Nicolas Bouvier

Traveling outgrows its motives. It soon proves sufficient in itself. You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making…

— Nicolas Bouvier

“Time passed in brewing tea, the odd remark, cigarettes, then dawn came up. The widening light caught the plumage of quails and…

— Nicolas Bouvier

“Beyond a certain degree of hardship or misery, life often revives and heals the scars. As time passed, deportation [to the concentration…

— Nicolas Bouvier

“That day, I thought that I held something important and that my life would be changed. But nothing of this nature is…

— Nicolas Bouvier

In the end, the bedrock of existence is not made up of the family, or work, or what others say or think…

— Nicolas Bouvier

“The splendid wooden mosque - which you can find if you search - nobody would think of showing you, being less aware…

— Nicolas Bouvier

“At home what is ‘wonderful’ tends to be an exception that’s arranged; it is useful, or at least edifying. In Persia it…

— Nicolas Bouvier

“The over-ripe, golden autumn which had taken hold of the town tugged at our heartstrings. The nomadic life makes you sensitive to…

— Nicolas Bouvier

That day, I really believed that I had grasped something and that henceforth my life would be changed. But insights cannot be…

— Nicolas Bouvier

Traveling provides occasions for shaking oneself up but not, as people believe, freedom. Indeed it involves a kind of reduction: deprived of…

— Nicolas Bouvier

A journey does not need reasons. Before long, it proves to be reason enough in itself. One thinks that one is going…

— Nicolas Bouvier