Hiking Quotes - just for fun.

[David]

Hi All - in a 'waiting for 2019 to switch on' way I was sort of cruising Google images and found a plethora of hiking quotes - some profound, some funny .... thought I might start a thread of hiking quotes? (Couldn't find any Camino specific ones!)
Anyone in??

Here are a couple to start

 

[mspath]

Emerson well describes not hiking but simple walking.

"Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence
and nothing too much...."
----Ralph Waldo Emerson,
----Country Life, 1858.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Hi David (camino angel), I hope this thread takes off as it's a great idea!

 

[Canuck]

Your choice...
https://www.google.com/search?clien.....1..gws-wiz-img.......35i39j0i67.jQBuXTe3_70

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Your choice...
https://www.google.com/search?clien.....1..gws-wiz-img.......35i39j0i67.jQBuXTe3_70

Fantastic! You just turned this thread into 100 individual posts!

 

[Magwood]

Two of my favourites...

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.
--- Roger Miller

 

[Purky]

"When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen."

Winnie-the-Pooh

 

[Former member 49149]

HOW TO GET THERE

Go to the end of the path until you get to the gate.
Go through the gate and head straight out towards the horizon.
Keep going towards the horizon.
Sit down and have a rest every now and again,
But keep on going, just keep on with it.
Keep on going as far as you can.
That’s how you get there.
Leunig.

 

[Deleted member 43985]

An appropriate line from a Tolkien poem: "...Not all those who wander are lost..."

 

[Former member 42123]

Hi All - in a 'waiting for 2019 to switch on' way I was sort of cruising Google images and found a plethora of hiking quotes - some profound, some funny .... thought I might start a thread of hiking quotes? (Couldn't find any Camino specific ones!)
Anyone in??

Here are a couple to start

View attachment 50370

View attachment 50371

Not exactly a"printed quote",but one I heard the lady say as I came down a steep slope shortly before Astorga in September.As I passed her I asked if she was o.k as she seemed to be struggling.Her reply will stay with me forever " IT'S SO UNFAIR,THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO PUT ALL THESE ROCKS ON THE ROADS OUT HERE ".

 

[Icacos]

By our own @William Garza:

"Joy on the road for me was being empty.
The Squirrels in my head go away
All emotions go away

There is nothing...and in that nothing
Is everything."

 

[Icacos]

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.
--- Roger Miller

I couldn't help it. Your quote reminded me of this one of Leonard Cohen:

I don’t consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

Speaks for itself .

 

[Deleted member 67185]

 

[Bumpa]

This concerns the poster whose husband suffered from painful "hiker/jogger's nipples" "If God had intended man to jog.or hike; he would have put flaps over the nipples'

 

[Marc S.]

Good old Nietzsche comes to my mind (never read him, love to name drop him) :
"All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking."
"Only ideas won by walking have any value"

 

[Marc S.]

And of course Scottish folk band the Proclaimers offer the most romantic walking quote ever:
"I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door"

 

[timr]

We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us. Even while the earth sleeps we travel. We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and are scattered.

Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

 

[timr]

If you go out for several hours into a place that is wild, your mind begins to slow down, down, down. What is happening is that the clay or your body is retrieving its own sense of sisterhood with the great clay of the landscape.
from Walking on the Pastures of Wonder
by John O’Donohue (late Irish priest, poet, prophet and mystic)
He is actually talking here about being still, but I think he would have been happy enough to allow walking, to get to the place of stillness!!

 

[MKalcolm M]

Forever forwards, forever alive. Walt Whitman.

 

[Anamya]

An appropriate line from a Tolkien poem: "...Not all those who wander are lost..."

I was going to mention that one too. It is a bit of a nerdy one, but maybe that is way it worked so well for me when I read it at age 13

And @Magwood is surely referring to the Alto da Portela from CP in #6

My contribution is a very short verse by a Brazilian Poet called Vinicius de Moraes (who also wrote Girl from Ipanema). He was talking about love, but it applies to the Camino:

"Be infinite while it lasts."

