Rick Steves Quotes

“I would like travelers, especially American travelers, to travel in a way that broadens their perspective, because I think Americans tend to be some of the most ethnocentric people on the planet. It's not just Americans, it's the big countries. It's the biggest countries that tend to be ethnocentric or ugly. There are ugly Russians, ugly Germans, ugly Japanese and ugly Americans. You don't find ugly Belgians or ugly Bulgarians, they're just too small to think the world is their norm.”

— Rick Steves

“Travel is rich with learning opportunities, and the ultimate sourvenir is a broader perspective.”

— Rick Steves

“If you don't like a place, maybe you don't know enough about it ... Give a culture the benefit of your open mind.”

— Rick Steves

“Ideally, travel broadens our perspectives personally, culturally, and politically. Suddenly, the palette with which we paint the story of our lives has more colors.”

— Rick Steves

“I believe if you're going to bomb someone you should know them first. It should hurt when you kill someone.”

— Rick Steves

“As a traveler, I've often found that the more a culture differs from my own, the more I am struck by its essential humanity.”

— Rick Steves

Italy Is Made of Tuff Stuff

— Rick Steves

“I shutter to think how many people are underexposed and lacking depth in this field.”

— Rick Steves

“It seems that the most fearful people in our country are those who don't travel and are metaphorically barricaded in America. If we all stayed home and built more walls and fewer bridges between us and the rest of the world, eventually we would have something to actually be fearful of.”

— Rick Steves

“A society has to make a choice: tolerate alternative lifestyles or build more prisons.”

— Rick Steves

“Travel like Ghandi, with simple clothes, open eyes and an uncluttered mind.”

— Rick Steves

“I travel around the world in a way that tries to open my mind and give me empathy and inspire me to come home and make this world a better place.”

— Rick Steves

I have used cannabis all over the world.

— Rick Steves

“Travel is intensified living ... and one of the last great sources of legal adventure.”

— Rick Steves

“Even in challenging economic times, making sure that study abroad is part of our college students' education is a vital investment. If we want a new generation of leaders and innovators who can be effective in an ever more globalized world, sending our students overseas is not a luxury. It's a necessity.”

— Rick Steves

“By day, Venice is a city of museums and churches, packed with great art. Linger over lunch, trying to crack a crustacean with weird legs and antennae. At night, when the hordes of day-trippers have gone, another Venice appears. Dance across a floodlit square. Glide in a gondola through quiet canals while music echoes across the water. Pretend it's Carnevale time, don a mask - or just a fresh shirt - and become someone else for a night.”

— Rick Steves

Like skiing with bent knees makes the moguls fun, you need to take risks, get out of your comfort zone, have a positive attitude, and enjoy the bumps in the road. I like to say that if things aren't to your liking, change your liking.

— Rick Steves

“I have a New Year's tradition. I lay all my travel dreams on the table, sort them out, prioritize, and begin the process of turning those dreams into reality.”

— Rick Steves

“Travel challenges truths that we were raised thinking were self-evident and God-given. Leaving home, we learn other people find different truths to be self-evident. We realize that it just makes sense to give everyone a little wiggle room.”

— Rick Steves

“I've got an efficiency and a guerrilla approach ... plus a unique synergy where everything I do helps everything else because it's overlapping.”

— Rick Steves

“Fear is for people who don't get out very much.”

— Rick Steves

“I believe, very strongly, that it is the responsible, adult, recreational, no apologies necessary, 'it just makes my music more fun,' recreational use of marijuana is a civil liberty.”

— Rick Steves