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“You just destroy the thing you love by weighing it down.”
― Jojo Moyes, Paris for One and Other Stories

“But life seemed fuller, more populated than it had a year ago. She went to exhibitions and films, sometimes alone, sometimes with a friend, and when she’d saved enough of Neil’s money, which was her money, she went on a solo trip to Italy, role-playing a character in a Forster novel. In Florence, she read performatively in cafés and sat in the cool of exquisite churches, straining for some kind of spiritual feeling. In Rome, she visited the Non-Catholic Cemetery and sought out the graves of Keats and Shelley and found herself moved and mortified by being moved.”
― David Nicholls, You Are Here

“How many times had she wanted to have this conversation? How many times had she rehearsed all the things she wanted to say to him?”
― Jojo Moyes, Paris for One and Other Stories

“Go and see for yourself. Trust your intuition. It will lead you to purpose and direction. Trust your path. Trust your process.

Discover that everyone is wrong—including you!”
― Toby Israel

“she went on a solo trip to Italy, role-playing a character in a Forster novel. In Florence, she read performatively in cafés and sat in the cool of exquisite churches, straining for some kind of spiritual feeling. In Rome, she visited the Non-Catholic Cemetery and sought out the graves of Keats and Shelley and found herself moved and mortified by being moved.”
― David Nicholls, You Are Here

“This was something I began appreciating about life abroad: how much more malleable we become to chance encounters.”
― Manon Rinsma, A Far Cry from Yesterday: Finding Tomorrow in Distant Lands

“Believe in yourself, and you’ll be amazed at what you can do.
You’ll then realize that the stories of being happy and alone are magical and true!”
― Menorca Chaturvedi, It Ebbs and It Flows

“And everything you say sounds better because it’s in French. I might just have to speak in a fake French accent for the rest of my life.”
― Jojo Moyes, Paris for One and Other Stories

“But you can tell so much about someone from what they wear.”
― Jojo Moyes, Paris for One and Other Stories

“The usual dodge for loners is to read or make journal entries or watch scenery intently, but that's a giveaway. The mark of a person travelling alone is to look resolute.”
― Jill Frayne, Starting Out In the Afternoon: A Mid-Life Journey into Wild Land

“Or even a solo trip - if the yoga teacher was correct, wasn't it my duty as a human being with eyes and legs and a beat-beat-beating heart to experience things, to explore? All the hand-wringing about women tempting fate by going on adventures, how it was our responsibility to protect ourselves... wasn't it simply a way to keep women's lives small? To keep us cowering at home, controlled, contained?”
― Andrea Bartz, We Were Never Here

