Insightful, informative, playful… quotes about walking and about pathways (some of them local!)
"Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it" (Soren Kierkegaard)
“Walking is the first thing an infant wants to do and the last thing an old person wants to give up. Walking is the exercise that does not need a gym. It is the prescription without medicine, the weight control without diet, and the cosmetic that can’t be found in a chemist. It is the tranquilizer without a pill, the therapy without a psychoanalyst, and the holiday that does not cost a penny. What’s more, it does not pollute, consumes few natural resources and is highly efficient. Walking is convenient, it needs no special equipment, is self-regulating and inherently safe. Walking is as natural as breathing” (John Butcher, Founder Walk21, 1999)
“I have two doctors, my left leg and my right” (G. M. Trevelyan)
“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking” (Friedrich Nietzsche)
“…wee things you know, maybe you step on a twig in the ground that creates a lovely cracking sound, and that’s a nice experience you’ve had on that section of the path; and then another bit, the wall maybe changes, the material changes slightly, or there’s some bushes and different flowers that maybe smell different. And birds… there’s always a dead bird somewhere and you get that smell…” (Robert White, visually impaired walker)
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move” (Robert Louis Stevenson)
“To find new things, take the path you took yesterday” (John Burroughs, 1837-1921)
“Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake” (Wallace Stevens)
“We like to go to the woods when the bluebells are out… there are certain things that draw us there, like chestnuts.. We think ‘oh it’s the time of year to go…’ And blackberries…” (Sally Theobald, local walker)
“A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world” (Paul Dudley White)
“The walk for me is absolutely focused on the pathway. I look down, not out, I feel drawn and propelled, and the pathway, although a means to an end, is a happening by itself. Such history there, even in cement, where children have conquered the world, ants survived another day and maybe even the devil himself has played” (Stella Robinson)
“Those pathways are still there for my grandchildren as they were there for me and my children. I know every pathway and they hold many happy memories for me. Every bit of that park has form and function for me, all seems entirely apposite, and nearly everything is as it should be” (Fiona Broom, local walker, talking about Colchester Castle Park).
“It is solved by walking” (A Latin proverb)
“I have to admit I like winding paths… I like to go round bends and see surprises… and go ‘oh, there’s a pond here’ or… ‘this is a nice field!’ I like to be able to stop and sit down, and ponder. What else do I like? I like trees along my path. There’s something friendly about trees, they feel like shelter… like somewhere to stop for a bit…” (Sally Theobald, local walker)