Often I think of the beautiful town,

That is seated by the sea;

Often in thought I go up and down,

The pleasant streets of that dear old town,

And my youth comes back to me.

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

My New England is both a place and a state of mind, sometimes hard to fathom, but rarely boring: it is a rugged symphony of rocky pastures and choppy birch-clad hills where partridges sun and deer flaunt white flags; it is a cold, immortal sea crashing against a coast steeped in tradition.

—Frank Woolner

Here and there along the highways roadside produce stands brimmed with pumpkins and squash and other autumn fruits. It was like a day trip to Heaven.

—Bill Bryson

In the “off” and empty season, after the tides had erased all signs of a hundred thousand human feet, it was hard to believe that the beach could be owned or claimed by anyone.

—John Hay

I drove up and down the main drag trying to figure out which cross-street looked important enough to be the one that led across the railroad tracks and out of town toward Abo. I could have just stopped and asked somebody, but like most other American males, I hate having to walk up to a stranger and admit that I don’t know where I am. There’s a loss of manhood in it.

—Charles Kuralt

… we’d all be singing. Then we’d tell stories. We’d tell travel stories mainly, since we were all travelers of some sort.

—Marybeth Bond

Having slumped, scrambled, rolled, bounced, and walked, by turns, over this scraggy country, I arrived upon a side-hill, or rather a side-mountain, where rocks, gray, silent rocks, were the flocks and herds that pastured, chewing a rocky cud at sunset.

—Henry David Thoreau

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.

—Lewis Carroll

Travel no longer has any charm for me. I have seen all the foreign countries I want to except heaven and hell, and I have only a vague curiosity about one of those.

—Mark Twain

The shortest distance between two points is under construction.

 —Noelie Altito

 

In America there are two classes of travel — first class and with children.

 —Robert Benchley

Travel is only glamorous in retrospect.

 —Paul Theroux

(Each week this column features quotations gleaned from the readings and experiences of our editors, reporters, readers, and friends. All are invited to submit quotations for inclusion here. They may be sent to Gleanings, c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown, C06470 or emailed to editor@thebee.com.)