Samuel Johnson Travel Quotations

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

As the Spanish proverb says, ''He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.'' So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

He that travels in theory has no inconveniences; he has shade and sunshine at his disposal, and wherever he alights finds tables of plenty and looks of gaiety. These ideas are indulged till the day of departure arrives, the chaise is called, and the progress of happiness begins. A few miles teach him the fallacies of imagination. The road is dusty, the air is sultry, the horses are sluggish. He longs for the time of dinner that he may eat and rest. The inn is crowded, his orders are neglected, and nothing remains but that he devour in haste what the cook has spoiled, and drive on in quest of better entertainment. He finds at night a more commodious house, but the best is always worse than he expected.

A man's mind grows narrow in a narrow place.

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality.

In traveling, a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

When a Man is tried of London, he is tired of life.

The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it.

Let observation with extensive view, Survey mankind from China to Peru; Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, And watch the busy scenes of crowded life.

Ancient travelers guessed; modern travelers measure.

He that would travel for the entertainment of others should remember that the great object of remark is human life.