My Favorite Hiking Quotes

I decided to compile this list because I frequently use quote when posting my favorite photos of hikes on Instagram. (My IG Link)

This is a list of my favorite hiking/wilderness/personal growth-related quotes. May add more at another time, but at least they are here for convenience factor. Enjoy! (I've also added a few of my own ;) let me know what you think of them.)

Growth:

“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” -Abraham Lincoln

“Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein

“There are two kinds of climbers, those who climb because their heart sings when they’re in the mountains, and all the rest.” -Alex Lowe

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you are climbing it..” -Andy Rooney

“No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied – it speaks in silence to the very core of your being.” – Ansel Adams

“Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer – and often the supreme disappointment.” -Ansel Adams

“Set your heights more than what you see around you, see beyond.” – Anthony Anderson

“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”– Ayn Rand

“The further you get away from yourself, the more challenging it is. Not to be in your comfort zone is great fun.” - Benedict Cumberbatch

“You can never really get away you can only take yourself somewhere else.” -Charles M. Schwab

“Never measure the height of a mountain until you reach the top. Then you will see how low it was.” -Dag Hammerskjold

“You’re off to great places, today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.” – Dr Seuss

“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

“Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.” ― David McCullough Jr.

“Yoga is a journey of the soul through the body that creates a harmony among nature, mind, and body.” -Debasish Mridha

“Fertile soil, level plains, easy passage across the mountains, coal, iron, and other metals imbedded in the rocks, and a stimulating climate, all shower their blessings upon man.” -Ellsworth Huntington

“Rain showers my spirit and waters my soul.” - Emily Logan Decens

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” -Frank Lloyd Wright

“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” -Franklin D. Roosevelt

“He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.” - Friedrich Neitszche

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.” – Gary Snyder

“Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.” - Gregg Child

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Hiking is not escapism; it’s realism. The people who choose to spend time outdoors are not running away from anything; we are returning to where we belong.” – Jennifer Pharr Davis

“A Dream is where a boy can swim in the deepest oceans and fly over the highest clouds.” – J. K. Rowling

“The cost of freedom is always high — but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.” -John F. Kennedy

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” -John Muir

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…” – John Muir

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” - John Muir

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” – John Muir

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” -John Muir

“You are not in the mountains. The mountains are in you.” -John Muir

“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” -John Muir

“Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.” -John Muir

“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” – John Muir

“The mountains are calling and I must go.” – John Muir

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings” -John Muir

“The power of imagination makes us infinite.” -John Muir

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

“I think true wilderness can still be found, but it’s hard to reach and dangerous when you get there, which is probably why it still exists.” -Michelle Paver

“If you want to relax, watch the clouds pass by if you’re laying on the grass, or sit in front of the creek; just doing nothing and having those still moments is what really rejuvenates the body.” -Miranda Kerr

“Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret” – Oscar Wilde

“Ignorance is like a delicate fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone.” - Oscar Wilde

“A person susceptible to “wanderlust” is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.” – Pico Iyer

“Whether you find yourself on a summit or amidst a field of flowers, follow your own yellow brick road and soar into your own blue skies.” -Me (Ryan DeMasters)

“I sit here remembering the beauty of this place and find myself longing to return there so that my heart and soul fills with peace and happiness.” – Me (Ryan DeMasters)

“As beautiful as cities can be with human imagination, I still prefer to see it from far away and in nature.” -Me (Ryan DeMasters)

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.” -Richard M. Nixon

“I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” -Robert Frost

“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” - Samuel Adams

“Geology … offers always some material for observation. … [When] spring and summer come round, how easily may the hammer be buckled round the waist, and the student emerge from the dust of town into the joyous air of the country, for a few delightful hours among the rocks.” -Sir Archibald Geikie

“There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” - Sir Rannulph Fiennes

“If we are willing to be still and open enough to listen, wilderness itself will teach us.” - Steven Harper

“You need special shoes for hiking—and a bit of a special soul as well.” - Terri Guillemets

“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.” -Thomas Jefferson

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” - Thomas Jefferson

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” – T.S. Eliot

Body Positive:

“Is “fat” really the worst thing a human being can be? Is “fat” worse than “vindictive,” “jealous,” “shallow,” “vain,” “boring,” or “cruel”? Not to me.” –J.K. Rowling

“Your self-esteem won’t come from body parts. You need to step away from the mirror every once in a while, and look for another reflection, like the one in the eyes of the people who love you and admire you.” –Stacy London

Cycling:

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking” – Arthur Conan Doyle

“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them” – Ernest Hemingway

“Cyclists see considerably more of this beautiful world than any other class of citizens. A good bicycle, well applied, will cure most ills this flesh is heir to” – Dr K.K. Doty

Friends and Family:

