There’s something about the digital nomad lifestyle that is inherently inspiring. The feeling of being free to explore unfamiliar places and cultures leaves one with an unquenchable sense of curiosity. Quotes by famous and not-so-famous people alike often capture this feeling perfectly.
Whether you’re an aspiring digital nomad, a seasoned backpacker, or just looking for some wise words to inspire and motivate yourself on your journey in life – these will be perfect!
Here are some digital nomad quotes that will make your toes tingle and make you want to be on the road now. Know of any other quotes? Please add some in the comments or send us some!
1. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way – Carl Sandburg
2. I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list – Susan Sontag
3. I was never going to go if I waited for someone to come with me – Laura
4. To travel is to take a journey into oneself – Danny Kaye
5. I would rather own little and see the world than own the world and see little of it – Alexander Sattler
6. Chris Michel – Everyone Has a Story … It’s your story, you write it.
7. A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving – Lao Tzu
8. Once a year go somewhere you’ve never been before – Dalai Lama
9. The road you travel has twists and turns. The life of an entrepreneur has ups and downs. Hang on and enjoy the ride – Libby Tucker
10. Every few hundred feet the world changes – Roberto Bolano
11. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step – Lao Tzu
12. “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
13. “And then there is the most dangerous risk of all — the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.” – Randy Komisar
14. “We wander for distraction but we travel for fulfillment.” – Hilaire Belloc
15. “To travel is to live.” – Hans Christian Andersen
16. “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” – Saint Augustine
17. “The more I travel, the more I realize that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” – Shirley MacLaine
18. “Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky — all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese
19. “If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It is lethal.” – Paulo Coelho
20. “What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do — especially in other people’s minds. 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
21. “Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” – Howard Schultz
22. “To travel is worth any cost or sacrifice.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
23. “The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” – Henry David Thoreau
24. “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
25. “A person susceptible to “wanderlust” is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.” – Pico Iyer
26. “No matter how much experience you have, how many degrees you have, or how well known you have become — there is always something new to learn. Don’t rest on your past experiences. If you do nothing to improve your skills, you won’t stay where you are.” – Laura Spencer
27. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
28. “Jobs fill your pocket, but adventures fill your soul.” – Jamie Lyn Beatty
29. “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca
30. “Adventure is a path. Real adventure, self-determined, self-motivated, often risky, forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world.” – Mark Jenkins
31. “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide
32. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
33. “Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.” – Dalai Lama
34. “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson
35. “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” Lewis Carroll
36. “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark
37. “If you’ve got an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going. That doesn’t mean quit your job and jump into your idea 100 percent from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement.” – Kevin Systrom
38. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
39. “For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.” – Timothy Ferriss
40. “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust
41. “If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company.” – Jean-Paul Sartre
42. “If a man would move the world, he must first move himself.“ – Socrates
43. “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley
44. “In 20 years, you will be more disappointed by what you didn’t do than by what you did.“ – Mark Twain
45. “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” – Anthony Bourdain
46. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
47. “I travel not to cross countries off a list, but to ignite passionate affairs with destinations.” – Nyssa P. Chopra
48. “Long-term travel is not an act of rebellion against society; it’s an act of common sense within society.” – Rolf Potts
49. “The most beautiful in the world is, of course, the world itself.” – Wallace Stevens
50. “You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions.” – Steve Case
51. “A year from now you will wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb
52. “I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Anne Radmacher
53. “Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret.” – Oscar Wilde
54. “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux
55. “Vocation is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” – Frederick Buechner
56. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot
We hope you enjoyed these digital nomad quotes! These words have never failed to inspire us to go on a daring adventure, explore secret destinations and unknown lands, or just wander around this wonderful world, with no fixed plans reveling in the location independent lifestyle we chose to live.
If these quotes about digital nomads motivated you to make some changes in your own life, be sure to check out our blog guide on How to Become a Digital Nomad. It features tips and strategies on flourishing with a digital nomad lifestyle, including a guide on remote jobs, how to travel light, and ways to choose one’s destination for first timers.
What about you? What are your favorite nomadic life quotes, and why? Share them with us in the comments below.