Quotes About Exploration

explore the neighborhood, view the landscape, to discover at least where it is that we have been so startlingly set down, if we can't learn why.

You quit your house and country, quit your ship, and quit your companions in the tent, saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time." The light on the far side of the blizzard lures you. You walk, and one day you enter the spread heart of silence, where lands dissolve and seas become vapor and ices sublime under unknown stars. This is the end of the Via Negativa, the lightless edge where the slopes of knowledge dwindle, and love for its own sake, lacking an object, begins.

What limpid lakes and cool date palms may our caravans have passed untried? Until, one by one, by the blindest of leaps, we light on the road to these places, we must stumble in darkness and hunger.

Books swept me away, one after the other, this way and that; I made endless vows according to their lights, for I believed them.

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.

The line of words is a miner's pick, a woodcarver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory.

It's common sense: when you move in, you try to learn the neighborhood.

Everywhere, things snagged me. The visible world turned me curious to books; the books propelled me reeling back to the world.

W HEN YOU WRITE , you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner's pick, a woodcarver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow, or this time next year.

She read books as one would breath air, to fill up and live.

The line of words feels for cracks in the firmament.

I WALKED. My mother had given me the freedom of the streets as soon as I could say our telephone number. I walked and memorized the neighborhood. I made a mental map and located myself upon it. At night in bed I rehearsed the small world's scheme and set challenges: Find the store using backyards only. Imagine a route from the school to my friend's house. I mastered chunks of town in one direction only; I ignored the other direction

As a young person, and I know it's hard to believe that I was shy, but you could take your camera, and it would take you to places: it was like having a friend, like having someone to go out with and look at the world. I would do things with a camera I wouldn't do normally if I was just by myself.

You always run into something no matter where you go. Turns out you're someplace after all.

She follows the putrid cloud downstairs and

We observe few objects really closely. As we walk on the earth, we observe the external events at two or three arms' lengths. If we ride a horse or drive in an automobile, we are further separated from the immediate surround. We see and photograph scenery; our vast world is inadequately described as the landscape. The most intimate object perceived daily is usually the printed page. The small and commonplace are rarely explored.

There is no Final Resting Place of the Mind.

Good food and good eating are about risk.

Looking at these photographs, I know that I will never understand the world I live in or fully know the places I've been. I've learned for sure only what I don't know - and how much I have to learn.

Whatever had the most shock value became my meal of choice.

if you're going to a country, particularly in Southeast Asia, [where] you've never been before, it's a very good idea to go to the market first, see what they're selling, get an idea of what they're good at, what the people are buying.

Just believe me when I tell you that the city is beautiful – and not in the oppressive way of, say, Florence, where you're almost afraid to leave your room because you might break something.

The American woman's interest does not lie in the man; she wants to be alone, and she can't be alone without dabbling, today in chemistry, to-morrow in physiology and the day after in Buddhism.

You know, I'll tell you honestly: if you like food and you haven't come here to eat, you're really missing the fucking boat. This is world-class food; this is world-class wine; this is world-class cheese. The next big thing is Croatia. If you haven't been here, you're a fucking idiot. I'm an idiot.