“If you have EVER doubted your worthiness If you have EVER questioned your path If you have EVER wondered what your life is for If you have EVER been uncertain that you are ENOUGH Then I tell you this, dear sister You hold the world in your hands” -Alexandra Gold

“She was powerful not because she wasn’t scared but because she went on so strongly, despite the fear.” – Atticus

“True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island… to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.” -Baltasar Gracian

“True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.” – David Tyson

“I’ll fill those canyons in your soul, like a river lead you home. And I’ll walk a step behind, in the shadows so you shine. Just ask, it will be done and I will prove my love, until you’re sure that I’m the one.” -Gary Allen

“If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.”– George MacDonald

“Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.”– Herodotus

“The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.”– Hubert H. Humphrey 

“There is an unspoken bond you create with the friends you travel with.” – Kristen Sarah

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure, self-determined, self-motivated, often risky, forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world” -Mark Jenkins

“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” – Muhammad Ali

“An older sister is a friend and defender – a listener, conspirator, a counselor and a sharer of delights. And sorrows too.” – Pam Brown

“When sisters stand shoulder to shoulder, who stands a chance against us?” – Pam Brown

“We are all travelers in the wilderness of the world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.” – Robert Louis

“Sons are the anchors of a mother’s life.” -Sophocles

Persevere:

“Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.” – Barry Finlay

“Passion is the bridge that takes you from pain to change.” -Frida Khalo

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than trees.” -Henry David Thoreau

“A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener.” - Henry David Thoreau

“Behind the clouds is the sun still shining.” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.” -Jamais Cascio

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” -John Ruskin

“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.” -Lord Byron

“And one day she discovered that she was fierce, and strong, and full of fire, and that not even she could hold herself back because her passion burned brighter than her fears.” – Mark Anthony

“The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn’t it be?–it is the same the angels breathe.” -Mark Twain

“Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the ocean of your bliss.” - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

“There is a hidden message in every waterfall. It says, if you are flexible, falling will not hurt you!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

“Some women are lost in the fire. Some women are built from it.” -Michelle K.

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much.”– Mother Teresa

“The way up to the top of the mountain is always longer than you think. Don’t fool yourself, the moment will arrive when what seemed so near is still very far.” - Paulo Coelho

“A rock cairn is kind of like déjà vu; it let’s you know you are where you are supposed to be.” -Ryan DeMasters (Me)

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” - Sir Edmund Hillary

“Don’t wait for the storms of your life to pass. Learn to dance in the rain.” - Steve Rizzo

“For hiking is one of those things that you can only do when you have the determination in you.” -Unknown

“The best view comes after the hardest climb.” - Unknown

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

Sunrise/Sunset:

“The sunrise, of course, doesn’t care if we watch it or not. It will keep on being beautiful, even if no one bothers to look at it.” – Gene Amole

“When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.” -Mahatma Gandhi

“Sunset is so marvellous that even the sun itself watches it every day in the reflections of the infinite oceans” – Murat Ildan

“Sunsets are my escape into the reality I want to consistently live” – Rachel Roy

“Don’t forget beautiful sunsets need cloudy skies” – Paulo Coelho

“I have come to realize why I love sunset in the mountains. Its because I have been there, on that peak, that summit, and can appreciate the view from every angle even when I am no longer on it.” – Ryan DeMasters (Me)

“On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful souls, it is always morning.” - Henry David Thoreau

Travel:

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” –Anais Nin

“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” –Benjamin Disraeli

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustav Flaubert

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

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

“The journey not the arrival matters.” – T.S. Eliot

Trees:

“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.” - Kahlil Gebran

“Deep down, at the molecular heart of life, the trees and we are essentially identical.” – Carl Sagan

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Water (Lakes, Oceans, Rivers, Waterfalls):

“Run wild and free like a waterfall” – Anamika Mishra

“Look with open eyes and you will see the beauty of the waterfall.” – Anthony Hincks

“The sea is emotion incarnate. It loves, hates, and weeps. It defies all attempts to capture it with words and rejects all shackles. No matter what you say about it, there is always that which you can’t.” -Christopher Paolini

“God is discovered entirely through creation – the brilliance of a sunset, the powerful roar of a waterfall, the symphony of sounds you hear in the heart of the forest, or the vastness of space and its countless stars.” – Benjamin F Sullivan

“So lovely was the loneliness of a wild lake.” – Edgar Allan Poe

“To escape and sit quietly on the beach – that’s my idea of paradise.” -Emilia Wickstead

“If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends.” -Enoch Powell

Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe.” – Henry David Thoreau

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” -Heraclitus

“A river cuts through rock not because of its power but because of its persistence.” – Jim Watkins

