100+ Incredible Exploration Quotes to Inspire You & Fuel Your Wanderlust

I am a sucker for a good quote about exploring. While traveling and exploring the world have taken a bit of a hiatus this last year, a good exploration quote and photo can help transport me back to my travels while I’m at home on my couch.

For this post, I’ve rounded up more than 100 of my favorite exploration quotes to share the inspiration! I’d love to hear which of these quotes is your favorite in the comments at the end. Enjoy!

Read next: How I Make Money Blogging – And Tips for How You Can Too!

Sharing these exploration quotes

Please feel free to copy and share these exploration quotes wherever you please – Pin these images to Pinterest, use them in Instagram captions, blog posts, you name it! If you want to tag me when you share the quote, I’d really appreciate it and love to give you a shoutout! Just tag my accounts below or link back to this blog post. Thank you!

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100+ BEST Explore Quotes to Fuel Your Wanderlust

1.) “NASA has this phrase that they like, “Failure is not an option.” But failure has to be an option. In art and exploration, failure has to be an option. Because it is a leap of faith. And no important endeavor that required innovation was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks. … In whatever you are doing, failure is an option. But fear is not.” – James Cameron

2.) “All explorers are seeking something they have lost. It is seldom that they find it, and more seldom still that the attainment brings them greater happiness than the quest.” – Arthur C. Clarke

3.) “What is a scientist after all? It is a curious man looking through a keyhole, the keyhole of nature, trying to know what’s going on.” – Jacques-Yves Cousteau

4.) “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

5.) “It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy…Let’s go exploring!” – Bill Watterson, last line of the final Calvin and Hobbes strip

6.) “The exploration of oneself is usually also an exploration of the world at large, of other writers, a process of comparison with oneself with others, discoveries of kinships, gradual illumination of one’s own potentialities.” – Colin Wilson

7.) “The potential for adventure makes life worth living.” – Vicki Garside

8.) “My dear, life rarely gives us what we want at the moment we consider appropriate. Adventures do occur, but not punctually.” – E.M. Forster

9.) “We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us — the labyrinth is thoroughly known.” – Joseph Campbell

10.) “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.” — H. Jackson Brown Jr. (P.S. I Love You)

11.) “Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.” — Richard P. Feynman

12.) “She is free in her wildness, she is a wanderess, a drop of free water. She knows nothing of borders and cares nothing for rules or customs. ‘Time’ for her isn’t something to fight against. Her life flows clean, with passion, like fresh water.” — Roman Payne

13.) “I wandered everywhere, through cities and countries wide. And everywhere I went, the world was on my side.” ― Roman Payne

14.) “As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.” ― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

15.) “In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.” ― Ansel Adams

16.) “A person does not grow from the ground like a vine or a tree, one is not part of a plot of land. Mankind has legs so it can wander.” ― Roman Payne

17.) “Set out from any point. They are all alike. They all lead to a point of departure.” ― Antonio Porchia

18.) “If ever it’s necessary to ride the bandwagon, it’s done with one leg swinging out and eyes scoping the fields.” ― Criss Jami

19.) “There are no blank spots on the map anymore, anywhere on earth. If you want a blank spot on the map, you gotta leave the map behind.” ― Jon Krakauer

20.) “Wherever you look, there are still things we don’t know about and don’t understand. […] There are always new things to find out if you go looking for them.” ― David Attenborough

21.) “The map? I will first make it.” ― Patrick White

22.) “Perhaps there is no thrill so great as that which comes with a walk in the freshness of morning air.” ― Hellen Keller

23.) “To think, she could have lived and died and never seen the sea.” ― V. E. Schwab

24.) “My true ecstasy is to hunt, seek, and find new things in life.” ― Helen Edwards

25.) “Those who leave mysteries unexplored are like caged birds who think that their cage don’t have locks.” ― Aniekee Tochukwu Ezekiel

26.) “Atop a mountain, one feels as close to the heavens as a bird soaring through the sky.” ― Jessica Marie Baumgartner

27.) “The universe you and I are expanding in itself, each and every day.” ― Santosh Kumar

28.) “Run, a little voice in my head calls. Run far. Run fast. Run until you find new stars.” ― Rebecca Coffindaffer, Crownchasers

29.) “An explorer cannot stay at home reading maps other men have made.” ― Susanna Clarke

30.) “Treasures always hide among old ruins and wreckage.” ― Rumi

31.) “Until I looked outside, I could not see the universe was standing by for me.” ― Joyce Rachelle

32.) “You need to get out if you are looking to understand the world. The sudden realization of a great truth is like a shooting star. You’ll miss it if you are comfortably indoors.” ― Rajesh`, Random Cosmos

33.) “The rain of curiosity falls all the time, and it is time we got drenched.” ― Rajesh`, Random Cosmos

34.) “Where one foot has tread, others will follow.” ― Jacquelyn Benson

35.) “There are cracks to other worlds, places in our daily existence where you can pry the walls open and arrive on the other side—if you can get your fingers around the edges.” ― Derek Franz

36.) “Become exhaustingly curious.” ― Maureen Joyce Connolly, Little Lovely Things

37.) “When you give yourself to places, they give you yourself back.” ― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

38.) “And don’t tell me that man doesn’t belong out there [space]. Man belongs wherever he wants to go — and he’ll do plenty well when he gets there.” ― Wernher von Braun

39.) “If you’re not moving, you’re standing still.” ― Stephen Trafton

40.) “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu

41.) “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark

42.) “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” – Douglas Adams

43.) “Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence.” – John Muir

44.) “The open road still softly calls.” – Carl Sagan

45.) “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

46.) “It is better to travel well than to arrive.” – Buddha

47.) “A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are for.” – William Shedd

