What motivates one to give up a safe and comfortable life, quit your job, waste your life savings, leave friends and family for a long time, and try for the great unknown? Some quotations... ...and some more (mostly in German).
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things 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
Live today so you don't have to do it tomorrow.
Live as if there will be no tomorrow, Learn as if there will be no end to time.
Your trip sounds awesome. that should be a lot of fun. Life is too short to sit around dying in front of a computer in an office somewhere...
- Anton Rabien
The dream of yesterday, is the hope of today, and the reality of tomorrow.
Between two evils, always chose the one you haven't tried before.
- Iris
Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground. Go nuts!!!!!! Stand proud!!!
"The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, 'What is the use of climbing Mount Everest ?' and my answer must at once be, 'It is no use'. There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It's no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for."
- George Leigh Mallory
All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the
dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity:
but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act
their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.
- T. E. Lawrence, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom"
"It's not everyone telling me it can't be done that bothers me.
It's them interrupting me while I'm doing it!"
If something breaks:
You can be in trouble even in Upstate New York.
You can be in serious trouble in Northern Minnesota.
You can be seriously dead in Central Alaska.
It seldom happens to Icebikers, because they are too smart, but every year several snowmobilers and skiers are lost in Alaska, the Yukon and other frosty places. The North does not suffer fools gladly.
With the possible exception of written language,
the bicycle just may be the neatest idea we humans
have ever come up with.
- Michael Zezima, "Road Kill: Fifty Reasons why Cars Suck"
The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man.
Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish.
Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
- Iris Murdoch, "The Red and the Green"
Some things have to be seen to be believed
Most things have to be believed to be seen
It's better to climb a mountain and think about god,
than going to a church and think about a mountain...
- unknown climber
I don't mind going nowhere as long as it's an interesting path.
The disadvantages involved in pulling lots of black sticky slime out of the ground where it had been safely hidden out of harm's way, turning it into tar to cover the land with, smoke to fill the air with and pouring the rest into the sea, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of being able to get more quickly from one place to another -- particularly when the place you arrived at has probably become, as a result of this, very similar to the place you had left, i.e., covered with tar, full of smoke, and very short of fish.
- Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
...and the road becomes my bride
I have stripped of all but pride
so in her I do confide
and she keeps me satisfied
gives me all I need
...and with dust in throat I crave
only knowledge will I save
to the game you stay a slave
rover wanderer
nomad vagabond
call me what you will
but I'll take my time anywhere
free to speak my mind anywhere
and I'll redefine anywhere
anywhere I may roam
where I lay my head is home
- Metallica, "Wherever I may roam"
What if we fail to stop the erosion of cities by automobiles?...
In that case, we Americans will hardly need to ponder a mystery
that has troubled men for millennia: What is the purpose of life?
For us, the answer will be clear, established and for all practical
purposes indisputable: The purpose of life is to produce and
consume automobiles.
- Jane Jacobs, author, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
"violent bout of escapism turned productive" (Wow, that is perhaps the best description of a bike tour we've ever seen.)
"It's not that bicycling is so important, it is that everything else is equally unimportant."
- Bruce Ole Ohlson
If I can cycle to Africa, others can cycle to do their shopping.
[...]
I'm an environmentalist, I suppose, and cycling is peaceful,
non-threatening, open. It leaves me kind of vulnerable.
What's around me can touch me, affect me.
- Richard Gregg, ICBM (InterContinental Bicycle Man)
this is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
this isn't a seminar and this isn't a weekend retreat.
where you are now you can't even imagine what the bottom will be like.
only after disaster can we be resurrected.
it's only after you have lost everything that you are free to do anything.
nothing is static, everything is appalling, everything is falling apart.
[...]
you are not your bank account,
you are not the clothes you wear.
you are not the contents of your wallet.
you are not your bowel cancer.
you are not your Grande Latte.
you are not the car you drive.
you are not your fucking khakis!
[...]
- Tyler Durden, Fightclub
I am now on my 3rd serving of beer and am clearly beginning to feel
the effects as the liquor saturates my dehydrated body. As I have
said from the beginning, climbing Mount Everest happens to be “my Everest”
however, there are as many Everests to climb as there are dreams to be
had. Life is far too short; live it with vigor, vitality and enthusiasm
and tackle all your dreams head-on and do not be daunted with the words
“I can’t” for these words truly have no meaning. Good luck to all of
you with your journey in conquering, “your own Everests”.
- Glenn Edwards
friends and liars
don't wait for me
cause I'll get on
all by myself
put millions of miles
under my heels
and still too close to you
I feel
- Audioslave, "I am the highway"
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