I did not want to be depressed by the gap existing between my weakness and my ambition.

The benefits of the accomplished journey cannot be weighed in terms of perfect moments, but in terms of how this journey affects and changes our character.

Those who appreciate the ways of simple tribes, where every activity is direct and immediately understandable, are able to live among them.

It is always our own self that we find at the end of the journey. The sooner we face that self, the better.

One travels so as to learn once more how to marvel at life in the way a child does. And blessed be the poet, the artist who knows how to keep alive his sense of wonder.

You can feel as brave as Columbus starting for the unknown the first time you enter a Chinese lane full of boys laughing at you, or when you risk climbing down in a Tibetan pub for a meal of rotten meat.

One travels to run away from routine, that dreadful routine that kills all imagination and all our capacity for enthusiasm.