Quotes About Moving to a New City: 250 Uplifting Lines

Whether you are the one moving or cheering someone on, you will find the right words below. Browse the collection by theme, and do not miss our Editor’s Picks for the very best of these quotes about moving to a new city. If you are curious about the logistics and history of relocating, Wikipedia’s article on moving companies is a surprisingly interesting read.

Like all the best fresh starts, the best line is the one that sounds like you. Pick your favorite, send it to a friend who just got new keys, and celebrate the move.

Famous Quotes About Moving to a New City

Packing up your life and starting somewhere new takes guts. These famous quotes about moving to a new city come from writers, thinkers, and travelers who know exactly how it feels to arrive somewhere unfamiliar with everything you own in boxes.

1. “I think I’m quite ready for another adventure.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
2. “Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
3. “Home is behind, the world ahead.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
4. “The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” — Sir Richard Burton
5. “It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to our enemies, but even more to stand up to our friends.” — J.K. Rowling
6. “The fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength.” — J.K. Rowling
7. “We are all products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” — Rick Warren
8. “Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
9. “You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or perish.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
10. “So long as we love, we serve.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
11. “That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
12. “A lion chased me up a tree, and I greatly enjoyed the view from the top.” — Confucius
13. “The past beats inside me like a second heart.” — John Banville
14. “Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
15. “You cannot step into the same river twice.” — Heraclitus
16. “Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable, and remove yourself from the unacceptable.” — Denis Waitley
17. “The great advantage of a hotel is that it is a refuge from home life.” — George Bernard Shaw
18. “My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.” — Diane Arbus
19. “I love the feeling of being anonymous in a city I’ve never been before.” — Bill Bryson
20. “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” — Bill Bryson
21. “When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch.” — John Steinbeck

New Beginnings Quotes for Your Move

Every move is a fresh page. These new beginnings quotes are for the morning you wake up in a strange bedroom and realize the whole story is yours to write.

1. “We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” — John Steinbeck
2. “Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.” — John Steinbeck
3. “I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation — a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here.” — John Steinbeck
4. “Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys.” — John Steinbeck
5. “I am happy to report that in the war between reality and romance, reality is not the stronger.” — John Steinbeck
6. “How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past?” — John Steinbeck
7. “Berlin is a city condemned forever to becoming and never to being.” — Karl Scheffler
8. “A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him.” — Arthur Symons
9. “I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline.” — Ayn Rand
10. “Stormy, husky, brawny, City of the Big Shoulders.” — Carl Sandburg
11. “They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.” — Carl Sandburg
12. “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.” — Carl Sandburg
13. “Don’t be afraid to start over. This time you’re not starting from scratch, you’re starting from experience.” — Unknown
14. “Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth, laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle.” — Carl Sandburg
15. “Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, laughing!” — Carl Sandburg
16. “Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness.” — Carl Sandburg
17. “Bareheaded, shoveling, wrecking, planning, building, breaking, rebuilding.” — Carl Sandburg
18. “Laughing the stormy, husky, brawny laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.” — Carl Sandburg
19. “Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler.” — Carl Sandburg
20. “The past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, nor just for tomorrow, but in the here and now.” — Carl Sandburg
21. “Look out how you use proud words.” — Carl Sandburg

Quotes About Change and Starting Over

Change is the whole point of moving. These quotes about change and starting over put words to the wobble between the life you left and the one you are building.

1. “In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you wake in the morning.” — Carl Sandburg
2. “Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what was seen during a moment.” — Carl Sandburg
3. “Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.” — Carl Sandburg
4. “Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.” — Carl Sandburg
5. “A man’s home is his castle.” — Edward Coke
6. “Home is home though it be never so homely.” — John Clarke
7. “There is no place more delightful than one’s own fireplace.” — Attributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero
8. “He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.” — Attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
9. “To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.” — Attributed to Samuel Johnson
10. “There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.” — Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
11. “My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world.” — Billy Graham
12. “The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is curiosity.” — Edmund Burke
13. “We are not trying to entertain the critics. I’ll take my chances with the public.” — Walt Disney
14. “Fantasy and reality often overlap.” — Walt Disney
15. “He who rejects change is the architect of decay.” — Harold Wilson
16. “I don’t like formal gardens. I like wild nature. It’s just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess.” — Walt Disney
17. “Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.” — Sydney J. Harris
18. “That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.” — Walt Disney
19. “Adults are only kids grown up.” — Walt Disney
20. “Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’ ‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.” — George R.R. Martin
21. “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not taking risks, and that means you’re not going anywhere.” — John Holt

Funny Quotes About Moving

If you cannot laugh while carrying a couch up three flights of stairs, you are doing it wrong. These funny quotes about moving are for everyone currently living out of boxes.

1. “Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “Dare to be naive.” — Buckminster Fuller
3. “Begin again.” — Unknown
4. “Home at last.” — Unknown
5. “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors.” — Terry Pratchett
6. “New horizons.” — Unknown
7. “Full steam ahead.” — Unknown
8. “Home is where the Wi-Fi connects automatically.” — Unknown
9. “New city, who dis?” — Unknown
10. “Packing for a move is just competitive Tetris with your entire life.” — Unknown
11. “Unpacking is like Christmas, except everything is yours and you forgot you owned it.” — Unknown
12. “The first rule of moving: you own way more stuff than you thought.” — Unknown
13. “I’m not lost. I’m just taking the scenic route to my new apartment.” — Unknown
14. “Moving day is the only workout where you carry a couch up three flights of stairs.” — Unknown
15. “Embrace change.” — Unknown
16. “They say home is where the heart is. Right now my heart is in about six different boxes.” — Unknown
17. “I’ve moved so many times that my GPS just sighs when I type in a new address.” — Unknown
18. “New city, same me — but with a much better skyline.” — Unknown
19. “Adulting level unlocked: assembling flat-pack furniture in a new apartment.” — Unknown
20. “My address changed, but my pizza delivery driver still can’t find me.” — Unknown
21. “You know you’re a grown-up when a new vacuum cleaner excites you — and you just bought one for the new place.” — Unknown

Moving Day Quotes

The truck is loaded, the old keys are turned in, and there is no going back. These moving day quotes are for the beautiful chaos of the journey itself: the road, the boxes, and the honest work of starting over.

1. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” — Lewis Carroll
2. “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” — Unknown
3. “Leaders aren’t born, they are made.” — Vince Lombardi
4. “Seeming to do is not doing.” — Thomas Edison
5. “Trust yourself.” — Unknown
6. “Keep exploring.” — Unknown
7. “Find your way.” — Unknown
8. “Make it yours.” — Unknown
9. “Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” — Richard Bach
10. “There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn.” — Richard Bach
11. “Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness.” — William Shakespeare
12. “And whether we shall meet again I know not. Therefore our everlasting farewell take.” — William Shakespeare
13. “If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; if not, why then, this parting was well made.” — William Shakespeare
14. “One box at a time.” — Unknown
15. “Room by room.” — Unknown
16. “Step by step.” — Unknown
17. “Mile by mile.” — Unknown
18. “Next stop.” — Unknown
19. “Clean slate.” — Unknown
20. “Blank page.” — Unknown
21. “New streets.” — Unknown

Quotes About Cities and City Life

Every city has its own rhythm, and learning yours takes time. These quotes about cities and city life celebrate the streets, skylines, and neighborhoods waiting to become familiar.

1. “A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.” — Aristotle
2. “You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” — Samuel Johnson
3. “I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me.” — Charlotte Brontë
4. “Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich.” — Plato
5. “If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.” — Charles Caleb Colton
6. “New faces.” — Unknown
7. “A city is a large community where people are lonesome together.” — Herbert Prochnow
8. “Cities are the greatest creations of humanity.” — Daniel Libeskind
9. “No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.” — Cyril Connolly
10. “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
11. “New places.” — Unknown
12. “There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.” — Simone de Beauvoir
13. “Open doors.” — Unknown
14. “Small steps.” — Unknown
15. “London is a roost for every bird.” — Benjamin Disraeli
16. “Bon voyage.” — Unknown
17. “The streets were dark with something more than night.” — Raymond Chandler
18. “I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone’s away. There’s something very sensuous about it.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
19. “Safe travels.” — Unknown
20. “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” — Daniel Burnham
21. “God made the country, and man made the town.” — William Cowper

Quotes About Leaving Home

Leaving home never gets easy, no matter how many times you do it. These quotes about leaving home honor the place that made you, even as you outgrow it.

