69 Path Quotes For Inspiration

Navigating the journey of life often brings us to crossroads and winding paths that test our resilience and determination. Whether you're embarking on a new adventure, seeking motivation, or simply looking to reflect on your current journey, the right words can serve as powerful signposts along the way. In this blog post, we’ve curated a collection of the top 69 path quotes to light up your path with inspiration and wisdom. Each quote is a beacon, offering insights and encouragement to help you traverse life's myriad roads with confidence and grace.

1. “He is one of those who has had the wilderness for a pillow, and called a star his brother. Alone. But loneliness can be a communion.” - Dag Hammarskjöld

2. “Humility before the flower at the timber line is the gate which gives access to the path up the open fell.” - Dag Hammarskjöld

3. “To preserve the silence within--amid all the noise. To remain open and quiet, a moist humus in the fertile darkness where the rain falls and the grain ripens--no matter how many tramp across the parade ground in whirling dust under an arid sky.” - Dag Hammarskjöld

4. “My home drove meinto the wilderness.Few look for me. Few hear me.” - Dag Hammarskjöld

5. “It is not we who seek the Way, but the Way which seeks us. That is why you are faithful to it, even while you stand waiting, so long as you are prepared, and act the moment you are confronted by its demands.” - Dag Hammarskjöld

6. “Like wind-- In it, with it, of it. Of it just like a sail, so light and strong that, even when it is bent flat, it gathers all the power of the wind without hampering its course.Like light-- In light, lit through by light, transformed into light. Like the lens which disappears in the light it focuses.Like wind. Like light.Just this--on these expanses, on these heights.” - Dag Hammarskjöld

7. “You wake from dreams of doom and--for a moment--you know: beyond all the noise and the gestures, the only real thing, love's calm unwavering flame in the half-light of an early dawn.” - Dag Hammarskjöld

8. “I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of 'em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures.” - Gary Snyder

9. “Song for the Puberty Rite of a Girl Named Cowaka:A poor man takes the songs in his hand And drops them near the place where the sun sets. See, Cowaka, run to them and take them in your hand, And place them under the sunset.” - Frances Densmore

10. “They thought that it would be a disgrace to go forth as a group. Each entered the forest at a point that he himself had chosen, where it was darkest and there was no path. If there is a path it is someone else's path and you are not on the adventure.” - Joseph Campbell

11. “The best teachers have showed me that things have to be done bit by bit. Nothing that means anything happens quickly--we only think it does. The motion of drawing back a bow and sending an arrow straight into a target takes only a split second, but it is a skill many years in the making. So it is with a life, anyone's life. I may list things that might be described as my accomplishments in these few pages, but they are only shadows of the larger truth, fragments separated from the whole cycle of becoming. And if I can tell an old-time story now about a man who is walking about, waudjoset ndatlokugan, a forest lodge man, alesakamigwi udlagwedewugan, it is because I spent many years walking about myself, listening to voices that came not just from the people but from animals and trees and stones.” - Joseph Bruchac

12. “You know yourself what you are worth in your own eyes; and at what price you will sell yourself. For men sell themselves at various prices. This is why, when Florus was deliberating whether he should appear at Nero's shows, taking part in the performance himself, Agrippinus replied, 'Appear by all means.' And when Florus inquired, 'But why do not you appear?' he answered, 'Because I do not even consider the question.' For the man who has once stooped to consider such questions, and to reckon up the value of external things, is not far from forgetting what manner of man he is.” - Epictetus

13. “Pardon all runners,All speechless, alien winds,All mad waters.Pardon their impulses,Their wild attitudes,Their young flights, their reticence.When a message has no clothes onHow can it be spoken.” - Thomas Merton

14. “So at the end of this day, we give thanksFor being betrothed to the unknown.” - John O'Donohue

15. “In the construction of houses, choice of woods is made. Straight un-knotted timber of good appearance is used for the revealed pillars, straight timber with small defects is used for the inner pillars. Timbers of the finest appearance, even if a little weak, is used for the thresholds, lintels, doors, and sliding doors, and so on. Good strong timber, though it be gnarled and knotted, can always be used discreetly in construction.” - Miyamoto Musashi

16. “Mystics are not themselves. They do not existin selves. They move as they are moved,talk as words come, see with sightthat enters their eyes. I met a womanonce and asked her where love had led her.Fool, there's no destination to arrive at.Loved one and lover and love are infinite.” - Farid al-Din Attar (عطار)

17. “Listen, O lord of the meeting rivers,things standing shall fall,but the moving ever shall stay.” - Basava

18. “A path is a prior interpretation of the best way to traverse a landscape.” - Rebecca Solnit

19. “The Simple PathSilence is PrayerPrayer is FaithFaith is LoveLove is ServiceThe Fruit of Service is Peace” - Mother Teresa

20. “It was a fossilized path: the will which had cut this gash out of these solitary places so that the blood and sap would flow there was long since dead - and dead too were the circumstances which had guided this will. A whitish and indurated scar remained, gradually gnawed away by the earth like a flesh that heals itself, yet its direction was still vaguely cut into the horizon; a language and crepuscular sign rather than a way forward - a worn-out lifeline which still vegetated through the fallow land as it does on the palm of a hand. It was so old that, since it had been constructed, the very configuration of the land must have changed imperceptibly.” - Julien Gracq

