A collection of quotes, links, and cool stuff related to walking
Dearest I beg of you, sleep properly and go for walks
— Franz Kafka, Letters to Felice (1912)
🎵 I’m walking, I’m walking, I’m walking. Some people say walking takes too long. But I say with walking you can’t go wrong. Why should you rush your way through life? You won’t get very far running all the time 🎶
— I’m Walking by Mary Mary
In 1813, Laura Secord, pioneer wife and mother of five children, made a dangerous 19-mile (30-km) journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon of a planned American attack. Her bravery contributed to victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams. She is recognized as a heroine to this day.
— Discover Canada - The Rights & Responsibilities of Citizenship Page 17
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”
— Søren Kierkegaard
Never trust a thought you had indoors.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Any city is walkable if you lock in.
— [Random Twitter User]
Any city is walkable if you’re suicidal enough.
— [Random Twitter User]
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
Outside lies magic.
— John Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places
I’ve met many more people who turned their lives around by walking around aimlessly for a couple hours a day…
The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot.
— Werner Herzog
Is the fucking secret to a happy life just taking a long walk every morning. Is this some kind of joke.
‘Addina ca camina s’arricogghi ca vozza china’ in Sicilian dialect translates to ‘The walking hen comes home with a full crop.’ — a metaphor for the fact that the most exciting things in your life will happen when you go outside instead of sitting on the sofa.
— Domenico Schillaci, Dense Discovery newsletter
Solvitur ambulando — the path is made by walking.
— Saint Thomas Aquinas
It’s only by slowing down the speed of travel and looking around that you can absorb the richness of the environment into your memory. That’s why walking is one of the best ways of letting yourself be surprised on your travels. As much as you can, move around by foot. Stroll. Be as close as you can to the full sensorial experience of a place. Feel the ground. Smell the air. Saunter down uncharted walkways and unlit streets. Turn the odd corner and look out for precious little gems. Observe the many details submerged amongst the noise and craze of a crowded urban space. Treat the space like a human. Walking is a way to be intimate with the space. If you walk around in a city for long enough, you will hear it whisper its secrets to you.
A ludicrous amount of the greatest thinkers in human history cited long walks as the blueprint for developing a healthy and powerful mind, but yeah don’t worry you’re different.
— Dylan O’Sullivan
quitting my job to focus on walking