1. “Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.” — James Baldwin
2. “Home isn’t where you were born. Home is where you unpack your boxes.” — Unknown
3. “Moving far from home teaches you that home was never a place.” — Unknown
4. “Don’t rush to feel at home. Home is a slow build.” — Unknown
5. “Don’t just find a new house. Build a new home.” — Unknown
6. “Your roots can grow in new soil.” — Unknown
7. “Transplant yourself. Bloom anyway.” — Unknown
8. “New soil, same roots, bigger bloom.” — Unknown
9. “The home should be the treasure chest of living.” — Le Corbusier
10. “Growth requires new ground sometimes.” — Unknown
11. “You’re not uprooted. You’re repotted.” — Unknown
12. “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard.” — L. Frank Baum
13. “New pot, new soil, same strong plant.” — Unknown
14. “Bloom where you’re replanted.” — Unknown
15. “Here’s to new beginnings.” — Unknown
16. “You never really leave a place you love; a part of it travels with you.” — Unknown
17. “New city, new beginnings.” — Unknown
18. “Home is here now.” — Unknown
19. “Make it home.” — Unknown
20. “Welcome home.” — Unknown
21. “Home is a feeling, not a place.” — Unknown

Quotes About Exploring Your New City

The best part of a new city is that everything is undiscovered. These quotes about exploring your new city are your permission slip to wander, get lost, and fall in love with unfamiliar streets.

1. “The beckoning counts, and not the clicking of the latch behind you.” — Freya Stark
2. “Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train.” — Alain de Botton
3. “Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from.” — Rebecca Solnit
4. “I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves.” — Cheryl Strayed
5. “A new city is a blank page. Write something beautiful on it.” — Unknown
6. “Every new city was once a strange place to someone who now loves it.” — Unknown
7. “The best way to learn a new city is to get lost in it on purpose.” — Unknown
8. “You can’t discover your favorite café from your couch. Go walk.” — Unknown
9. “Be a tourist in your own city for the first month.” — Unknown
10. “New city, new routines, new favorite corners.” — Unknown
11. “Walk your new neighborhood like you own it. Soon you will.” — Unknown
12. “Your new city has been waiting for you. Go meet it.” — Unknown
13. “Your new favorite place is somewhere you haven’t been yet.” — Unknown
14. “Every new city needs a new regular spot. Go find yours.” — Unknown
15. “Learn the bus routes. Learn the back streets. Learn to belong.” — Unknown
16. “The unfamiliar becomes familiar one walk at a time.” — Unknown
17. “New city tip: the library is free, warm, and full of locals.” — Unknown
18. “A new city is like a new pair of shoes. Uncomfortable at first, then perfectly yours.” — Unknown
19. “New city, new playlist, new perspective.” — Unknown
20. “New city rule number one: explore before you complain.” — Unknown
21. “A new city is a plot twist. Enjoy the story.” — Unknown

Quotes About Having the Courage to Move

It takes real courage to leave the familiar behind. These quotes about having the courage to move are for the moments when the fear is loud and you go anyway.

1. “The loneliest day in a new city is still braver than the most comfortable day in the old one.” — Unknown
2. “The hardest part of moving isn’t the packing. It’s the believing.” — Unknown
3. “The boxes are temporary. The belonging is permanent.” — Unknown
4. “Moving is proof that you’re braver than your comfort zone.” — Unknown
5. “The bravest thing you packed wasn’t in any box.” — Unknown
6. “Unpack your courage first. You’ll need it before the dishes.” — Unknown
7. “The city is new, but your courage is well-traveled.” — Unknown
8. “The distance between your old life and your new one is exactly one brave decision.” — Unknown
9. “It is an old and ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.” — Rollo May
10. “Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings.” — Rollo May
11. “If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.” — Rollo May
12. “Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response.” — Rollo May
13. “Every human being must have a point at which he stands against the culture.” — Rollo May
14. “Hello, future.” — Unknown
15. “A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” — Unknown
16. “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?” — Bob Dylan
17. “The times they are a-changin’.” — Bob Dylan
18. “Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” — Attributed to Will Rogers
19. “I’m sittin’ in the railway station, got a ticket for my destination.” — Paul Simon
20. “Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
21. “The work of the eyes is done. Go now and do the heart-work on the images imprisoned within you.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

Short Quotes About Moving

Sometimes a few words say it best. These short quotes about moving fit in a text to a friend, a caption, or a note taped inside a moving box.