 

[Deleted member 67185]

Another of my favorite quotes is by Colin Fletcher, who provided much inspiration to me through his writings about hiking. This is a bit lengthy, but it is applicable.

“But if you judge safety to be the paramount consideration in life you should never, under any circumstances, go on long hikes alone. Don’t take short hikes alone, either – or, for that matter, go anywhere alone. And avoid at all costs such foolhardy activities as driving, falling in love, or inhaling air that is almost certainly riddled with deadly germs. Wear wool next to the skin. Insure every good and chattel you possess against every conceivable contingency the future might bring, even if the premiums half-cripple the present. Never cross an intersection against a red light, even when you can see all roads are clear for miles. And never, of course, explore the guts of an idea that seems as if it might threaten one of your more cherished beliefs.

In your wisdom you will probably live to be a ripe old age. But you may discover, just before you die, that you have been dead for a long, long time.”

 

[Robo]

"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

 

[Icacos]

"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

So very, very true!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I love every single quote, famous or otherwise! What an uplifting and thought provoking thread. Thanks, David!

 

[KinkyOne]

If you go out for several hours into a place that is wild, your mind begins to slow down, down, down. What is happening is that the clay or your body is retrieving its own sense of sisterhood with the great clay of the landscape.
from Walking on the Pastures of Wonder
by John O’Donohue (late Irish priest, poet, prophet and mystic)
He is actually talking here about being still, but I think he would have been happy enough to allow walking, to get to the place of stillness!!

Exactly, Tim!!!
Thanks for this one.

 

[timr]

This is what the Lord says:
‘Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.' (Jeremiah 6:16)

I hope the bible is allowed? If you read the remaining few words of this verse in your bible you will see that this very sound advice was ignored!

 

[Purky]

Bruce Chatwin has many excellent quotes when it comes to walking, and I had trouble picking one. I decided on this one, inspired by the post of @timr:

"I haven't got any special religion this morning. My God is the God of Walkers. If you walk hard enough, you probably don't need any other god."

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I love the Bible, timr! Great quote!

 

[P Rat]

An appropriate line from a Tolkien poem: "...Not all those who wander are lost..."

Love this one! have it a a quote on our travel blog

 

[P Rat]

"He who would travel happily must travel light"-anon.
I think it is a great metaphor

 

[David Tallan]

And of course Scottish folk band the Proclaimers offer the most romantic walking quote ever:
"I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door"

That would be from Le Puy to the Portico of Glory, right?

 

[Albertagirl]

This from the first chapter of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings:
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

 

[JennyH94]

This quote is such a cliche but it's apt for the Camino:



It's one to use on those occasional tough days on the Camino or for that last 5km of the walking day that seems to take forever - simple and very helpful.

Cheers from Oz -
Jenny

 

[Turga]

 

[Marina Zd]

My favourite quote:

"The Camino is God's dream for how people should be when they're with each other."

 

[musicman]

Not sure if these are the exact words, but I recollect it as follows:-

“ I met many walking towards Santiago and many walking away from somewhere”

 

[t2andreo]

Not original, but we have ALL heard it at one time or another:

"But, it didn't look that difficult (hard) in THE MOVIE (The Way...)..."

Some of my personal favorites:

"It's not very far...just around the next bend (over the next hill...)"

"Solvitur Ambulando cum Deo” (Walking with God, everything is solved..."

How to get to Santiago..."Simply point yourself towards the end of the earth (Finisterre), start walking. Just place one foot in front of the other. Repeat about one million steps, and stop when you get to the cathedral."

How do I get to Finisterre (from the Pilgrim Office?... "Simple, just go the the end of this street, turn right at the old church (San Fructoso), walk four days and STOP at the REALLY BIG lake. That would be the Atlantic Ocean...at the end of the earth (Finisterre)."

I am enjoying this thread...lots of good memories...

