The Art of Travel

Ruskin connected the wish to travel fast and far to an inability to derive appropriate pleasure from any one place

was spurred on by an uncertain longing to be transported from a boring daily life to a marvellous world.’

A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is the desire to hold on to it: to possess it and give it weight in our lives. There is an urge to say, ‘I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.’

danger of travel is that we see things at the wrong time, before we have had a chance to build up the necessary receptivity and when new information is therefore as useless and fugitive as necklace beads without a connecting chain.

The poet accused cities of fostering a family of life-destroying emotions: anxiety about our position in the social hierarchy, envy at the success of others, pride and a desire to shine in the eyes of strangers.

that I had inadvertently brought myself with me to the island.

The body found it hard to sleep, it complained of heat, flies and difficulties digesting hotel meals. The mind meanwhile revealed a commitment to anxiety, boredom, free-floating sadness and financial alarm.

that I had inadvertently brought myself with me to the island.

The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.