I am happy being what I am.

- Paul Theroux

The measure of civilized behavior is compassion.

- Paul Theroux

I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.

- Paul Theroux

You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back.

- Paul Theroux

The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the circumstance…

- Paul Theroux

Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going.

- Paul Theroux

Travel is at its most rewarding when it ceases to be about your reaching a destination and becomes indistinguishable from living your life

- Paul Theroux

Delay and dirt are the realities of the most rewarding travel.

- Paul Theroux

Reading liberates you. You could know about the world through reading.

- Paul Theroux