18 Quotes That Will Inspire You to Quit Your Job and Move Abroad

Choosing to quit your job and move abroad is a huge decision. I know —  I’ve been there. To make this choice is to risk giving up the good in pursuit of something great. Personally, I feared that I may be making a mistake by leaving the lucrative finance job I had worked so hard to get. Traveling made me feel alive, but I constantly juggled whether I should adjust to my “real world” career instead. However, what’s life without a little risk? Looking back, I am beyond grateful that I took a leap of faith and moved to South Korea to teach English.

Had I not taken this chance, I know that I would have looked back and regretted it. Down the line, it would have haunted me to think of the adventures I could have had, the places I could have seen, and the people I could have met. At the end of the day, I would rather say “oh well…” than ask myself “what if?” My heart was telling me to see the world and, at last, my brain finally listened.

Here are the 18 quotes that finally pushed me over the edge:

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

— Andre Gide

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

— Jack Kerouac

 

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it’s lethal.”

— Paulo Coelho

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

— H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“Jobs fill your pocket, but adventures fill your soul.”

— Jaime Lyn Beatty

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.”

— Alan Keightley

“Fear is only temporary. Regrets last forever.”

— Anonymous

 

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

— Helen Keller

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

— John A. Shedd

“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and think of what could go right.”

— Anonymous

“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

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

— Neale Donald Walsch

“Don’t quit your day dream.”

— Anonymous

 

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

— Robert Frost

“If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it.”

— Jonathan Winters

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

— St. Augustine of Hippo

“If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel — as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them — wherever you go.”

— Anthony Bourdain

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

— Mae West

Armed with these 18 quotes, go take that risk! What do you have to lose? You’re only getting older, after all.