Travel is only glamorous in retrospect.

Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.

There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment.

The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume.

I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.

You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back.

You can't save the rhinos and you can't preserve a culture. I'm very pessimistic. Once it's gone, it's over.

All travel is circular. I had been jerked through Asia, making a parabola on one of the planet's hemispheres. After all, the grand tour is just the inspired man's way of heading home.

Travel is an attitude, a state of mind. It is not residence, it is motion.

Railways are irresistible bazaars, snaking along perfectly level no matter what the landscape, improving your mood with speed, and never upsetting your drink.

Tibet has a very proud people but it's culturally gone and overrun ever since the Chinese took over. It's like saving the rhino. When a species is endangered, it's gone.

It was a slow fall, through warm experiences and good laughs. It didn't even feel like love until I got to the end. Even then, it was not the hard surface of rock, but the scorching embrace of more.

[T[his isn’t just “another day, another dollar.” It’s more like “another day, another miracle.” (213)

Life will always be sorrowful. We can't change it, but we can change our attitude toward it.

Ultimately love is self-approval.

I've never believed that pop music is escapist trash. There's always a darkness in it, even amidst great pop music.

We are not more ingenious in searching out bad motives for good actions when performed by others, than good motives for bad actions when performed by ourselves.

To achieve progress nature alone counts, and the eye is trained through contact with her. It becomes concentric by looking and working.

The realists do not take the photograph for a 'copy' of reality, but for an emanation of past reality, a magic, not an art.

You never agree with any one candidate 100 percent. I don't agree with myself 100 percent. You don't even agree with me 100 percent.

In the end, it's the reality of personal realtionships that save everything.