Quotes about the sense of place

“An individual is not too distinct from his place. He is his place.”  - Gabriel Marcel

“A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected.” - Reif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

“Mathematics was hard, dull work. Geography pleased me more” - John James Audubon

“Through our maps, we willingly become a part of their boundaries. If our home is included, we feel pride, perhaps familiarity, but always a sense that this is ours.” - Debbie Lee Wesselmann, Trutor & the Balloonist

“Before maps, the world was limitless. It was maps that gave it shape and made it seem like territory, like something that could be possessed, not just laid waste and plundered. Maps made places on the edges of the imagination seem graspable and placable.” - Abdulrazak Gurnag, By the Sea

“Map out your future, but do it in pencil. The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip.” - John Bon Jovi

“It was ... disconcerting to examine your charts before a proposed flight only to find that in many cases the bulk of the terrain over which you had to fly was bluntly marked: 'UNSURVEYED.' - Ms. Beryl Markham, West with the Night.

“Maps codify the miracle of existence.” - Nicholas Crane, Mercrator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet

Give me an atlas over a guidebook any day. There is no more poetic book in the world.” - Judith Schalansky, Atlas of Remote Islands

“Regular maps have few surprises: their contour lines reveal where the Andes are, and are reasonably clear. More precious, though, are the unpublished maps we make ourselves, of our city, our place, our daily world, our life;” - Alexander McCall Smith, Love Over Scotland

“Maps are the most condensed humanized spaces of all...They make the landscape fit indoors, make us masters of sights we can't see and spaces we can't cover.” - Robert Harbison, Eccentric Spaces