I love road trips and am always ready to pack up the car, pull out a map, and start an adventure. But if you need a little push, these road trip quotes might just inspire you to do the same.
Not all of these sayings were originally quotes about road trips, but, all the same, they are meant to make you think, make you laugh, or to inspire you to hit the road and plan your next journey.
From funny road trip quotes to serious ones, family road trip quotes to ones perfect for the solo traveler, there is plenty of inspiration behind every word. Read on and you just might find your new favorite road quotes. Use these quotes about road trips as Captions for Instagram or on your Road Trip Instagram Stories!
The Road Trip Journal & Activity Book
Enjoy fun games and challenges to pass the time on your next road trip and have a keepsake to look back on for years to come with this entertaining must-have for your next vacation.
50 Best Road Trip Quotes to Inspire Your Adventures:
1.
“Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road.”
Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road
- Hardcover Book
- Whitman, Walt (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 40 Pages – 11/15/2023 (Publication Date) – Applewood Books (Publisher)
2.
“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
- Jack Kerouac (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 293 Pages – 06/01/1999 (Publication Date) – Penguin Classics (Publisher)
3.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
- Frost, Robert (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 130 Pages – 05/23/2017 (Publication Date) – Digireads.com Publishing (Publisher)
4.
“Because the greatest part of a road trip isn’t arriving at your destination. It’s all the wild stuff that happens along the way.”
Emma Chase, Tamed
- Chase, Emma (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 272 Pages – 07/15/2014 (Publication Date) – Gallery Books (Publisher)
5.
“That’s why I love road trips, dude. It’s like doing something without actually doing anything.”
John Green, An Abundance of Katherines
- Great product!
- Green, John (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 272 Pages – 10/16/2008 (Publication Date) – Penguin Books (Publisher)
6.
“Roads are a record of those who have gone before.”
Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
- Solnit, Rebecca (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 324 Pages – 06/01/2001 (Publication Date) – Penguin Books (Publisher)
7.
“When all’s said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it’s not so much which road you take, as how you take it.”
Charles de Lint, Greenmantle
- de Lint, Charles (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 384 Pages – 06/15/1998 (Publication Date) – Orb Books (Publisher)
8.
“Sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn’t mean to take.”
Angela N. Blount, Once Upon an Ever After
- Blount, Angela N. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 198 Pages – 10/16/2014 (Publication Date) – Artifice Press (Publisher)
9.
“Life is beautiful if you are on the road to somewhere”
Orhan Pamuk, The New Life
- Orhan Pamuk (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 296 Pages – 03/31/1998 (Publication Date) – Vintage (Publisher)
10.
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
- Stevenson, Robert Louis (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 104 Pages – 02/20/2023 (Publication Date) – Warbler Classics (Publisher)
11.
“Life is a long, bumpy road, but that makes for an exciting ride. It’s OK to map out your future… but do it in pencil.”
Jon Bon Jovi
The full Jon Bon Jovi quote comes from a commencement ceremony for the Rutgers University–Camden Class of 2015 in which he received an honorary degree: “Life is a long, bumpy road, but that makes for an exciting ride. Choose a direction and if the road turns – turn! If there is a fork in the road – take it! It’s OK to map out your future… but do it in pencil.” (Source)
12.
“It is not down in any map; true places never are.”
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
- Hardcover Book
- Herman Melville (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 608 Pages – 09/30/2022 (Publication Date) – Wordsworth Editions Ltd (Publisher)
13.
“Still, round the corner, there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
- Tolkien, J.R.R. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 1728 Pages – 09/25/2012 (Publication Date) – Del Rey (Publisher)
14.
“One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.”
Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch
This Henry Miller quote is often misquoted as “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things”. (Source)
- trade paperback
- Miller, Henry (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 400 Pages – 01/17/1957 (Publication Date) – New Directions (Publisher)
15.
“Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.”
Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
- Great product!
- Kurt Vonnegut (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 304 Pages – 09/08/1998 (Publication Date) – Dell Publishing (Publisher)
16.
“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
Yogi Berra
(Context)
17.
“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote, To travel is to live.”
Hans Christian Andersen, The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Hans Christian Andersen (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 610 Pages – 09/25/2000 (Publication Date) – Cooper Square Press (Publisher)
18.
