20+ Amazing Living Abroad Quotes(from an expat!)

Looking for the best living abroad quotes? From England to China and Thailand I’ve learned a thing or two about life overseas over the years — and these quotes encapsulate it perfectly. Enjoy!

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Living abroad is one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences you’ll ever have in your life. The feeling of leaving behind all you’ve ever known to start life in a new country isn’t something most people get to experience. But lucky for us, there’s always a quote to capture all the feelings that come with it.

Without further ado, here’s 20 amazing quotes about living abroad.

20 Quotes About Moving Abroad

1. “What makes expat life so addictive is that every boring or mundane activity you experience at home (like grocery shopping, commuting to work or picking up the dry cleaning) is, when you move to a foreign country, suddenly transformed into an exciting adventure. Try finding peanut butter in a Japanese grocery story or explaining in broken Spanish to the Guatemalan pharmacy that you need cough drops and you’ll understand. When abroad, boredom, routine and ‘normal’ cease to exist. And all that’s left is the thrill and challenge of uncertainty.”
Reannon Muth

2. “Loving life is easy when you are abroad. Where no one knows you and you hold life in your hands all alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time.”
Hannah Arendt

3. “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
Christopher McCandless

4. “Sometimes it’s best not to know what you are up against; if you are acutely aware of the challenges involved, you’d never do a damn thing. Being clueless is weirdly empowering.”
Geraldine DeRuiter

5. “Live abroad, if you can. Understand cultures other than your own. As your understanding of other cultures increases, your understanding of yourself and your own culture will increase exponentially.”
Tom Freston

6. “Ordinary life does not interest me.”
Anais Nin

7. “I don’t cry because we’ve been separated by distance, and for a matter of years. Why? Because for as long as we share the same sky and breathe the same air, we’re still together.”
Donna Lynn Hope

8. “And suddenly you just know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.”
Meister Ekhart

9. “Our homes are not defined by geography or one particular location, but by memories, events, people, and places that span the globe.”
Marilyn Gardner

10. “So, here you are. Too foreign for home, too foreign for here. Never enough for both”.
Ijeoma Umebinyuo

11. “When you move from one country to another you have to accept that there are some things that are better and some things that are worse, and there is nothing you can do about it.”
Bill Bryson

12. “Expats who can only criticize the country in which they choose to live are like a sailor who demands the wind blows only according to his skill.”
Tony Crossley

13. “When I go to a foreign country I want to explore and get lost, discover the real place.”
Brook Lopez

14. “People take different roads seeking fulfilment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”
Dalai Lama

15. “The world is too big to stay in one place and life is too short to do just one thing.”
Anonymous

16. “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.”
Mark Twain

17. “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”
Seth Godin

18. “Everyone smiles in the same language.”
George Carlin

19. “Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”
Mary Ritter Beard

20. “For what it’s worth… it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you’ve never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start over again.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald