You might recall our literary ode to travel from two weeks ago where we gathered some of the most inspiring words about seeing the world. Today, we bring you nine chunks of wisdom with regards to adventure—in all its sheer grittiness, nakedness, and plain awesomeness – in hopes that you’ll get up off your couch and venture into the unknown.
1. “A man practices the art of adventure when he heroically faces up to life. When he has the daring to open doors to new experiences. When he is unafraid of new ideas, new theories and new philosophies. When he has the curiosity to experiment. When he breaks the chain of routine.” – Wilfred Peterson, The Art of Living
2. “No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
3. “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
4. “Adventure, yeah. I guess that’s what you call it when everybody comes back alive.” – Mercedes Lackey, Spirits White as Lightning
5. “If you want to get more out of life, Ron, 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.” – Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
6. “The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.” – Joseph Campbell
7. “No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride…and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well…maybe chalk it off to forced conscious expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
8. “In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.” – Ansel Adams
And finally:
9. “One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.” – Edward Abbey
