Our first collection in a series of original travel quote memes. Please Pin, Tweet, Instagram, Facebook, and fling them capriciously across cyberspace.

I love adages, maxims, aphorisms, proverbs, couplets, musings, observations, thoughts, and quotes. If you combine profound words with beautiful photography and lettering, and then wrap them up in a rectangular image, you have created something meaningful and worth sharing. When these app-generated entities known as “quote pictures,” “quote images,” or “quote memes” starting gaining popularity and going viral on social media, I latched onto the craze immediately and knew I had to get in the game and create some of my own. Online image editors like Pixlr, Canva, PicMonkey, and phone apps like WordSwag have made the creative process so fun, and addictive even.

So, this is the first in a series of original travel quote memes. Some of the quotes are our own and others are borrowed, but all of the designs are unique to our site. We hope you will find some quotes here that speak to you, and we encourage you to Pin them, Tweet them, Instagram them, Facebook them, and otherwise fling them capriciously across cyberspace . . . .

This quote was birthed many years ago when I realized how many Americans see the world through the tiny lenses of their own hometowns. I believe travel inherently expands the traveler’s worldview and has the power to cure tunnelvision, narrow-mindedness, and of course, myopic beliefs. I also believe travel can be a remedy for the social ills of prejudice and bigotry of any kind . . . .

There is no doubt that your hosts at Backroad Planet travel for recreation, relaxation, and vacation. But whether we witness inspiring scenic beauty or visit authentic historical sites or experience a serendipitous synchronous moment, our outcome is always greater education.

Note: Read how Henry David Thoreau and Clara Barton gave us a Backroad Education about “change” here.

We believe this quatrain by Hans Christian Andersen truly expresses our philosophy of travel, especially the third line that says, “To roam the roads of lands remote.” I did some research for the origin of this quote and haven’t yet nailed it down. I read in one place that this poem is from “The Snow Queen,” and yet other sources say it is from The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography. I did a Google text search of the latter but found nothing. If you can shed light on the origin or publication of this lovely poem, please share it with us in the comments section below.

This quote by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling and Cross Creek, has been a favorite of mine for over a decade. I am sure of that because one of the first things I did after buying my North Georgia mountain cabin was frame the quote and hang it on the kitchen wall. Your place of enchantment does not have to be a piece of property. You may find it in books and daydreams or meditation or any intangible place. Wherever yours may be, go there often and find magic of your very own.

Note: You can visit Pinebox, my place of enchantment, here.

It is no secret that I am an obsessive overplanner when designing travel itineraries. Jerry, not so much. He taught me long ago that you can just hop in the car or on your Harley and go on an adventure whether you have a destination in mind or not. I remember several years back we set off one morning to check out a state park or battle reenactment somewhere near Fort Meade, Florida. Apparently it didn’t take as long as we expected and there was still daylight to burn. Instead of heading home, Jerry took a left and headed south. Before the day was over we had driven backroads and made discoveries all over Central Florida, and it remains one of our most memorable drives to this day. I was in a Winnie the Pooh stage when I came across this quote, and it reminded me so much of Jerry and his philosophy of adventure. I found out later that he was a fan of Pooh, too! Remember that adventure does not have to be extreme. It just has to open your eyes to things you have never experienced before. I will NEVER bungee jump or jump out of a plane unless somebody offers me a million bucks . . . . And maybe not even then! Thanks, Jerry, for teaching me about spontaneity and how to find unplanned adventure on the backroads. And yeah, those are his boots . . . .

We would love to hear your reflections on the featured quotes in the comments section below, and please share your favorite travel quotes, as well. Also, be sure to check out our other Original Travel Quote Memes.

Howard Blount is founder and co-owner of the travel blog BackroadPlanet.com. He has traveled internationally since boyhood and lived abroad in Mexico, Chile, and Paraguay. Now his passion is navigating the roads-less-traveled of this amazing planet in search of anything rare and remote. On the stuffy side, “Mr. Blount” has been a writer, consultant, and published author with the likes of Simon & Schuster and McGraw-Hill. Although his road trips are financed by his day job as a middle school teacher, Howard would much rather be doing anything that includes mountains, waterfalls, dachshunds, gospel choirs, books, restored classic movies on Blu-ray, HDTV, autumn, sandhill cranes, hot springs, Florida springs, rain and other gloomy weather, log cabins, cracker shacks, abandoned sites, unearthed history, genealogy, museums, documentaries, To Kill a Mockingbird, scenic and historical sites, castles, cathedrals, the Civil War, cold sheets, National and State Park Passports, quotes, the Rambos, Dionne Warwick, Steely Dan, Doobies, Diet Pepsi, Fish City Grill, anything Apple, all things British, Jesus, and lists. And on a random note, Howard is a fourth cousin once removed to Truman Capote.