Having a hard cycle day where the world seems to be against you and nothing is going right, or simply want to get motivated to head out on your first cycle tour, check these cycle touring quotes to get you motivated.

1. “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.  Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”  – Ernest Hemingway

2. “The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man.  Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish.  Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.”  – Iris Murdoch

3.  “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming” (or, “Just keep cycling, just keep cycling, cycling, cycling”) – Finding Nemo

4. “Life is like riding a bicycle to keep your balance you must keep moving!” – Albert Einstein

5. “Life is like a 10-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.” – Charles Schultz

6. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” (or a single ‘pedal’ in our case) ― Lao Tzu

7. “It never gets easier, you just go faster.” – Greg LeMond

8. “It is the unknown around the corner that turns my wheels.” – Heinz Stucke

9. “When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day’s sensations:  bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay’s call, ice melting and so on.  This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead.  I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity.  But I am mentally far away from civilization.  The world is breaking someone else’s heart.” – Diane Ackerman

10. “Get a bicycle.  You will not regret it if you live.” – Mark Twain

11. “After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable.  A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go.  You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow.” – H.G. Wells

12. “You never have the wind with you – either it is against you or you’re having a good day.” – Daniel Behrman

13. “If you ride you know those moments when you have fed yourself into the traffic, felt the hashed-up asphalt rattle in the handlebars, held a lungful of air in a cloud of exhaust.  Up ahead there are two parallel buses.  With cat’s whiskers, you measure the clearance down a doubtful alley.  You swing wide, outflank that flower truck.  The cross-street yellow light is turning red.  You burst off the green like a surfer on a wave of metal.  You have a hundred empty yards of Broadway to yourself.” – Chip Brown

14. “Life is like riding a bicycle. You don’t fall off unless you plan to stop pedaling.” – Claude Pepper

15. “When my legs hurt, I say: “Shut up legs! Do what I tell you to do!” – Jens Voigt

16. “A bicycle ride around the world begins with a single pedal stroke.” – Scott Stoll

17. “The advantages? Exercise, no parking problems, gas prices, it’s fun. An automobile is expensive. You have to find a place to park and it’s not fun. So why not ride a bicycle? I recommend it.” – Stephen G. Breyer

18. “The best rides are the ones where you bite off much more than you can chew, and live through it.” – Doug Bradbury

19. “Like dogs, bicycles are social catalysts that attract a superior category of people.” – Chip Brown

20. “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle I no longer despair for the future of the human race.” – H.G. Wells

Do you have a favourite cycle touring quote? We’d love to hear it, if you do.

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