“If you make the mistake of looking back too much, you aren’t focused enough on the road in front of you.”
Brad Paisley, American country music singer and songwriter
While Brad Paisley said this in an interview with Country Aircheck while talking about why he keeps his awards at his parents’ house, it still makes for a good road trip quote. (Source)
19.
“When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.”
William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways: A Journey Into America
- Great product!
- Moon, William Least Heat (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 448 Pages – 10/19/1999 (Publication Date) – Back Bay Books (Publisher)
20.
“Now, on this road trip, my mind seemed to uncrinkle, to breathe, to present to itself a cure for a disease it had not, until now, known it had.”
Elizabeth Berg, The Year of Pleasures
- Berg, Elizabeth (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 225 Pages – 03/28/2006 (Publication Date) – Random House Publishing Group (Publisher)
21.
“People don’t take trips—trips take people.”
John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America
- Steinbeck, John (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 277 Pages – 01/31/1980 (Publication Date) – Penguin Books (Publisher)
22.
“The freedom of the open road is seductive, serendipitous and absolutely liberating.”
Aaron Lauritsen, 100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip
- Lauritsen, Aaron (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 364 Pages – 01/24/2016 (Publication Date) – CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (Publisher)
23.
“Good company in a journey makes the way to seem the shorter.”
Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler
- Walton, Izaak (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 464 Pages – 05/26/1998 (Publication Date) – Modern Library (Publisher)
24.
“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
- Jack Kerouac (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 293 Pages – 06/01/1999 (Publication Date) – Penguin Classics (Publisher)
25.
“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.”
Oprah Winfrey
(Source)
26.
“I think I deserve something beautiful.”
Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
- Elizabeth Gilbert (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 334 Pages – 01/01/2007 (Publication Date) – Penguin,2007 (Publisher)
27.
“Sometimes, the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.”
Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld, The Baby Shower [S02E10]
28.
“Make voyages. Attempt them. There’s nothing else.”
Tennesse Williams, Camino Real
- Williams, Tennessee (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 185 Pages – 10/17/2008 (Publication Date) – New Directions (Publisher)
29.
“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.”
Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 7: 1966-1974
- Nin, Anaïs (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 384 Pages – 10/14/1981 (Publication Date) – Mariner Books Classics (Publisher)
30.
“Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you, You must travel it for yourself.”
Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
- Whitman, Walt (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 134 Pages – 05/04/2013 (Publication Date) – CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (Publisher)
31.
“The world is full of wonderful things you haven’t seen yet. Don’t ever give up on the chance of seeing them.”
J.K. Rowling
(Source)
32.
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving.”
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
- Lao Tzu (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 184 Pages – 11/01/2011 (Publication Date) – Vintage (Publisher)
33.
“We shall not cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring, Will be to arrive where we started, And know the place for the first time.”
T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets
- Eliot, T. S. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 64 Pages – 04/18/2023 (Publication Date) – Ecco (Publisher)
34.
“I love road trips. You get into this Zen rhythm; throw the sense of time out the window.”
Miriam Toews
(Source)
35.
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
- Tolkien, J.R.R. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 432 Pages – 09/18/2012 (Publication Date) – William Morrow Paperbacks (Publisher)
36.
“Mileage craziness is a serious condition that exists in many forms. It can hit unsuspecting travelers while driving cars, motorcycles, riding in planes, crossing the country on bicycles or on foot. The symptoms may lead to obsessively placing more importance on how many miles are traveled than on the real reason for the traveling…On foot, in a van, on a fleet motorcycle or on a bicycle, a person must be very careful not to become overly concerned with arriving.”
Peter Jenkins, A Walk Across America
- Jenkins, Peter (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 320 Pages – 09/01/2001 (Publication Date) – Mariner Books (Publisher)
37.
“I love the way music inside a car makes you feel invisible; if you play the stereo at max volume, it’s almost like the other people can’t see into your vehicle. It tints your windows, somehow.”
Chuck Klosterman, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
- Klosterman, Chuck (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 272 Pages – 06/13/2006 (Publication Date) – Scribner (Publisher)
38.
“Road trips required a couple of things: a well-balanced diet of caffeine, salt and sugar and an excellent selection of tunes—oh, and directions.”