 

[Gerard Murdoch]

And of course Scottish folk band the Proclaimers offer the most romantic walking quote ever:
"I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door"

Da da lat da (Da da lat da)
Da da lat da (Da da lat da)
... Etc... x5

 

[LisaAnn]

It had nothing to do with gear or footwear or the backpacking fads or philosophies of any particular era or even with getting from point A to point B.​

​

It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.​

Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

 

[Chris Day]

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be”
-Douglas Adams

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go"
- T S Eliot

 

[David]

"The moon & sun are eternal travellers. Even the years wander on.
A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
From the earliest times there have always been some who have perished along the road.
Still I have always been drawn by windblown clouds into dreams of a lifetime of wandering."

Matsuo Basho (1644-94) Zen Master and Abbot

... from my earliest childhood memories, first long wanderings away at three and a half, to be brought unwillingly back by police car, I have known this, dreamt this xx

 

[Former member 49149]

And of course Scottish folk band the Proclaimers offer the most romantic walking quote ever:
"I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door"

 

[AndreaCT]

Some of my personal favorites:

"It's not very far...just around the next bend (over the next hill...)"

t2andreo - you made me laugh out loud this morning!! Your comment took me right back to the early 80's when a bunch of my friends and I would go hiking on the West Coast Trail during summer breaks. In our exhausted, soaking wet (it rained every year) states we were sure that there was a conspiracy against us when we were repeatedly told from people hiking the opposite direction to us that the next campsite was only 1 km away or just past the next beach. It felt like hours before we reached any decent place to pitch our tents. Thanks for bringing up that memory!

 

[jsalt]

“Each of us has to discover his own path – of that I am sure. Some paths will be spectacular and others peaceful and quiet – who is to say which is the most important?” Sir Edmund Hilary, “Nothing Venture Nothing Win”.

 

[jsalt]

“A traveller! By my faith, you have good reason to be sad: I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men’s; then, to have seen much, and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands.” Shakespeare, “As You Like It” Act IV Scene 1.

 

[jsalt]

“Romance is always over the next hill; till it’s back at a waterhole 40 years behind.” Ernestine Hill, “The Northern Territory”.

 

[jsalt]

“But the real travellers are those alone who set out for the sake of setting out; hearts that are light, like balloons, they never turn aside from their destiny, and without knowing why, are always saying: ‘Let’s go!’” Baudelaire.

 

[PilgrimJames]

Are we there yet?.................

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Trudging along, she said "How much farther?" He replied "We'll get there when we get there!"...........

 

[Former member 49149]

I looked up a song I learned at the age of 5. My town celebrated 750 years of being a town and all the schools were choreographed into a performance that must have caused a huge headache to the organisers! Our piece, and I don’t know how many of us were on stage, was the Happy Wanderer. i just looked it up and have selected one of many... others have the lyrics on screen. Towards the end it goes; I hope i go a-wandering until the day I die...

 

[Former member 49149]

From malingerer’s latest offering:

Walk soft

stay safe

and

as ever

Vaya

con Dios

 

[ConnachtRambler]

In the 1960s a friend stopped a local on a remote road in Co. Donegal and asked, "Where will this road take me".
The answer he got, "Anywhere in the world you'd like to go".

 

[Nomad Pack]

Well everyone is always telling me to move my ass.....
The donkey just don't find it funny anymore

 

[Former member 69452]

One of my faves:

"We can cultivate the soul of a pilgrim where we stay open to a way of life that is always open to newness. Ultimately pilgrimage is an outer journey in the service of this inner transformation." Christine Valters Paintner

 

[Sixwheeler]

Every journey starts with a first step.
Buddha

 

[Sixwheeler]

These boots are made for walking and that's just what they'll do.
Nancy Sinatra

 

[John Crawford Howell]

This quote is such a cliche but it's apt for the Camino:

View attachment 50397

It's one to use on those occasional tough days on the Camino or for that last 5km of the walking day that seems to take forever - simple and very helpful.

Cheers from Oz -
Jenny

And always, it seems, uphill to the pueblo where your Alburgue awaits...

 

[Caligal]

I looked up a song I learned at the age of 5. My town celebrated 750 years of being a town and all the schools were choreographed into a performance that must have caused a huge headache to the organisers! Our piece, and I don’t know how many of us were on stage, was the Happy Wanderer. i just looked it up and have selected one of many... others have the lyrics on screen. Towards the end it goes; I hope i go a-wandering until the day I die...

