Steve Fossett climbed his first mountain when he was 12, and he was the first man to ride a plane around the world shortly after. Edmund Hillary traveled to both the South and North poles, and he was one of the first two men to climb Everest.

Do you know what they both had in common? Their adventurous, bold nature.

If you’re on this page, you probably have the same adventurous soul as these two legends. But you may need a push over the edge, and here is it.

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If you want to gain insight for your next adventure, you may want to see how the folks before you did it. Here are five of the most famous adventurers of all time and their stories.

Steve Fosset gained a first place on this list because he’s been an adventurer since he was 12 years old, and that’s a lot more than I can say for the other folks!

When Steve was 12, he climbed his first mountain, and from there, the adventure torch was lit. He climbed the seven summits, which are the highest mountains on earth. They include Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, Mount Vinson, Denali, Carstensz Pyramid, and of course, Everest,

As he grew up, Fossett broke a total of 116 world records. To give you an example, he was the first to fly an airplane around the world and the first to circle the globe in an air balloon—alone! He was also the first to ride a gliding plane into the second layer of the atmosphere, otherwise called the stratosphere.

Steve took the sky as his playing field, and it never failed him. 

Another legendary example for adventurers is Edmund Hillary, who was a member in the Royal Air Force of New Zealand. He served his country as a navigator in WWII, but that’s not his best achievement yet.

Hillary is one of the first two humans to climb Mount Everest, and he’s one of a few people who managed to go to both the South and North poles. He was the first man on earth to visit the two poles and climb Everest, and it later turned into a challenge—The Three Poles Challenge.

Fun fact: Neil Armstrong was Hillary’s companion on his journey to the north pole.

You’d find it funny that Sir Hillary also started an expedition to find the Yeti. Of course, he returned empty-handed, but who knows what you can find?

Nellie Bly remains one of the most legendary adventurer women in history. She inspired so many people to follow in her shoes later on, and she gained her own inspiration from Around the World in 80 Days—a book all adventurers must read.

Nellie wanted to do like the book’s characters, and she did. Armed by her courage, adventurous soul, and a bag of essentials, she started a 25,000 mile journey completely on her own. She took off in November, 1889 because the journal she was working for wanted a man to go on the eighty-day trip. She demanded that she’s the one to go. After that, history was made.

Instead of eighty days, Nellie completed her trip in 72 days, and she reportedly used railroads and ships for transportation.

Can you build up the same courage as Nellie? 

Louise Boyd is no less awesome than Nellie Bly, although the conditions were more in her favor. Her father had left her $3 million after he died, and she decided to use them to put herself in the pages of history. 

Using her considerable inheritance, she fled with the intention of becoming the first woman to fly to the North Pole, and she did it.

She finished that trip in 1955, but her love for the Arctic Circle remained till the end of her life. She went on to create many films and take photographs of native animals in the area, and those were scarce at that time. 

She’s one of the rare American girls that got to meet the King and Queen of England.

Amelia Earhart doesn’t need introduction; you probably already know of her, as should the rest of the world. Earhart is the first woman to fly across the USA alone, coast to coast. She flew from California to New Jersey non-stop, and that was an achievement worth celebrating in 1928.

Seven years later, she flew alone from Hawaii to Oakland, California in yet another legendary achievement. She became the first human in history to do so.

Granted, Amelia’s ending wasn’t as grand as we’d hoped for it to be. The unique adventurer disappeared into the air with her plane in 1937, and no signs of her or the plane were found till today. But thinking of it, maybe that was the perfect way to end her journey on earth—in a plane, the vehicle on which she gained all of her life achievements.

Some of the Most Adventurous Folks in History

See this collection of travel adventure quotes to give you a push off your seat!

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” Amelia Earhart

“If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.” Rachel Wolchin

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Mark Twain

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchet

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” Bilbo Baggins

“To Travel is to Live.” Hans Christian Andersen

“People don’t take trips, trips take people.” John Steinbeck

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” Lao Tzu.

