Hitting the trails is one of our favorite things to do any time we take a trip. We hope this collection of our favorite hiking quotes will motivate you to hit a new trail and explore the great outdoors, and we hope to help you find the perfect caption for your next social media post.
Popular Quotes
1. “It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Sir Edmund Hillary
2. “Climb mountains, not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world.” – David McCullough Jr
3. “Walking is a man’s best medicine.” – Hippocrates
4. “Between every two pines there is a doorway to a new world.” – Henry David Thoreau
5. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
6. “Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.” – John Kerouac
7. “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Sills
8. “Fall down seven times and stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb
9. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
10. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
11. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost
12. “I’d rather be hiking in the rain, than sitting inside at a desk on a sunny day.” – Unknown
13. “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” – T.S. Eliot
14. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
15. “Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.” – Steven Wright
16. “Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” – Ed Viesturs
17. “Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” – Amelia Earhart
18. “Remember to look up to the stars, not down to your feet.” – Stephen Hawking
19. “Not all who wander are lost.” – JRR Tolkien
20. “Leave the road, take the trails.” – Pythagoras
Funny Quotes
21. “If you think you’ve peaked, find a new mountain.” – Anonymous
22. “Cover the earth before it covers you.” – Dagobert D. Runes
23. “You need special shoes for hiking and a bit of a special soul as well.” – Terri Guillemets
24. “It’s easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.” – Henry Ward Beecher
25. “I like being near the top of a mountain. One can’t get lost here.” – Wislawa Szymborska
26. “I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.” – G.M. Trevelyan
27. “Backpacking: An extended form of hiking in which people carry double the amount of gear they need for half the distance they planned to go in twice the time it should take.” – Unknown
28. “There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.”– Sir Ranulph Fiennes
29. “Sleeping bags are the soft tacos of the bear world.” – Bears
30. “Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence.” – Hermann Buhl
31. “DEET is nature’s cologne.” – Every Hiker
32. “Hiking’s not for everyone. Notice the wilderness is mostly empty.” – Sonja Yoerg
33. “Trails are like that: you’re floating along in a Shakespearean Arden paradise and expect to see nymphs and flute boys, then suddenly you’re struggling in a hot broiling sun of hell in dust and nettles and poison oak… just like life.” – Jack Kerouac
34. “Where the signposts end, the trail begins.” – Marty Rubin
35. “There is always an adventure waiting in the woods.” – Katelyn S. Bolds
36. “The closer you are to nature the further you are from idiots.” – Unknown
37. “Hiking is just walking where it’s okay to pee.” – Demetri Martin
38. “Bring a compass. It’s awkward when you have to eat your friends.” – Unknown
39. “You need mountains, long staircases don’t make good hikers.” – Amit Kalantri
40. “If the winter is too cold and the summer is too hot, you are not a hiker.” – Unknown
Inspirational Hiking Quotes
41. “Carry as little as possible, but choose that little with care.” – Earl Shaffer
42. “It’s impossible to walk in the woods and be in a bad mood at the same time.” – Unknown
43. “You never climb the same mountain twice, not even in memory. Memory rebuilds the mountain, changes the weather, retells the jokes, remakes all the moves.” – Lito Tejada-Flores
44. “Returning home is the most difficult part of long-distance hiking. You have grown outside the puzzle and your piece no longer fits.” – Cindy Ross
45. “After a day’s walk, everything has twice its usual value.” – G.M. Trevelyan
46. “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than trees.” – Henry David Thoreau
47. “Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein
48. “Walking: the most ancient exercise and still the best modern exercise.” – Carrie Latet
49. “The experienced mountain climber is not intimidated by a mountain he is inspired by it.” – William Arthur Ward
50. “I found far more answers in the woods than I ever did in the city.” – Mary Davis
51. “The more you know, the less you need.” – Yvon Chouinard
52. “We live in a fast-paced society. Walking slows us down.” – Robert Sweetgall
53. “Hiking is not escapism; it’s realism. The people who choose to spend time outdoors are not running away from anything; we are returning to where we belong.” – Jennifer Pharr Davis
54. “Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.” – Gary Snyder
55. “No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied – it speaks in silence to the very core of your being.” – Ansel Adams
56. “Now I see the secret of making the best person, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.” – Walt Whitman
57. “I would never have started this trip if I had known how tough it was, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t quit.” – Ben Montgomery
58. “If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill.” – Henry B. Eyring
59. “The earth has music for those who listen.” – William Shakespeare
60. “Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.” – Frank Herbert
61. “People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.” – Sir Edmund Hillary
62. “The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
63. “We don’t stop hiking because we grow old. We grow old because we stop hiking.” – Finis Mitchell
64. “The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot.” – Werner Herzog
65. “If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.” – Raymond Inmon
Hiking With Friends
66. “In life, it’s not where you go, it’s who you travel with.” – Charles Schulz
67. “Some women want diamonds… others just want a hammock, a campfire and some peace & quiet.”