21. “Blood had long since ceased to beat from one end to the other, but one could sense, from passages marked with fresher traces of wheels and hooves, that once the meaning and even the very idea of a long journey was lost, sleep had not descended over it in one fell swoop: it had continued to steal a march here and there, in a discontinuous way, and over short distances, like a laborer who feels his cart jolt on a section of Roman road that crosses his field...” - Julien Gracq

22. “But when you're in front of an audience and you make them laugh at a new idea, you're guiding the whole being for the moment. No one is ever more him/herself than when they really laugh. Their defenses are down. It's very Zen-like, that moment. They are completely open, completely themselves when that message hits the brain and the laugh begins. That's when new ideas can be implanted. If a new idea slips in at that moment, it has a chance to grow.” - George Carlin

23. “There are no wrong turnings. Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk.” - Guy Gavriel Kay

24. “Let each man take the path according to his capacity, understanding and temperament. His true guru will meet him along that path.” - Sivananda

25. “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading” - Siddhārtha Gautama

26. “We are here in a wood of little beeches: And the leaves are like black lace Against a sky of nacre. One bough of clear promise Across the moon. It is in this wise that God speaketh unto me. He layeth hands of healing upon my flesh, Stilling it in an eternal peace, Until my soul reaches out myriad and infinite hands Toward him, And is eased of its hunger. And I know that this passes: This implacable fury and torment of men, As a thing insensate and vain: And the stillness hath said unto me, Over the tumult of sounds and shaken flame, Out of the terrible beauty of wrath, I alone am eternal. One bough of clear promise Across the moon” - Frederic Manning

27. “The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.” - Barbara Hall

28. “It's all well and good to look back after the fact and see what we should have done, but we rarely know what path is best when we take that first step.” - Christine Feehan

29. “For the likes of you, the path to happiness is one mean son of a bitch of a path.” - Dean Koontz

30. “The difference between a path and a road is not only the obvious one. A path is little more than a habit that comes with knowledge of a place. It is a sort of ritual of familiarity. As a form, it is a form of contact with a known landscape. It is not destructive. It is the perfect adaptation, through experience and familiarity, of movement to place; it obeys the natural contours; such obstacles as it meets it goes around.” - Wendell Berry

31. “This path was not that of my conscious choosing. But after persistent subconscious confrontation, I have finally embraced what is, 'souly' for me...and I am thankful, when called upon, to be able to share and give to those who seek their own way of the path.” - T.F. Hodge

32. “The path of peace is not a passive journey. It takes incredible strength not to open a can of 'whoop-ass', justifiably, when ones button is pushed.” - T.F. Hodge

33. “What you are, and who you are should provide greater clarity about where you have been and where you are headed. Although one distinguishes spiritual from physical nature, the ultimate unification of the two is the consequence of the struggle for internal, external and eternal – peace.” - T.F. Hodge

34. “No one has free will until they are an adult, and by then the choices that were made for them, have already set them on a course that gives limited freedom in the choices to be made.” - J.D. Stroube

35. “I don't know whether you can look at your past and find, woven like the hidden symbols on a treasure map, the path that will point to your final destination.” - Jodi Picoult

36. “All the different religion are erally like different paths leading to the same goal. So there is no question of prescribing any rigid set of principles or practices. Everyone has got the right to follow his own path and approach God in his own way.” - Kedar Nath Tiwari

37. “But how will I know it's my destiny?' 'Like love it will possess you... You can't help but know.” - Gail Tsukiyama

38. “No enunciation of the Truth will ever be complete, no method of training will ever be suitable for all temperaments, no one can do more than mark out the little plot of infinity which he intends to cultivate, and thrust in the spade, trusting that the soil may eventually be fruitful and free from weeds so far as the bounds he has set himself extend....” - Dion Fortune

39. “What you're missing is that the path itself changes you.” - Julien Smith

40. “This is what the path of Dharma is like. It's not that you have to do all the practices. It is sufficient to take just one of them, whichever one you really have an affinity with, and through practicing that one alone, for the rest of your life, you will achieve enlightenment. Whichever practice you choose doesn't matter; they are all valid methods for achieving enlightenment—if you practice. The key is to practice with diligence for the rest of your life.” - Dhomang Yangthang

41. “When you find your path, you must ignore fear. You need to have the courage to risk mistakes. But once you are on that road... run, run, run, and don't stop til you've reached its end.” - José N. Harris

42. “True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding the true path for ourselves, and fearlessly following it.” - Mahatma Gandhi

43. “A única coisa de que dispomos, para acreditar, são os nossos sentidos, as ferramentas que utilizamos para apreender o mundo: a nossa vista, o nosso tacto, a nossa memória. Se os nossos sentidos nos mentirem, então não podemos confiar em nada. E mesmo que não acreditemos, ainda assim não podemos seguir por nenhum outro caminho além daquele que os nossos sentidos nos mostram; e esse caminho, temos de o percorrer até o fim.” - Neil Gaiman

