As anyone who's ever taken an Ethiopian bus knows, there is an unwritten rule that the windows must remain firmly closed.

A journey, I reflected, is of no merit unless it has tested you.

Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives.

Most journeys have a clear beginning, but on some the ending is less well-defined. The question is, at what point do you bite your lip and head for home?

I felt sure we could gain the upper hand by putting ourselves in the mindset of the Incas.

Usually, there is nothing more pleasing that returning to a place where you have endured hardship.

In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that I will come to no harm.

There's nothing like a pack of mules to give one a sense of entourage.

The first rule of an expedition is that everyone should stick together.

When I am about to embark on a difficult journey, I comfort myself by reading the accounts of the great nineteenth-century travellers, men like Stanley, Burton, Speke, Burckhardt and Barth.

[T]hrough bitter experience I have learned that it is best to promise little and then to reward hard work with generosity.

Wealth is a by-product of Cosmic Ordering.

The word "now" is like a bomb thrown through the window and it ticks.

You learn not to mourn every little thing out here, or you’d never, ever stop grieving.

I'm continuing to work hard, not without periods of discouragement, but my strength comes back again.

Like is an emotion. Emotions”—he raised a hand, made a fist, clenched it tightly—“are like holding water. You open your hand, there’s nothing there. Better to be a weapon than a woman.

I got married, I really waited a long time - three days after I graduated.

I had a snowboarding accident. I fell off a horse. I've had a concussion, a fractured rib... I walk into walls. I'm always bruised up.

if they were meant to be together they would find a way to do it.

Life is better when you share it.

Fame is proof that the people are gullible.