A large number of our customers make books of their travel blogs. Blogs of voyages of all types, documenting days, weeks, months, years, sometimes decades. Whether cycling to Alaska, sailing the South Pacific, motorcycling the Steppes or eating their way the length of South America, it’s clear that these travellers take inspiration from those that have preceeded them just as their own journeys and writings will inspire others.

Looking back at blog book orders over the last month, we’ve collected some of the inspiring travel quotes that speak to us and our own philosophy of travel. Our customers have featured these quotes in the blurbs on the front cover, back cover, or title page of their blog books.

Sweetness

“…by bringing myself over the edge and back, I discovered a passion to live my days fully, a conviction that will sustain me like sweet water on the periodically barren plain of our short lives.” – Jonathan Waterman

Jonathan Waterman talks about finding the extremes, the limits – but even small variations from the daily routine add sweetness to life.

Comfort

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.” – Christopher McCandless - Into the Wild

Going beyond your comfort zone, for Christopher McCandless, is not just leaving it, but burning it behind you. Of course, some could say it didn’t end very well for him but we can also say it is the journey, not the end, that inspires. In the film it is clear, and to a lesser degree in the biography, that joy is best a joy shared – so burn your stuff, not your friends.

Discovery

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that 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

Intent

“To reach a port we must set sail – sail, not tie at anchor – sail, not drift.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

A ship is safest in port. But that is not what a ship is made for. When you leave your port, set your direction. Only dead fish go with the flow.

Change

“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

“At its best, travel should challenge our preconceptions and most cherished views, cause us to rethink our assumptions, shake us a bit, make us broader minded and more understanding.” – Arthur Frommer

What Blurb for Your Blog Book?

What is your travel philosophy? What inspires you? What blurb will you put on the back of your blog book?

Be it a well chosen quote, your own words, or no words at all, your blurb sets the tone of your book, frames it, and gives context to all that is within. It is well worth some thought and, like your travels, you can take inspiration from the blurbs of others.