48.) “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac

49.) “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” – Jack Kerouac

50.) “There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.” – Jack Kerouac

51.) “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine

52.) “Man is born to live, not to prepare to live.” – Boris Pasternak

53.) “There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror.” – Orson Welles

54.) “Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in.” -Sterling Hayden

55.) “The time is now and the place is elsewhere.” – Unknown

56.) “Unexpected travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” -Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

57.) “When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” – Susan Heller

58.) “Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!”
– Dr. Seuss

59.) “You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Dr. Seuss

60.) “You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – JRR Tolkien

61.) “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Unkown

62.) “Whatever territory you choose to explore and then invest all your time into it, you will be amazed how easy it is to become great.” ― Sunday Adelaja

63.) “When no possessions keep us, when no countries contain us, and no time detains us, man becomes a heroic wanderer, and woman, a wanderess.” ― Roman Payne

64.) “I am constantly searching for places that rekindle my sense of wonder.” ― Gillian Anderson & Jeff Rovin

65.) “Life’s opportunities are meant to be utilized and explored.” ― Sunday Adelaja

66.) “Strangely incurious, her lovers from before. She has worlds within I’m longing to explore.” ― John Mark Green

67.) “This is what I had come for, just this, and nothing more. A fling of leafy motion on the cliffs, the assault of real things, living and still, with shapes and powers under the sky- this is my city, my culture, and all the world I need.” ― Annie Dillard

68.) “Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges — Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!” ― Rudyard Kipling

69.) “Wandering was the only thing that I believed in, and the only thing that believed in me.” – Roman Payne

70.) “I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.” ― David Attenborough

71.) “When we truly love ourselves and love life, we are compelled to deeply explore ourselves and life’s possibilities.” ― Bryant McGill

72.) “The depth of a man is a limit only he can know, should he have the courage to explore into the dark.” ― Kyle Schmalenberg

73.) “Part of the urge to explore is a desire to become lost.” ― Tracy Johnston

74.) “I believe in always being open to learning more through exploration of everything available and following one’s sense of curiosity, creativity, and playfulness.” ― Jay Woodman

75.) “Life is short. The world is big. It awaits your exploration. If you’re not living on the edge, you’re just taking up way too much space.” ― Paul Beaver

76.) “No,’ she says, as if the suggestion is ridiculous. ‘I wouldn’t go back to where I’m from. I’d go someplace I’ve never been.” ― Ally Condie, Reached

77.) “My ambition is not to leave behind me a pile of money for my heirs to quarrel about, but to find out what there is of interest in this world before I cross the border and begin to explore the other world.” ― George H. Hepworth

78.) “Set out from any point. They are all alike. They all lead to a point of departure.” — Antonio Porchia

79.) “I will go anywhere, provided it be forward.” — David Livingstone

80.) “We each exist for but a short time, and in that time explore but a small part of the whole universe.” — Stephen Hawking

81.) “To err is to wander and wandering is the way we discover the world and lost in thought it is also the way we discover ourselves.” — Kathryn Schulz

82.) “We explore because we are curious, not because we wish to develop grand views of reality or better widgets.” — Brian Cox

83.) “Her eyes were a bottomless ocean that I would give up air to explore.” — Cora Carmack

84.) “If we were meant to stay in one place, we would have roots instead of feet.” — Rachel Wolchin

85.) “You need mountains, long staircases don’t make good hikers.” — Amit Kalantri

86.) “I would read. I would explore.” — Neil Gaiman

87.) “We prefer to explore the universe by traveling inward, as opposed to outward.” — Nnedi Okorafor

88.) “Being right keeps you in place. Being wrong forces you to explore.” — Steven Johnson

89.) “I explore it now in the only place left for it, my memory.” — Yann Martel (Life of Pi)

90.) “In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it.” — John Archibald Wheeler

91.) “You cannot explore the universe if you think that you are the center of it.” — Joshua Suya Pelicano

92.) “The world is a huge place. How will you know where you fit in unless you explore beyond your comfort zone?” — Katie McGarry

93.) “There is so much adventure that only a youth can experience. Youth is not the time to languish in pleasure – youth is the time for exploration and adventure.” — Sadhguru

94.) “But I figure you’re never too old to learn. That’s when you become old, when you stop being fascinated by things, when you stop wanting to learn and explore.” — Alexandra Potter

95.) “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)

96.) “Every exploration is an appropriation.” — Roland Barthes

97.) “If I knew everything, life would be lonely, as everyone else would want to explore the world, and I’d be content with a cat on my lap sitting in the dark.” — Jarod Kintz

98.) “The real wonders of life lie in the depths. Exploring the depths for truths is the real wonder which the child and the artist know: magic and power lie in truth.” — Anaïs Nin

99.) “Every person is a world to explore.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

100.) “When you explore your fears then you set yourself free.” — Stephen Richards

101.) “Let the sea breeze blow your hair, let the sunset bring tranquility to your heart, let the distant places you travel allow you to explore yourself.” — Somya Kedia

102.) “And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore.” — Apsley Cherry-Garrard

103.) “Explore, Experience, Then Push Beyond.” — Aaron Lauritsen

104.) “When we allow ourselves to explore, we discover destinations that were never on our map.” — Amie Kaufman

105.) “Sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails, explore, dream, discover.” — Mark Twain

Which of these exploration quotes is your favorite? Let me know in the comments!

Please feel free to copy and share these explore quotes wherever you please – Instagram captions, blog posts, you name it! If you want to tag me when you share the quote, I’d really appreciate it and love to give you a shoutout! Just tag my accounts below or link back to this blog post. Thank you!