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

The second offering in our original travel quote memes series is especially meaningful to us because it reflects our own past, present, and future. As before, some of the featured 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 . . . .

These familiar lines from Robert Frost’s beloved poem encourage readers, whether traveling the world or cruising the road of life, to break away from the pack rather than follow the herd. Figuratively, the applications are limitless, but when we launched Backroad Planet nearly a year ago, it was the literal interpretation that resonated with our philosophy of finding “adventure and discovery on the roads less traveled.” The location in this image is the road that fronts Pinebox, my North Georgia mountain cabin, and the view never ceases to remind me of The Road Not Taken and the choices we make when we come to a fork in the road.

Note: For a humorous take on “following the herd,” read The Calf Path, a poem I first heard quoted by a professor in graduate school.

Not sure who parodied this famous roadside proposition, but it most accurately portrays our current stage of life. On the south side of retirement and not yet generating self-supporting income from Backroad Planet, this statement puts it all in perspective. The ironic tension between having a job that pays for your travel, yet ties you down and limits your freedom to get away is a reality I am sure many of our readers face, as well. Until the day we can leave the 9-to-5 behind, however, we will remain grateful for the stability and security of jobs that pay for our travel and allow us time away, limited though it may be.

If my memory serves me correctly, the phrase “different does not equal wrong,” emerged from a classroom discussion during a Civil Rights unit of study several years ago. The truth is undeniable that the words “different” and “wrong” are not synonymous, yet when we are confronted with individuals who do not fit within our own realm of comfort and understanding, we often rush to judgment. I believe this reminder can help us be more tolerant of diversity whether addressing civil and human rights issues or encountering other cultures during our travels at home and abroad. I love the way the sizes, colors, shapes, and textures of the bricks in this image are all diverse, yet each one belongs, and they all contribute to building a unified wall.

I came across this quatrain by Ogden Nash, while teaching Sgt. Joyce Kilmer’s poem Trees to my sixth-graders years ago. What a dry, tongue-in-cheek, subtle, yet pointed message about the wiles of commercialism in this brilliantly parodied ode to nature! So much conveyed in so few words. Love it!

Note: Read about the giant trees we saw in a virgin forest on our visit to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest.

I believe I first read this quote by John Muir while on a Northern California road trip loop through Muir Woods, Yosemite, and Sequoia a few summers back. These eight words are so simple, and yet they speak volumes to me. I perpetually hear the mountains calling, in fact they are calling as I write, but due to work responsibilities I cannot always go. (Come on, retirement!) I did, however, have an epiphany long ago when I realized that the mountains are my favorite place and autumn is my favorite time of year, period. I only have so many autumns left in my life. So, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I plan to always make my annual trek to the North Georgia mountains for the third week of October. Okay, I will admit there was that one autumn I went to New England instead, but you get the picture!

Note: Read about one of our autumn mountain day trips across the Cherohala Skyway here.

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.