“As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can.” – John Muir

“The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing.”  – John Muir

“Be like a river. Be open. Flow.” -Julie Connor

“Mist to mist, drops to drops. For water thou art, and unto water shalt thou return.” – Kamand Kojouri

“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.” – Kate Chopin

“As one goes through life, one learns that if you don’t paddle your own canoe, you don’t move.” -Katherine Hepburn

“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.” - Khalil Gibran

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” -Mahatma Gandhi

“We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.” -Mother Teresa

“A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure.”  – Oliver Wendell Holmes

“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” – Henry David Thoreau

“With meditation I found a ledge above the waterfall of my thoughts.” –Mary Pipher

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress.” – Margaret Atwood

“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“There’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.” -Sarah Kay

“The two best reasons to buy a kayak rather than just renting are sunsets and sunrises.” – Thomas P. Jones

“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.” – Toni Morrison

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” – Winnie the Pooh

“A waterfall is concerned only with being itself, not with doing something it considers waterfall-like.” –Vernon Howard

Pets/Companions:

“​Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer” - Dean Koontz

Views:

“When everything feels like an uphill struggle, Just think of the view from the top.” – Anonymous

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” – Aristotle

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Sills

“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet." - Bob Marley

“Traveling’s not something you’re good at. It’s something you do. Like Breathing.” – Gayle Foreman

“After a day’s walk everything has twice its usual value.” –George Macauley Trevelyan

“There it is, fog, atmospheric moisture still uncertain in destination, not quite weather and not altogether mood, yet partaking of both.” -Hal Borland

“In nature, light creates the color. In the picture, color creates the light.” -Hans Hoffman

“It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau

“As lone as God, and white as a winter moon, Mount Shasta starts up sudden and solitary from the heart of the great black forests of Northern California.” – Joaquin Miller

“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.” -John Muir

“Of all the mountain ranges I have climbed, I like the Sierra Nevada the best.” -John Muir

“No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty. Whether as seen carving the lines of the mountains with glaciers, or gathering matter into stars, or planning the movement of water, or gardening – still all is Beauty.” - John Muir

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness..” - John Muir

“Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God.” - John Muir

“The sun shines not on us but in us.” - John Muir

“Nature’s beauty is a gift that cultivates appreciation and gratitude.” –  Louie Schwartzberg

“The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” -Marcel Proust

“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.” - Martin Luther

“Clouds, they make a painting out of the sky.” - Marty Rubin

“In nature, everything has a job. The job of the fog is to beautify further the existing beauties!” -Mehmet Murat ildan

“Fog is my weakness, and every time there is low fog, I am out and about with my camera.” - Om Malik

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” - Rabindranath Tagore

“Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” - Roy M. Goodman

“Sometimes we must leave man made dwellings to experience the view from another window.” - Me (Ryan DeMasters)

“At the beach, life is different. Time doesn’t move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides, and follow the sun.” – Sandy Gringas

“Our message, without preaching, is how to treat wildlife and to have empathy for all animals.” -Terri Irwin

“If you can reach out and touch and love and be with wildlife, you will forever be changed, and you will want to make the world a better place.” -Terri Irwin

“The most beautiful in the world is, of course, the world itself.” – Wallace Stevens

Wildflowers:

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change.” - Buddha

“I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.” - Edward Abbey

“Flowers are the music of the ground. From earth’s lips spoken without sound.” – Edwin Curran

“One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few.” - Emily Dickinson

“I’m really quite simple. I plant flowers and watch them grow… I stay at home and watch the river flow.” - George Harrison

“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.” - Hans Christian Anderson

“Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.” - Hellen Keller

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” – Henri Matisse

“Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower.” - John Harrigan

“…my first journeys would be into the inner substance of flowers, and among the folds and mazes…” - John Muir

“Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.” -John Muir

“In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.” – Kozuko Okakura

“A flower does not use words to announce its arrival to the world; it just blooms.” -Matshona Dhliwayo

“If beautiful lilies bloom in ugly waters, you too can blossom in ugly situations.” -Matshona Dhliwayo

“Flowers are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities in the world.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Love is like wildflowers; it’s often found in the most unlikely places.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change.” - Richard Branson

“What a lonely place it would be to have a world without a wildflower!” - Roland R Kemler

“Minds are like flowers; they open only when the time is right.” - Stephen Richards

“To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wildflower.” - William Blake

Wildlife:

“Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life.” - Jeffrey Glassberg

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” - Nathaniel Hawthorne

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” - Maya Angelou

Winter/Snow:

“Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.” - Andy Goldsworthy

“When snow falls, nature listens.” - Antoinette van Kleef

“To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold.” - Aristotle

Of winter’s lifeless world each tree Now seems a perfect part; Yet each one holds summer’s secret Deep down within its heart. - Charles G. Stater

“With every falling flake, a unique spark of interest falls from heaven.” - P. Miller