20 Inspirational Quotes to Stir Up Your Wanderlust for the Smoky Mountains

The mountains are calling, and I must go.
-John Muir

Probably one of the most popular and well-recognized quotes about the mountains, John Muir’s quote above is simple yet powerful. It elicits that adventurous spirit in us all, tugging at our heartstrings and stirring up thoughts of being somewhere beautiful, new, and exciting. There are truly dozens of reasons to go to the Great Smoky Mountains, from the variety of restaurants, many shops and boutiques, and local art to the popular attractions, incredible scenery, and fun seasonal events.

As you read on, gather inspiration from what others have said about the mountains. Take a moment to slow down and dream a bit about Some are about the mountains in general, some are about nature, some about exploring the world, and others about the Smokies specifically. But all 20 of these quotes will make you want to get away to the mountains and explore!

  1. Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom lofty mountaintops are within reach. – John Muir
  2. I love nature, I love the landscape, because it is so sincere. It never cheats me. It never jests. It is cheerfully, musically earnest. I lie and rely on the hearth. – Henry David Thoreau
  3. To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure, is the most perfect refreshment. – Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
  4. Although I do love oceans, deserts, and other wild landscapes, it is only mountains that beckon me with the sort of painful magnetic pull to walk deeper and deeper into their beauty. They keep me continuously wanting to know more, feel more, see more To become more. -Victoria Erickson
  5. You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so…get on your way. – Dr. Seuss
  6. Climb the mountains and get their good things. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of autumn. – John Muir
  7. Away acrost his valley he sees Black Mountain rising jagged to the sky…and if he looks to the left on past it, he sees all the furtherest ranges, line on line. Purple and blue and blue again and smoky until you can’t tell the mountains apart from the sky. Lord, it’ll make a man think something, seeing that. It’ll make a man think deep. – Lee Smith
  8. The Smoky Mountains are a rare jewel…Why not have a place where you can still see the stars? There is value to keeping things primitive. – James Dawson
  9. Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain
  10. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page. – St. Augustine
  11. There are trees here that stood before our forefathers ever came to this continent: there are brooks that still run as clear as on the day the first pioneer cupped his hand and drank from them. In this Park, we shall conserve these trees, the pine, the red-bud, the dogwood, the azalea, the rhododendron, the trout and the thrush for the happiness of the American people. – President Franklin D. Roosevelt
  12. May your trails bey crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. – Edward Abbey
  13. If you drive to, say, Shenandoah National Park, or the Great Smoky Mountains, you’ll get some appreciation for the scale and beauty of the outdoors. When you walk into it, then you see it in a completely different way. You discover it in a much slower, more majestic sort of way. – Bill Bynum
  14. Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that * mountain. – Jack Kerouac
  15. Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity. – John Muir
  16. I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list. – Susan Sontag
  17. Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. – John Muir
  18. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. – Helen Keller
  19. Travel literally forces us out of our routines and, in doing so, gives us the freedom to see things with fresh eyes. – Annabelle Selldorf
  20. To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to roam the roads of lands remote, to travel is to live. – Hans Christian Andersen

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