Words to live by: travel quotes

I just saw the movie “127 Hours”, which is less about travel than standing still — it’s about outdoorsman Aron Ralston’s 5-day stint in a Utah canyon, trapped by a rock which fell and pinned his arm against the wall.  Yep, he’s the guy that had to cut his own hand off with a pocket knife.  I’d read his memoir, called “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” several years ago, and mostly remember alternately cringing at the vivid description of the amputation, and sighing at the fantastic descriptions of the American southwest landscape.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the American southwest — the rolling hills and sagebrush and desert colors pop up in books I love to read, like Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Bean Trees” (another book about travel, actually, and one of the best), and I find myself savouring descriptions of it as a place I love to go, although I’ve been there more often in words than reality.

Sometimes you can visit a place more effectively in words that on foot, though, and I did a little looking around for the kind of things I like to read, and found this: Matador’s list of the 50 most inspiring travel quotes.  Read, and go, whether in your car or in your mind.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things 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.” – Mark Twain