Thank you for a sweet memory I learned this song as a kid in Campfire Girls haven’t heard it in 50 years!

 

[Lisa HS]

I love this one from Scotland and California's very own Saint of the Outdoors, John Muir. Here he is talking about the spectacular Sierra Nevada mountains.

"I don't like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not 'hike!' Do you know the origin of that word saunter? It's a beautiful word. Away back in the middle ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going they would reply, 'A la sainte terre', 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike'..."​

 

[Tazz]

Favorite quote (lyrics)
Bob Marley: "My feet is my only carriage" which some people feel is actually "my faith is my only courage". Either sounds good to me.

Favorite word coined during my recent camino was made by my daughter who one evening used the word "albergue" to represent not only where were going to sleep that night but also the large glass of wine or Hierbas needed to actually fall asleep in the "albergue"

 

[PilgrimJames]

This quote resonated with me over the Christmas as I pondered my Camino experience -
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
P.S.
Still a work in progress..................

 

[KinkyOne]

What my mom told me on my first Camino in 2009 when I started from SJPdP with twisted ankle:
"Walking the Camino you can make yourself miserable or strong. But the amount of walking will be still the same."
She was walking with me and all healthy so it was easy for her to say it. But even if I was miserable (went home from Logrono) I caught that Camino bug quite successfully

 

[cherrys]

This from the first chapter of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings:
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

I was just going to quote that as it’s one of my favorites and often though of on the Camino. Another, often thought of on the Norte is Dylan’s
“Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea,
Circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate,
Driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow....
Or indeed all of Mr. Tambourine Man

 

[Caligal]

This was a little shrine outside Astorga, it really spoke to my heart.

 

[Hiawatha]

One of my own .
" Walk till you run out of dirt"

 

[Keyes]

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

 

[KJFSophie]

We're all just walking each other home.....

 

[KJFSophie]

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.” ~ Rumi

 

[David Tallan]

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" (Chinese: 千里之行，始於足下; pinyin: Qiānlǐ zhī xíng, shǐyú zú xià; literally: "A journey of a thousand Chinese miles (li) starts beneath one's feet") - Lao Tzu

Dedicated to those who walk the Camino from Le Puy or other caminos of a similar length.

 

[Theresa Brandon]

"Why do you go away?
So that you can come back.
So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors.
And the people there see you differently, too.
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
― Terry Pratchett

 

[David Tallan]

"Why do you go away?
So that you can come back.
So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors.
And the people there see you differently, too.
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
― Terry Pratchett

You can never go wrong with Sir Terry Pratchett.

 

[Hiawatha]

I have this written on the inside top flap of most of my back packs and certainly every one that I have used on a Camino .
''Nevertheless I shall walk today and tomorrow and all the days after ''.
Luke 13.33.

 

[camino-david]

What wonderful posts.
I remember visiting a semi-remote Pacific Island and asked how far it was to the church and being told it was a short long way. I wondered if that was different to a long short way. We arranged to meet later to go to the church service as I wanted to hear the villagers sing. He told me he would see me at 10am but arrived at 4pm. You just roll with it as they had no conception, and not needed it. It makes for very relaxed life.

 

[KinkyOne]

In the middle of that killer uphill after Castrojeriz:
"Where's all the air for breathing? I'm not leaving until I know."

 

[t2andreo]

In the middle of that killer uphill after Castrojeriz:
"Where's all the air for breathing? I'm not leaving until I know."

In the middle of that killer uphill after Castrojeriz:
"Where's all the air for breathing? I'm not leaving until I know."

I LOVED that one. My lungs...Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum...especially liked it. They usually follow the rest of me up most any hill...by about five minutes.

 

[Emia]

I just love this one

 

[David]

Here is a quote I just made - taken from WW11 propaganda poster - Rosie the Riveter.

 

[David]

 

[mjal]

Is this the ultimate in minimalist equipment and spontaneity?

Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence.​

— John Muir

A little different from those posts which begin "I am walking a Camino in 2020 and need to know xyz" ; insert your own favourite theme here.

 

[habanerocat]

An Old Irish blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

 

[Albertagirl]

Is this the ultimate in minimalist equipment and spontaneity?

Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence.​

— John Muir

A little different from those posts which begin "I am walking a Camino in 2020 and need to know xyz" ; insert your own favourite theme here.

@mjal
In addition to these, I think you need, as a minimum, a wool blanket and an empty tin and some matches, to keep warm at night and to heat the water for your tea and drink it out of. In my youth, I heard of an elderly Chinese man who walked a long trail in the Canadian Rockies with just these and basic clothing and running shoes, although I think he had a bag of rice rather than a loaf of bread. He was credited with having walked the Long March in China with Mao and finding the Canadian Rockies very tame indeed. I find that, as I get older, if I want to go on walking I have to travel lighter.

 

[KinkyOne]

Trying to be funny:

"While walking the Camino I've hurt my knee. The one on my leg." (not really a quote but more like Y.Berra would say it.)

"It's always worse before it gets better." (I think I got this one on this very forum in past years.)

"Left foot says to the right foot: Now I have enough. It’s finished between us!" (After a looong Camino.)

 

[Icacos]

"It's always worse before it gets better."

It's always darkest before it's pitch black.

 

[sal777]

Everywhere is walking distance, if you have the time...

Stephen Wright, US Comedian

 

[sal777]

I can gather all the news I need from the weather report

From the great Paul Simon, and very true on the Camino

 

[sal777]

It was then I knew I'd had enough,
Burned my credit card for fuel​

Headed out to where the pavement​

turns to sand​

Neil Young ‘Thresher’

 

[sal777]

People will tell you where they’ve gone
They’ll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Others just come to harm

Joni Mitchell, “Amelia”, a song I listened to many times on the meseta

 

[Canche]

Two of my favourites...View attachment 50374View attachment 50375

These are wonderful. Wish I could figure out how to copy them

 

[Peligro]

It's basically Tolkien but Led Zeppelin's Over the Hills and Far Away,
... oh darling, darling darling walk a while with me
Ohh, you've got so much, so much, so much
Bada, bada
Many have I loved, and many times been bitten
Many times I've gazed along the open road
Many times I've lied, and many times I've listened
Many times I've wondered how much there is to know

 

[yaying]

View attachment 50377

Speaks for itself .

.... i do believe someday my walk will be half mine and half dedicated to someone else.

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

.... i do believe someday my walk will be half mine and half dedicated to someone else.

Did that for children with cancer, you know it feld so good.

 

[marggie]

Hi All - in a 'waiting for 2019 to switch on' way I was sort of cruising Google images and found a plethora of hiking quotes - some profound, some funny .... thought I might start a thread of hiking quotes? (Couldn't find any Camino specific ones!)
Anyone in??

Here are a couple to start

View attachment 50370

View attachment 50371

 

[marggie]

Love the quotes, especially the one with the Roots instead of shoes!! That is just so true..

 

[David]

These are wonderful. Wish I could figure out how to copy them

Right click on an attachment - opens in a new window. Right click on the image - choose "save image as"

 

[Waka]

A quote that not only applies to the camino but to everything in life.

Whats for you won't go by you.

Not sure where it's from.

 

[camino07]

A quote that not only applies to the camino but to everything in life.

Whats for you won't go by you.

Not sure where it's from.

My old Scottish Grannie used to say that and also When one door closes another one opens.
I like; If you never never go you'll never never know.

 

[Former member 49149]

My old Scottish Grannie used to say that and also When one door closes another one opens.
I like; If you never never go you'll never never know.

Your Scottish grannie must have lived very near my Scottish grannie! indeed, a lesson for life. You have to be there for the mud to stick. Now where do you think that came out of?

I only had Scottish grannies...

 

[efdoucette]

Only relates to walking as it was an observation from my first Camino, I think it was Bob Dylon
"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now"