68. “If everyone in the world took care of each other the way folks do out on the trail, and if everyone approached each day with as much hope and optimism as hikers do, the world would be a better place.” – Jon Tullis
69. “Hiking with friends: where the adventure begins.”
70. “Life is better with friends and trails.”
71. “True friends don’t let you hike alone.”
72. “Life was meant for good friends and great adventures.”
73. “Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.” – Izaak Walton
74. “Hiking is the only slightly less ugly stepsister of running.” – Lindy Hughes
75. “What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die of course. Literally sh** myself lifeless.” – Bill Bryson
76. “A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill
77. “In the mountains, there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet.”
78. “It’s not how many miles you walk, it’s how many smiles you share.”
79. “A good friend listens to your adventures. A best friend makes them with you.” – Anonymous
80. “We are all travelers in the wilderness of the world and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
John Muir Quotes
John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist whose writings were extremely influential in preserving landscapes, specifically near Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevadas.
In 1901, Muir published Our National Parks which attracted the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt. Then in 1903, Roosevelt visited Yosemite with Muir and this became the inspiration for Roosevelt to create America’s National Park system.
81. “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.” – John Muir
82. “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” – John Muir
83. “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir
84. “And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” – John Muir
85. “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.” – John Muir
86. “Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods.” – John Muir
87. “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” – John Muir
88. “Sheep, like people, are ungovernable when hungry.” – John Muir
89. “The mountains are calling and I must go.” – John Muir
90. “How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!” – John Muir
91. “Between every two pines there is a doorway to a new world.” – John Muir
92. “Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.” – John Muir
93. “The practical importance of the preservation of our forests is augmented by their relations to climate, soil and streams.” – John Muir
Hiking Puns For Instagram
94. “There’s snow place like the mountains.”
95. “Actions peak louder than words.”
96. “Don’t get your slopes up.”
97. “These boots were made for hiking.”
98. “What were you saying? I lost my terrain of thought.”
99. “Don’t be a pine in the ass!”
100. “Be sure to leaf your worries behind.”
101. “Hiking puns are hill-arious!”
102. “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s maple leaves.”
103. “Hiking with my birches.”
104. “Main-stream.”
105. “Two’s company, trees a crowd.”
106. “If you’re feeling bad, you better change your altitude.”
107. “Canyon help me out?”
108. “I love hiking — I don’t take it for granite.”
109. “Woke up feeling pine.”
110. “Woke up feeling pine.”
Fall Hiking Quotes
111. “I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne
112. “He found himself wondering at times, especially in autumn, about the wild lands…” – J.R.R. Tolkien
113. “It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!” – Winnie The Pooh
114. “Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go.” – Anonymous
115. “Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” – Lauren DeStefano
116. “Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” – Jim Bishop
117. “Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all.” – Stanley Horowitz
118. “I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” – Henry David Thoreau
119. “It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon.” – Sarah Addison Allen
120. “Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.” – Delia Owens
121. “I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne
122. “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” – L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
123. “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus
124. “It was a beautiful bright autumn day, with air like cider and a sky so blue you could drown in it.” – Diana Gabaldon
125. “Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place. And I can picture it after all these days.” – Taylor Swift
More Quotes
- Best quotes for travel
- Epic photography quotes
- Quotes for lazy beach days
- New York City quotes
- Quotes about waterfalls
- Stunning sunset quotes
- Quotes for road tripping
- Popular US national parks
- Inspirational mountain quotes
We hope our guide featuring the best hiking quotes helps with inspiring your next outdoor trip!
Please let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.
Happy Hiking,
Mark and Kristen
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Mark and Kristen spent 6 years traveling the world, visiting over 40 countries across 4 continents and more than 30 US states. They created Where Are Those Morgans in 2018 to help others plan the best possible vacations by writing authentic travel and hiking guides based on their real experiences.
Since the arrival of baby Maya in late 2024, Mark and Kristen’s extensive travels have slowed down but they still take plenty of trips. Where Are Those Morgans now helps millions of travelers each year to visit new places and hike new trails through information-packed blog posts and expert travel guidebooks. Read more about Mark and Kristen.