20 Walking Quotes For Inspiration
Walking is the only exercise that also counts as thinking, which is why writers have been quoting themselves about it for two hundred years.
Most of the good lines come from people who walked several hours a day as a matter of routine — Thoreau, Rousseau, Hazlitt, Kierkegaard — and who were describing something they actually did, not something they recommended.
They hold up on a trail better than they hold up on a treadmill, and they hold up best on the days when the alternative was another few hours looking at a screen.
Short Walking Quotes
The ones that fit under a photo or on the back of a hand.
“It is a great art to saunter.” — Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 1841
“Solvitur ambulando.” — Latin phrase, roughly “it is solved by walking”
“I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.” — G. M. Trevelyan, “Walking,” 1913
“The legs sort out what the head cannot.”
Quotes About Walking
Longer, and mostly written by people explaining a daily habit to readers who thought it was eccentric.
“I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements.” — Henry David Thoreau, “Walking,” 1862
“I can only meditate when I am walking; when I stop, I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions, Book IV
“Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.” — Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 1851
“Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolute solitude but the sense of solitude.” — Leslie Stephen, “In Praise of Walking,” 1902
Inspirational Walking Quotes
These are the ones that get used as trailhead signs, and a couple of them earned it.
“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.” — Søren Kierkegaard, letter to Henriette Lund, 1847
“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, 1889
“Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours’ march to dinner.” — William Hazlitt, “On Going a Journey,” 1822
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” — Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step, 1991
Walking Quotes for Health
The health argument for walking is old enough that Jefferson was making it in a letter to his nephew.
“Walking is the best possible exercise; habituate yourself to walk very far.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, 1785
“After a day’s walk everything has twice its usual value.” — G. M. Trevelyan, “Walking,” 1913
“An hour outside beats an hour of deciding whether to go outside.”
Keep Walking Quotes
For the second half of something longer than you planned.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Tao Te Ching, chapter 64
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go; I travel for travel’s sake; the great affair is to move.” — Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, 1879
“Slow is a pace, not a failure.”
Go For a Walk Quotes
Aimed at the part where you are still inside.
“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.”
“Put your shoes on first and decide afterward.”
Why Walking Quotes All Say the Same Thing
Kierkegaard, Rousseau, and Thoreau were writing a century apart and independently landed on the same claim: the walking fixes the thinking.
None of them could explain the mechanism, so they all described the result instead, which is why the quotes sound alike.
The mechanism is better understood now, and how hiking helps clear your mind covers what is actually happening to attention and mood over a few miles.
If you want the short version for a photo instead of the long version for a journal, the hiking Instagram captions list runs shorter and lighter than anything here.
FAQ
What is a good short walking quote?
“Solvitur ambulando” is two words and covers most situations. Trevelyan’s “I have two doctors, my left leg and my right” is the best short one with a real source attached.
Did Hippocrates say “walking is man’s best medicine”?
There is no source for it in the Hippocratic corpus, and no translator has ever produced the passage it supposedly comes from. It circulates constantly and it is not included here.
Why are some of these listed without an author?
Because the author cannot be established. Walking quotes attract confident false credits — Thoreau, Muir, Einstein, and Nietzsche all get lines they never wrote — so anything unverified runs plain.
How long does a walk have to be to count?
Twenty minutes is enough to notice the mood change. The people who wrote these quotes were walking three to four hours, which is a different activity with a different payoff.
