Kapuściński Quotes on Travel
Ryszard Kapuściński's quotes on travel, the road and curiosity about the world — from Travels with Herodotus, The Shadow of the Sun and the Lapidarium notebooks.
Translation note: Unless a published English translator is named, the wording on this page is an editorial translation from Polish and may differ from the authorised English-language edition.
A selection of Ryszard Kapuściński’s quotes on travel — on the road, curiosity about the world and the art of looking closely. Thoughts from Travels with Herodotus, The Shadow of the Sun and the Lapidarium notebooks.
📖 See also: all quotes by Kapuściński · Travels with Herodotus — analysis
On travel and the road
“A journey does not begin when we set out, nor end when we return home. It begins much earlier and never really ends, because the film of it keeps running inside our memory.” — Travels with Herodotus
“There is such a thing as travel fever, and it is essentially an incurable disease.” — Travels with Herodotus
“I like to think of every road as one without end, running all the way around the world. It comes from the fact that from my Pinsk you could reach all the oceans by boat.” — Lapidarium
On curiosity and discovery
“The average person is not especially curious about the world. There are few such enthusiasts.” — Travels with Herodotus
“Do we really know what drives a person out into the world? Is it curiosity?” — Travels with Herodotus
“In the person who believes that everything has already happened, what is most beautiful has died: the beauty of life.” — Travels with Herodotus
On haste and attention
“When you are in a hurry you see nothing, experience nothing, live through nothing — haste kills the soul.” — Lapidarium V
“What is striking is that the same person has different customs in a different place.” — The Shadow of the Sun
See also
source: kapuscinski.info