Jenn McKinlay, Books Can Be Deceiving
- McKinlay, Jenn (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 304 Pages – 07/05/2011 (Publication Date) – Berkley (Publisher)
39.
“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure. You have no idea of what is in store for you, but you will, if you are wise and know the art of travel, let yourself go on the stream of the unknown and accept whatever comes in the spirit in which the gods may offer it.”
Freya Stark, Baghdad Sketches
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Stark, Freya (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 184 Pages – 05/10/2011 (Publication Date) – Tauris Parke Paperbacks (Publisher)
40.
“And just like that, we’re on our way to everywhere”
Emery Lord, Open Road Summer
- Lord, Emery (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 368 Pages – 03/06/2018 (Publication Date) – Bloomsbury USA Childrens (Publisher)
41.
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
- Adams, Douglas (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 256 Pages – 10/07/2014 (Publication Date) – Gallery Books (Publisher)
42.
“A road trip is a way for the whole family to spend time together and annoy each other in interesting new places.”
Tom Lichtenheld, Everything I Know About Cars
- Hardcover Book
- Lichtenheld, Tom (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 40 Pages – 03/01/2005 (Publication Date) – Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (Publisher)
43.
“All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.”
Jack Kerouac, On the Road: the Original Scroll
- Kerouac, Jack (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 416 Pages – 08/26/2008 (Publication Date) – Penguin Classics (Publisher)
44.
“You know more of a road by having travelled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.”
William Hazlitt, On The Conduct of Life
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- William Hazlitt (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 05/08/2018 (Publication Date) – HardPress (Publisher)
45.
“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers, that the mind can never break off from the journey.”
Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides
- Conroy, Pat (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 704 Pages – 05/30/2023 (Publication Date) – Mariner Books Classics (Publisher)
46.
“Look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else.”
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
- Stoppard, Tom (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 128 Pages – 04/11/2017 (Publication Date) – Grove Press (Publisher)
47.
“The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.”
Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel
- De Botton, Alain (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 272 Pages – 05/11/2004 (Publication Date) – Vintage (Publisher)
48.
“I just go with the flow, I follow the yellow brick road. I don’t know where it’s going to lead me, but I follow it.”
Grace Jones
(Source)
49.
“I can speak to my soul only when the two of us are off exploring deserts or cities or mountains or roads.”
Paulo Coelho, Aleph
- Coelho, Paulo (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 288 Pages – 06/26/2012 (Publication Date) – Vintage (Publisher)
50.
“See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
- Fahrenheit 451;9781451673319;1451673310
- Ray Bradbury (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 249 Pages – 01/10/2012 (Publication Date) – Simon & Schuster (Publisher)
Often Misquoted Road Trip Quotes
There are a lot of road trip and travel quotes out there that sound perfectly inspirational…but are actually just plain wrong.
One wildly popular road trip quote you might see on Pinterest or shared on social media is this one:
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
Lewis Carroll
But this popular phrase never actually appears in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.
It was most likely paraphrased from this passage in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and passed off as an inspirational travel quote:
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.
Here’s another often misidentified road trip quote:
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
That travel quote is often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, but there is no evidence he ever said such, and it might actually be by Muriel Strode.
Also, be wary of quotes from ancient philosophers , like Confucius. Many Confucius quotes have been made up or falsely contributed. A popular quote about travel that’s shared is:
“Roads were made for journeys, not destinations.”
Confucius
But outside decorative pillows on Etsy and motivational posters, I couldn’t find anything that linked that saying to him as the source. In fact, in the A. Charles Muller translation of The Analects of Confucius he is quoted as saying, “If you do travel, you should have a precise destination” (Source), which is the opposite sentiment to the much-shared quote,
The Road Trip Journal & Activity Book
Enjoy fun games and challenges to pass the time on your next road trip and have a keepsake to look back on for years to come with this entertaining must-have for your next vacation.
Pin these Best Road Trip Quotes to save for your next adventure!
Time for a road trip! 50 Best Road Trip Quotes to Inspire Your Adventures! Quotes about travel and quotes about road trips that are funny or inspirational. Fuel your wanderlust with these road trip quotes for couples, friends, and family for vacations in the mountains or on the beach – spontaneous or planned – anywhere your car rides take you.
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