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Adventure Quotes

The Art of Stillness [Book]

    The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer

    By: Pico Iyer

    From this Book:  14 Quotes

    Book Overview:  Why might a lifelong traveler like Pico Iyer, who has journeyed from Easter Island to Ethiopia, Cuba to Kathmandu, think that sitting quietly in a room might be the ultimate adventure? Because in our madly accelerating world, our lives are crowded, chaotic and noisy. There’s never been a greater need to slow down, tune out and give ourselves permission to be still.

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    Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

      “When friends ask me for suggestions about where to go on vacation, I’ll sometimes ask if they want to try Nowhere, especially if they don’t want to have to deal with visas and injections and long lines at the airport.  One of the beauties of Nowhere is that you never know where you’ll end up when you head in its direction, and though the horizon is unlimited, you may have very little sense of what you’ll see along the way.  The deeper blessing is that it can get you as wide-awake, exhilarated, and pumping-hearted as when you are in love.” ~ Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

        “It matters not where or how far you travel – the farther commonly the worse – but how much alive you are.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

          “To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, to draw closer, to find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of life.” ~ The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

          The Road Not Taken

            Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

            And sorry I could not travel both

            And be one traveler, long I stood

            And looked down one as far as I could

            To where it bent in the undergrowth;

             

            Then took the other, as just as fair,

            And having perhaps the better claim,

            Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

            Though as for that the passing there

            Had worn them really about the same,

             

            And both that morning equally lay

            In leaves no step had trodden black.

            Oh, I kept the first for another day!

            Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

            I doubted if I should ever come back.

             

            I shall be telling this with a sign

            Somewhere ages and ages hence:

            Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

            I took the one less traveled by,

            And that has made all the difference.

             

            ~ Robert Frost

              “Visiting a new town is like having a conversation.  Places ask questions of you just as searchingly as you question them.  And, as in any conversation, it helps to listen with an open mind, so you can be led somewhere unexpected.  The more you leave assumptions at home, I’ve found, the better you can hear whatever it is that a destination is trying to say to you.” ~ Pico Iyer

                “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next to find ourselves.  We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate.  We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed.  And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again – to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” ~ Pico Iyer

                  “Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. 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.” ~ Chris McCandless, Into the Wild

                    “The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.” ~ Lord Chesterfield

                      “Adventure is curiosity, the willingness to embrace uncertainty, wondering about the possibility of doing just one thing differently than before.” ~ Bruce Kirby