day I had walked around a very hot Paris in sandals and developed a few blisters.

For the first week of my Camino, I tightly wrapped my heels before starting each day. It was only sore for a short period and my mantra kept me going and helped me develop gratitude for just being where I was.

2. The danger of adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort. 

Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho was also a hiker and walked the Camino long before it became so popular again. I am getting on a plane tomorrow and flying to Scotland. I will go hiking and walk up Ben Lomond, a small mountain I have walked at least ten times before. Hiking routes are like music I can walk them again and again.

Alternatively, I could stay at home and stay safe. It is a very short life, grab it and play.

In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.

John Muir

And this from a man who knew what he was talking about when it comes to hiking. There won’t be many hikers that haven’t heard of the John Muir Trail a 213 mile trail in California.

 

 

 

1. Walking is a man’s best medicine.” – Hippocrates
2. “If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.” – Rachel Wolchin
3. “History begins at ground level, with footsteps.” – Michel de Certeau
4. “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
5. “If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.” – Raymond Myers
6. “After a day’s walk everything has twice its usual value.” – George Macauley Trevelyan
7. “Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.” – Henry David Thoreau
8. “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Sills
9. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
10. “Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking.” – Antonio Machado
11. “There is nothing healthier for a man than to walk on his own two legs.” – José Saramago
12. “Walking makes the world much bigger and therefore more interesting.” – Edward Abbey
13. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
14. “Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.” – Rachel Carson
15. “Jobs fill your pockets, but adventures fill your soul.” – Jaime Lyn
16. “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
17. “It is not talking but walking that will bring us to heaven.” – Matthew Henry
18. “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
19. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.” – Robert Frost
20. “To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles.” – Mary Davis
21. “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.” – Soren Kierkegaard
22. “If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” – Frank A. Clark
23. “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
24. “It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks.” – Anatole France
25. “Truth itself wanders through the forests.” – Werner Herzog
26. “I could never resist the call of the trail.” – Buffalo Bill
27. “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
28. “Not all who wander are lost” – J.R.R. Tolkien
29. “Walking is good for solving problems – it’s like the feet are little psychiatrists.” – Pepper Giardino
30. “Walking is the favorite sport of the good and wise.” – A. L. Rowse
31. “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
32. “Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.” – Gary Snyder
33. “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
34. “Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.” – Thomas Jefferson
35. “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
36. “Make your feet your friend.” – James M. Barrie
37. “He who limps is still walking.” – Stanislaw Lec
38. “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
39. “My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.” – Aldous Huxley
40. “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
41. “We don’t stop hiking because we grow old, we grow old because we stop hiking.” – Finis Mitchell
42. “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
43. “If you are in a bad mood go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood go for another walk.” – Hippocrates
44. “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
45. “Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints.” – Chief Seattle
46. “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods… I love not Man the less, but Nature more…” – Lord Byron
47. “We live in a fast-paced society. Walking slows us down.” – Robert Sweetgall
48. “People don’t take trips, trips take people.” – John Steinbeck
49. “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” – John Burroughs
50. “Walking . . . is how the body measures itself against the earth.” – Rebecca Solnit
51. “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” – Henry David Thoreau
52. “The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk.” – Joseph Joubert
53. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
54. “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” – T.S. Eliot
55. “A walk in nature walks the soul back home.” – Mary Davis
56. “Thoughts come clearly while one walks.” – Thomas Mann
57. “Happiness walks on busy feet.” – Kitte Turmell
58. “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
59. “Walking has something in it which animates and heightens my ideas: I can scarcely think when I stay in one place.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
60. “The longest journey begins with a single step, not with a turn of the ignition key.” – Edward Abbey
61. “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for.” – John A. Shedd
62. “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” – John Muir
63. “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 best hiking quotes. If you have any to add to the list just let me know in the comments below.