Journey Quote by Robert Macfarlane
““Humans are animals and like all animals we leave tracks as we walk: signs of passage made in snow, sand, mud, grass, dew, earth or moss. The language of hunting has a luminous word for such mark-making: 'foil'. A creature's 'foil' is its track. We easily forget that we are track-makers, though, because most of our journeys now occur on asphalt and concrete - and these are substances not easily impressed. 'Always, everywhere, people have walked, veining the earth with paths visible and invisible, symmetrical or meandering,' writes Thomas Clark in his enduring prose-poem 'In Praise of Walking'. It's true that, once you begin to notice them, you see that the landscape is still webbed with paths and footways - shadowing the modern-day road network, or meeting it at a slant or perpendicular. Pilgrim paths, green roads, drove roads, corpse roads, trods, leys, dykes, drongs, sarns, snickets - say the name of paths out loud and at speed and they become a poem or rite - holloways, bostles, shutes, driftways, lichways, ridings, halterpaths, cartways, carneys, causeways, herepaths.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: In Praise of Walking by Robert Macfarlane, 2015
Human movement leaves physical traces, but modern surfaces obscure them, reminding us we are part of a larger network of paths.
In simple terms: We leave marks as we move, though cities hide them.
Notice and honor the paths you tread.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- urban planning
- hiking
- environmental education
- historical research
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you recognize your own footprints in daily life?
- What can hidden paths teach us about history?
Modern infrastructure can erase trace evidence, making reflection harder.