“We can’t control everything. And we sure as hell can’t change people without those people wanting to change and doing the work themselves. All we can do is have the presence of mind to focus on the task at hand. The grit to work through the problem to the best of our ability. The courage to make the best decision we can at the time. The patience to trust the process, and the humility to learn from it.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“People, even smart ones, come up with weird or silly reasons to entertain bad ideas all the time. In fact, smart people may be more prone to creating irrational stories and engaging in dumb behavior than lesser smart people, for the simple fact that there are more (cognitive) tools at their disposal.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“Looking out over the cliffs of Amalfi, I snapped a photo, dropped it into a WhatsApp chat with the Doughboys, and wrote: “You know guys…I could be anywhere in the world, the most exotic location imaginable, but nothing can replace hanging with my brothers.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“Well, I spent two weeks on that island watching couples celebrate and enjoy honeymoons, anniversaries, and romantic vacations together, wondering if I’d ever find love again,â€� she said. “And on the last day of my trip, having one last drink at the local bar with my friend, after all expectations of finding love in the Virgin Islands had faded, there he was.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“It was through bikes that I learned how to be a kid again. How to be comfortable in solitude.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“Fast forward to six hours later and the three of us are causing a scene: telling stories in raised voices, cackling, singing, spilling wine on ourselves, spilling wine on each other. Yours truly making runs to the back of the plane for refills in thirty-minute intervals. “Do we have any more red wine left?â€� one stewardess asked another. Before we knew it, sunlight was peering through the windows, the rest of the passengers were waking up, and the stewardess was rolling the cart down the aisle for morning coffee service. We must have had thirteen rounds of red wine over the eight-hour flight. The three of us stumbled our way off the plane and through Italian customs, completely wrecked.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“After a slight diversion around Milan Centrale, I found my way to Como and got my bike down the street to my apartment. I quickly assembled the bike, rolled it down the stairs, and cruised down the street for a leisurely ride to the lake, managing to forget that I’d consumed thirteen glasses of wine and hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours. Welcome to Italy, I thought to myself. Let’s go!”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“I looked out over the lake, a vast plane of deep azure and emerald under a clear blue sky, noticing the reflection of the towering Italian Alps visible in the gentle ripples of the water. This, I thought to myself, is amazing. Just as my dopamine levels were peaking, the happiness dial turned to eleven, my attention was drawn to a peculiar object hovering in the air roughly twenty yards in front of me, spiraling my direction like a tiny heat seeking missile locked on to my forehead. Curious, I thought to myself. Before I could react, the object—a giant bee from hell—contacted the front of my helmet.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“Unexpected snags can arise on a ride; just as unexpected snags arise in life. But the pain is temporary, the emotions are temporary, and the setbacks can provide the space for a valuable lesson, if we're open to learning. Keep pedaling.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“I had a knack for sniffing out the rowdiest dive bars, the real ones, dark, loud, and rough around the edges, always with the distinct foul smell of old beer and urine. The Est Est Est was no different. The exterior of the building was lined with locals talking amidst a cloud of cigarette smoke. The interior was nearly pitch black, if it weren’t for the rainbow-colored disco ball spinning rays of light across the bar. I recognized a pair of patrons from the previous bar.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“Stopping to take in the surroundings and to notice the simple pleasures of life was a habit I’d been working on ever since a friend from grad school recommended the motion picture About Time. The film, centered around a father and son who possess the power of time travel, reveals that no amount of revisiting the past could compare to fully appreciating the present moment. The trip that I’d now found myself on offered the opportunity to practice this act of noticing.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“Like any endurance sport, cycling can bring about a psychological battle against the 'quit' that arises in your mind. When your body is tired and sore, when your heart rate is at its max, when your lungs cannot give enough oxygen, cycling is about finding the motivation to push through this pain to reach the summit, because you've learned that the rewards of the future surpass the costs of the present.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“I explained my experience after ten years in the Los Angeles music industry. The ruthless competition. The scheming sharks looking for any opportunity to devour the weak. The masks that many wear to conceal a cold, calculated agenda. The transactional conversations disguised as friendly interactions. How the desperation to get a little more recognition, to get a little closer to an artist, to get that Instagram mention or land a spot on Billboard’s 30 under 30 list, drives even the most kind and empathetic people to view others as a mere utility.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“Anxiety, and mental disorder more generally, can be exceptionally difficult to process, and for good reason. At the time of this writing, in 2023, humans are still battling the stigmas derived from centuries of misconception, fear, and discrimination around mental illness. It still has an attribution to demonic possession, evidence of witchcraft, or is labeled as a hysteria tied to an animal-like 'wandering uterus,' that could attach itself to organs in the female body, and cause disruption in bodily function and painful symptoms (seriously).”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“In addition to this stigma, many men who suffer from mental illness find significant difficulty in overcoming the cultural barriers and emotional illiteracy best defined as 'toxic masculinity.' In other words, the idea that vulnerability and the open discussion of one’s feelings is considered a sign of weakness, counter to the behaviors of the traditional male role.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“Now, sitting in the cafe, I thought of the cyclist as a painter. The planning of a ride as the foundation for a masterpiece—a vision for an artistic endeavor that interweaves man and machine. Each landscape, each environment, providing a canvas. Each GPS route offering an outline, never perfectly followed. Each turn, jump, climb, descent, and successfully navigated feature, a brush stroke on canvas. Like the work of an impressionist painter, no ride, and no riding style, could be replicated. Each rider creates their own unique sense of movement, color, and perspective. Each rider communicates through their riding.”
― T. A. Rhodes, The Lost Art of Searching: Embracing Uncertainty, Discovering Intrinsic Value, and Charging Through Life One Ride at a Time

“Instead, I think when you set out on your own you create yourself.”
― Aubrey Daquinag, Wander Love: Lessons, Tips & Inspiration from a Solo Traveller

“If we abide by other people's standards, we become shadows of ourselves. Too often when I am with other people I hand over my freedom and values as if they are the price of admission to companionship.”
― Patricia McCairen, Canyon Solitude: A Woman's Solo River Journey Through the Grand Canyon

“Alone in the wilderness, I am forced to come face to face with myself until the layers of doubt and insecurity fall away and I reach the core of my being.”
― Patricia McCairen, Canyon Solitude: A Woman's Solo River Journey Through the Grand Canyon