“Cover the earth before it covers you.” Dagobert Runes

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” John Muir

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Andre Gide

“The journey matters more than the destination.” Tony Fahkry

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” Ibn Battuta

“So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” Jack Kerouac

“I travel because I become uncomfortable being too comfortable.” Carew Papritz

“Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.” J.K. Rowling

“Oh, the places you’ll go.” Dr. Seuss

“If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until no one knows your name. Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass. A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet.” Patrick Rothfuss

“Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” David Mitchell

“The gladdest moment in human life is a departure into unknown lands.” Sir Richard Burton

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for.” John G. Shed

“When a man is a traveler, the world is his home and the sky is his roof, where he hangs his hat is his home and all the people are his family.” Drew Bundini Brown

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust

“One travels to run away from routine, that dreadful routine that kills all imagination and all our capacity for enthusiasm.” Ella Maillart

“Because in the end, you won’t remember the times you spent in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.” Jack Kerouac

“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach us more than we can ever learn from books.” John Lubbock

“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure.” Freya Stark

‘’You must go on adventures to find out where you truly belong.’’ Sue Fitzmaurice

“Until you step into the unknown, you don’t know what you’re made of.” Roy T. Bennett 

Adventure Quotes for Travel

“I do not want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” Diane Ackerman

“The danger of adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort.” Paulo Coelho

“If you don’t take risks, you’ll have a wasted soul.” Drew Barrymore

“No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.” Lewis Carroll

“Don’t die without embracing the daring adventure your life was meant to be.” Steve Pavlina

“All good things are wild and free.” Henry David Thoreau

“Jobs fill your pockets, but adventures fill your soul.” Jaime Lyn

“Adventure may hurt you, but monotony will kill you.” Marcus Purvis

“It’s time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad, and I’d much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure.” Ernie Harwell

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.” Douglas Adams

“Adventure is not outside man; it is within.” George Eliot

“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Helen Keller

“Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure.” Bob Bitchin

“Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures.” Alexandre Dumas

“There is no certainty; there is only adventure.” Roberto Assagioli

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And venture belongs to the adventurous.” Navjot Singh Sidhu

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
“I don’t much care where –”
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” Lewis Carroll

“It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” Sir Edmund Hillary

“Live your life by a compass, not a clock.” Stephen Covey 

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anais Nin

“Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures.” Lovelle Drachman

“Life without adventure is like pizza without cheese.” The Global Castaway

“One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.” William Feather

“Life is an adventure, not a package tour” Eckhart Tolle

“Some adventures require nothing more than a willing heart and the ability to trip over the cracks in the world.” Seanan McGuire

“Then one day, when you least expect it, the great adventure finds you.” Ewan Mcgregor

“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” Oprah Winfrey

“It is never too late to be who you might have been.” George Eliot

“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.” W.M. Lewis

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” Hunter S. Thompson

“Always there has been an adventure just around the corner…and the world is still full of corners.” Roy Chapman Andrews

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” Jawaharial Nehru

“And then there is the most dangerous risk of all—the risk of spending your life not doing what you want, on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.” Randy Komisar

“Adventure isn't hanging on a rope off the side of a mountain. Adventure is an attitude that we must apply to the day to day obstacles in life.’’ John Amatt

“You know you are truly alive when you’re living among lions.” Karen Blixen

‘’If happiness is the goal – and it should be, then adventures should be a top priority.’’ Richard Branson 

Other Adventure Quotes

Are you inspired by these quotes I just showed you? Or maybe it was the story of Sir Edmund Hillary that caught your eyes?

It doesn’t matter where you get your inspiration, as long as you do get it. If these success stories and quotes didn’t inspire you, the adventurous soul within you is yet to come out!

65 Adventure Quotes That’ll Give You a Push

Some of the Most Adventurous Folks in History

Adventure Quotes for Travel

Other Adventure Quotes

Feeling Adventurous Yet?

65 Adventure Quotes That’ll Give You a Push

Some of the Most Adventurous Folks in History

Adventure Quotes for Travel

Other Adventure Quotes

Feeling Adventurous Yet?

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