When we’re busy with the tasks of our day-to-day life, it can be hard taking the time to reflect. Being a solo female traveler makes it that much harder—looking for the next big adventure doesn’t exactly lend the opportunity for moments of stillness. But inevitably we all get to a point where we could use the words of strong, inspirational women to tackle our next challenge.
Below are 50 quotes said by women about bravery, adventure, travel, and growth. I hope these women give you inspiration if you need it, and help you find encouragement wherever you are:
On Bravery
“Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” —Oprah Winfrey
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” —Jane Goodall
“You are the one that possesses the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness.” —Diane von Furstenberg
“If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t
ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you are always in the same place.” —Nora Roberts
“A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are
determined not be done.” —Marge Piercy
“I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing
the goal, and that’s not pulling the trigger.” —Mia Hamm
“Do you really want to look back on your life and see how wonderful it
could have been had you not been afraid to live it?” —Caroline Myss
“Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.”
—Anne Lamott
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion with one’s courage.” —Anaïs
Nin
“It’s not the absence of fear, it’s overcoming it. Sometimes you’ve got
to blast through and have faith.” —Emma Watson
“Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.”
—Amelia Earhart
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely
tenacity.” —Amelia Earhart
“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.”
—Louisa May Alcott
“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending
our lives running from it.” —Brene Brown
“Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I
exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me.”
—Arianna Huffington
On Adventure
“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” —Rosalia de Castro
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” —Helen Keller
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost,
to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
“You don’t choose the day you enter the world and you don’t chose the
day you leave. It’s what you do in between that makes all the difference.”
—Anita Septimus
“I do not want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” —Diane Ackerman
“I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed.
Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose
to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me.” ―Cheryl Strayed
“The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.” ―Anna
Quindlen
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious
life?” —Mary Oliver
“You live only once, but if you do it right, once is enough“ —Mae West
“Dying seems less sad than having lived too little.” —Gloria Steinem
“Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from.”
—Jodie Foster
“My mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive and to do so
with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” —Maya Angelou
“Expect the unexpected, and whenever possible, be the unexpected.” —Lynda Berry
“Sometimes, something magical happens when you travel: you remember exactly why you’re doing it, and you’re so happy and present in that moment. Sometimes it’s the people you meet; sometimes it’s the places you’re at. Sometimes, it’s both.”― Kristin Addis, A Thousand New Beginnings: Tales of Solo Female Travel Through Southeast Asia
“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to
amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. When it is over, I don’t want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument. I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.” —Mary Oliver
“If you find yourself drawn to an event against all logic, go. The
universe is telling you something.” —Gloria Steinem
“Adventure should be part of everyone’s life. It is the whole difference
between being fully alive and just existing.” —Holly Morris
On Travel
“As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.” —Virginia Woolf
“I hunt everywhere for a life worth living and a knowledge worth
knowing. Having roots nowhere, I have everywhere to go.” —Elif Safak
“I wondered why it was that places are so much lovelier when one is
alone.” —Daphne Du Maurier
“If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is.” —Angelina Jolie
“Travel is as much a passion as ambition or love.” —Letitia Elizabeth Landon
“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t
done.” —Lucille Ball
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop
me.” —Ayn Rand
“There is a kind of magicness about going far away and then coming back all changed.” —Kate Douglas Wiggin
“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.” —Gaby Basora
Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, ‘I would stay
and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.” —Lisa St. Aubin De
Teran
On Growth
“Growth and comfort do not coexist.” —Virginia Rometty
“Always concentrate on how far you have come, rather than how far
you have left to go. The difference in how easy it seems will amaze you.” —Heidi Johnson
“When you’re through changing, you’re through.” —Martha Stewart
“If you’re not making some notable mistakes along the way, you’re
certainly not taking enough business and career chances.” —Sallie
Krawcheck
“Surely, of all the wonders of the world, the horizon is the greatest.” – Freya Stark
“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.”
—Dolly Parton
“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without
delay.” —Simone de Beauvoir
“If you’re one of those people who has that little voice in the back of her mind saying, ‘Maybe I could do [fill in the blank],’ don’t tell it to be quiet. Give it a little room to grow, and try to find an environment it can grow in.” —Reese Witherspoon
Looking for more quotes to inspire your day? Check out:
14 Beautiful Quotes about Healing,
20 Powerful Quotes on Self-Care & Personal Resilience,
and 22 Perfect Travel Quotes.
Do you have a favorite quote about bravery, travel, adventure, or growth? Let me know!
Dragana says
Loved it! I enjoyed reading your quotes. Stepping out into the unknown with no one else to rely on, you come to learn to learn so much about yourself. Often these solo trips are life-changing adventures. Fav one “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”, well said. Sometimes I write about the quotes too. Here is an example post I wrote in case you or any of your readers find it interesting. Our content complements each other nicely, perhaps we can collab in some way in the future. Cheers!