44. “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” - Gautama Buddha

45. “CHAPTER VIConcerning New Principalities Which Are Acquired By One's Own Arms And AbilityLET no one be surprised if, in speaking of entirely new principalities as I shall do, I adduce the highest examples both of prince and of state; because men, walking almost always in paths beaten by others, and following by imitation their deeds, are yet unable to keep entirely to the ways of others or attain to the power of those they imitate. A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it. Let him act like the clever archers who, designing to hit the mark which yet appears too far distant, and knowing the limits to which the strength of their bow attains, take aim much higher than the mark, not to reach by their strength or arrow to so great a height, but to be able with the aid of so high an aim to hit the mark they wish to reach.” - Nicolo Machiavelli

46. “Delving into the past had unveiled a cruel lesson - that in the book of life it is perhaps best not to turn back pages; it was a path on which, whatever direction we took, we'd never be able to choose our own destiny.” - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

47. “You never know what's around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain.” - Tom Hiddleston

48. “Perhaps her faults and follies, the unhappiness she had suffered, were not entirely vain if she could follow the path that now she dimly discerned before her, not the path that kind funny old Waddington had spoken of that led nowhither, but the path those dear nuns at the convent followed so humbly, the path that led to peace.” - W. Somerset Maugham

49. “but remember, nothing comes without a price. Our paths are not mapped; they’re made.” - Priya Ardis

50. “The path you create then follow becomes the story of your life.” - Steven Redhead

51. “Jei žinai, kad jau pasimetei, tai reiškia, kad tikriausiai netrukus nepasimesi. Teisingai?” - Ali Smith

52. “His way isn't the same as mine, nor mine as his. But we're both in search of our destinies, and I respect him for that.” - Paulo Coelho

53. “Prosperity cannot be experienced by living detached from Nature. Everything else is only a gradation of materialistic, earthly ambitions. We came from the stars and there lies the path to our substantive evolution.” - Grigoris Deoudis

54. “End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

55. “What mortal knew the way their fate line would run?” - Guy Gavriel Kay

56. “...this refinement and delicacy were what Cale adored; but Cale had been beaten into shape, hammered in dreadful fires of fear and pain. How could she be with him for long? A secret part of Arbell had been searching for some time for a way to leave her lover—although she was unaware of this, it is only fair to record. And so as Cale waited for her to save him while he worked out a way of saving her, she had already chosen the bitter but reasonable path of the good, of the many over the one...” - Paul Hoffman

57. “This proves the significance of individualism; being able to face the music, to embrace it, and then create something beautiful from it. You can’t truly be happy unless you’re unhappy sometimes and the pinnacle of life can only be reached when one can carve their own path.” - Nadège Richards

58. “A place without meaning is no place to be.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

59. “Quing-Jao: I am a slave to the gods, and I rejoice in it.Jane: A slave who rejoices is a slave indeed.” - Orson Scott Card

60. “...I see myself at crossroads in my life, mapless, lacking bits of knowledge - then, the Moon breaks through, lights up the path before me...” - John Geddes

61. “I was thinking how complicated life is and how there are no simple roads or paths. We are a fabric of mistakes and hurts; a family tree of fumbled attempts, successes and failures.” - Belinda Jeffrey

62. “It's not our mission to change or direct another person's path. There is no wrong way or right way. We each have our own life journey and our mission is to just become a LIGHT that enlightens other people's pathways.” - Jan Mckingley Hilado

63. “Our dreams are the forgotten path to Heaven.” - Harold Klemp

64. “Happiness, Success, Excellence: They are not something you get for knowing the path; they are something you experience by walking it.” - Steve Maraboli

65. “Every brush stroke on the canvas, every dab of color introduced, the fine textures impressed in the paint—this accumulation of many small acts combines to shape a final work of art.  And so it is with life; each step, each deed, each brief choice builds gradually, day by day, to shape both character and destiny.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

66. “We cross paths with certain people in our tangled lives for a reason. It's not by chance, not an accident but it's on a purpose. You were made to be part of someone's life for it was written long before you were born."- Elizabeth's Quotes” - Elizabeth E. Castillo

67. “The man journeyed far, and he heard and saw many strange things on his travels. He learned that - that the friend and the enemy are but two faces of the same self. That the path one believes chosen long since, constant and unchangeable, straight and wide, can alter in an instant. Can branch, and twist and lead the traveler to places far beyond his wildest imaginings. That there are mysteries beyond the mind of mortal man, and that to deny their existence is to spend a life of half-consciousness.” - Juliet Marillier

68. “Do not be afraid to walk the path that you must go just because you cannot see the end. The path becomes clearer as you continue to go on.” - Tracy Allen

69. “Thus it is said:The path into the light seems dark,the path forward seems to go back,the direct path seems long,true power seems weak,true purity seems tarnished,true steadfastness seems changeable,true clarity seems obscure,the greatest are seems unsophisticated,the greatest love seems indifferent,the greatest wisdom seems childish.The Tao is nowhere to be found.Yet it nourishes and completes all things.” - Lao Tzu