80+ Inspiring and Insightful Quotes for Hiking and Outdoors (2024)

“The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot.”

– Werner Herzog

“Hiking and happiness go hand in hand (or foot in boot).”

– Diane Spicer

“Where the heart loves, there the legs walk.”

– Maltese Proverb

“Where the signposts end, the trail begins.”

– Marty Rubin

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

– Lao Tzu

“The climb speaks to our character, but the view, I think, to our souls.”

– Lori Lansens

“Hike your own hike.”

– Ben Crawford

“It’s ever so ‘portant how you walk’.”

– A.A. Milne (Winne-the-Pooh)

“Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer.”

– John Muir

“An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”

– Henry David Thoreau

“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.”

– Steven Wright

“To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles.”

– Mary Davis

“I know I can’t own a hilltop, a meadow, or a mountainside. But keeping it a secret somehow makes it mine.”

– Joyce Rachelle

“Chasing angels or fleeing demons, go to the mountains.”

– Jeffrey Rasley

“Throw me to the mountains, I’ll be at peace as long as I live.”

– Shashank Rayal

“Without the energy that lifts mountains, how am I to live?”

– Mirabai

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

– Henry David Thoreau

“Because it’s there.”

– George Mallory‘s famous mountain quote

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

– Beverly Sills

“There is always an adventure waiting in the woods.”

– Katelyn S. Bolds

“The pull of the mountain is like gravity for my soul.”

– Heather Day Gilbert

“So easy to go sailing off this road. A wonder more folks didn’t. All that space, waiting.”

– S.M. Hulse

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

– John Muir

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

“It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”

– Sir Edmund Hillary

“Between every two pines there is a doorway to a new world.”

– John Muir

“Carry as little as possible, but choose that little with care.”

– Earl Shaffer

“A walk in nature walks the soul back home.”

– Mary Davis

“Walking…is how the body measures itself against the earth.”

– Rebecca Solnit

“After a day’s walk, everything has twice its usual value.”

– G.M. Trevelyan

“Clouds come and go, the mountain remains.”

– Meeta Ahluwalia

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

– Robert Frost

“You need special shoes for hiking – and a bit of a special soul as well.”

– Terri Guillemets

“The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness.”

– John Muir

“The path reveals itself once you start walking.”

– Abhijit Naskar

“Each fresh peak ascended teaches something.”

– Sir Martin Conway

“I was no longer following a trail. I was learning to follow myself.”

– Aspen Matis

“The sea tells you everything will be fine. The mountains tell you it doesn’t matter anyway.”

– Adeel Ahmed Khan

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

– Robert Frost

“Eat according to the limits of your provisions; walk according to the length of your step.”

– Tibetan Proverb

“It is always the same with mountains. Once you have lived with them for any length of time, you belong to them. There is no escape.”

– Ruskin Bond

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilised people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.”

– John Muir

“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.”

– John Muir

“A mountaintop is not simply an elevation, but an island, a world within a world, a place out of place.”

– Paul Gruchow

“…we’re not even really hiking, more like meandering in cinematic light.”

– Kristen Henderson

“In the distance, the Himalayan range flared into fluorescence, as its snowy peaks reflected the moonlight back at the velvet sky, split into half by the shimmering strip of the Milky Way.”

– Kiran Manral

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing views. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”

– Edward Abbey

“There is nothing worse, after days of falling asleep by a babbling brook and waking up to a choir chirping birds, than to go inside a house with insulated walls and an obstructive roof. This tortuous invention, a cage, a box, prevents you from seeing or hearing anything of natural importance. Make time to free yourself and find a bit of nature.”

– Katherine Keith

“Solvitur ambulando, St. Augustine said. It is solved by walking.”

– Laura Kelly

“None of your knowledge, your reading, your connections will be of any use here: two legs suffice, and big eyes to see with. Walk alone, across mountains or through forests. You are nobody to the hills or the thick boughs heavy with greenery.”

– Frederic Gros

“I found far more answers in the woods than I ever did in the city.”

– Mary Davis

“Nature is one of the most underutilised treasures in life. It has the power to unburden hearts and reconnect to that inner place of peace.”

– Dr. Janice Anderson & Kiersten Anderson

“These are things you should notice anyway. To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here’s where things grow…but of course, without the top you can’t have any sides. It’s the top that defines the sides.”

– Robert M. Pirsig

“The hardest mountain to climb is the one within.”

– J. Lynn

“When you have no companion, look to your walking stick.”

– Albanian Proverb

“On life and peaks it is the same. With strength we win the grail, but courage is the thing we need to face the downward trail.”

– Jacob Clifford Moomaw

“You, who know that all the bruises and scrapes from scrambling and rambling are the best because they remind you of being alive.”

– Madison Perrins

“I firmly believe that everyone deserves to live within walking distance of either beauty or convenience, if not both.”

– Victoria Moran

“We move through this world on paths laid down long before we are born.”

– Robert Moor

“On a hike, the days pass with the wind, the sun, the stars; movement is powered by a belly full of food and water, not a noxious tankful of fossil fuels. On a hike, you’re less a job title and more a human being…. A periodic hike not only stretches the limbs but also reminds us: Wow, there’s a big old world out there.”

– Ken Ilgunas

“Days of slow walking are very long: they make you live longer, because you have allowed every hour, every minute, every second to breathe, to deepen, instead of filling them up by straining the joints.”

– Frederic Gros

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

– Andy Rooney

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

– Greg Child

“…in the world of mountains, there will always be someone doing something bigger, better, and crazier.”

– Christine Reed

​​”Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion.”

– Robert M. Pirsig

“Climbing a mountain represents a chance to briefly free oneself of the small concerns of our common lives, to strip off non essentials, to come down to the core of life itself. Food, shelter, and friends – these are the essentials, these plus faith and purpose and a deep and unrelenting determination.”

– Mateo Cabello

“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

“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

“Returning home is the most difficult part of long-distance hiking. You have grown outside the puzzle and your piece no longer fits.”

– Cindy Ross

“Real adventure is defined best as a journey from which you may not come back alive, and certainly not as the same person.”

– Yvon Chouinard

“Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”

– John Kerouac

“The only way to understand a land is to walk it. The only way to drink in its real meaning is to keep it firmly beneath one’s feet… Only the walker can form a wider view.”

– Sinclair McKay

“Walking makes the world much bigger and therefore more interesting.”

– Edward Abbey

“But the beauty is in the walking – we are betrayed by destinations.”

– Gwyn Thomas

“If you have not touched the rocky wall of a canyon. If you have not heard a rushing river pound over cobblestones… If you have not seen the tree line recede to the top of a bare crested mountain. If you have not looked into a pair of wild eyes and seen your own reflection. Please, for the good of your soul, travel west.”

– Daniel J. Rice

“Hiking is not for everyone. Notice the wilderness is mostly empty.”

– Sonja Yoerg

“There aren’t four seasons in the Rocky Mountains, but three: summer, winter, and mud.”

– C.J. Box

“I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.”

– Noel Coward

“And now it was official: I loved REI more than I loved the people behind Snapple lemonade.”

– Cheryl Strayed (Wild)

“Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.”

– Ed Viesturs

“Just because ‘these shoes were made for walking’ doesn’t mean that we should use them on any old road.”

– Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Cover the earth before it covers you.”

– Dagobert D. Runes

“Walking is a virtue, tourism is a deadly sin.”

– Bruce Chatwin

“Some hills are each only a few centimetres short of being a mountain.”

– Mokokoma Mokhonoana