1. “New city, new coffee shop, new you.” — Unknown
2. “Pack. Move. Belong.” — Unknown
3. “New zip code, new me.” — Unknown
4. “New city, new habits, new happiness.” — Unknown
5. “Give your new city ninety days before you judge it.” — Unknown
6. “New roads, new stories.” — Unknown
7. “New streets, new stories, same wonderful you.” — Unknown
8. “Just begin.” — Unknown
9. “New chapter.” — Unknown
10. “New city, same heart, bigger dreams.” — Unknown
11. “The moving truck leaves, but the adventure stays.” — Unknown
12. “Unpack the kitchen first. Everything else can wait.” — Unknown
13. “Hello, new home.” — Unknown
14. “Home is a feeling.” — Unknown
15. “Dream big, move far.” — Unknown
16. “New city, new mornings, new mercies.” — Unknown
17. “Start fresh.” — Unknown
18. “Write your next chapter.” — Unknown
19. “You’re not lost. You’re just between maps.” — Unknown
20. “Onward and upward.” — Unknown
21. “A new city is life’s way of hitting refresh.” — Unknown

Quotes for Settling Into Your New Home

The boxes are unpacked and now comes the real work: belonging. These quotes for settling into your new home are about neighbors, new friends, and turning an address into a life.

1. “The first friend you make in a new city will feel like a miracle. The tenth will feel like home.” — Unknown
2. “Every local was once the new person. Be patient with yourself.” — Unknown
3. “Be the new person who says hello first.” — Unknown
4. “Your new city is full of people who were once exactly where you are.” — Unknown
5. “You don’t need to know everyone. You just need to know your barista.” — Unknown
6. “Your new neighbors are future friends you haven’t met yet.” — Unknown
7. “The new place won’t feel like home until you do something kind there.” — Unknown
8. “Make the other person feel important — and do it sincerely.” — Dale Carnegie
9. “Moving is the closest thing to time travel. You arrive somewhere new, and suddenly the future is unwritten.” — Unknown
10. “Your old city will always be part of your story. Your new city gets to be the next chapter.” — Unknown
11. “Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.” — Attributed to Aristotle
12. “A new city doesn’t care who you were. It only cares who you’re becoming.” — Unknown
13. “Moving teaches you what you actually need. It’s less than you think.” — Unknown
14. “You packed your whole life into boxes. That means you can fit your whole life anywhere.” — Unknown
15. “New city mornings hit different. Everything smells like possibility.” — Unknown
16. “The GPS doesn’t know the shortcuts yet. Neither do you. Learn together.” — Unknown
17. “Don’t just move your stuff. Move your life.” — Unknown
18. “A new city is the universe’s way of saying: try again, but bigger.” — Unknown
19. “The view from your new window is the first page of your next chapter.” — Unknown
20. “You’ll miss the old place. That’s how you know it mattered. Now go make the new place matter too.” — Unknown

Saying Goodbye to Your Old City

Every arrival needs a farewell. These quotes about saying goodbye to your old city help you thank the streets that raised you before you love new ones.

1. “The old neighborhood will survive without you. Go thrive somewhere new.” — Unknown
2. “You’re allowed to miss home and love your new city at the same time.” — Unknown
3. “Your story didn’t end when you left. It just changed settings.” — Unknown
4. “You’re not running away. You’re running toward.” — Unknown
5. “The boxes will be gone in a week. The memories will last for years.” — Unknown
6. “Goodbye always makes my throat hurt.” — Charles Schulz
7. “In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back.” — Charles Schulz
8. “I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time.” — Charles Schulz
9. “Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.” — Charles Schulz
10. “Man’s feelings are always purest and most glowing in the hour of meeting and of farewell.” — Jean Paul Richter
11. “I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand.” — Charles Schulz
12. “Leaving is the price of arriving.” — Unknown
13. “Every goodbye makes the next hello a little closer.” — Unknown
14. “Some goodbyes are really hellos in disguise.” — Unknown
15. “Thank you for the memories; hello to the adventure.” — Unknown
16. “Every ending hides a new beginning.” — Unknown
17. “Goodbye, old streets. Hello, new dreams.” — Unknown
18. “Say goodbye with gratitude, hello with hope.” — Unknown
19. “Close the door gently. Open the next one boldly.” — Unknown
20. “Goodbye may seem forever, but in my heart is the memory, and there you will always be.” — Attributed to Walt Disney

Editor’s Picks: The Very Best Quotes About Moving to a New City

Eleven lines we would send a friend with new keys — the brightest of the collection.

Quotes About Moving to a New City: Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good quote for someone moving to a new city?

“Home is behind, the world ahead.” — J.R.R. Tolkien. This beloved line tops our list of quotes about moving to a new city because it honors both the leaving and the arriving. Pair it with a personal note about one thing you admire in their courage.

How do you wish someone luck on a move?

Keep it warm and short. Try: “New city, new coffee shop, new you — wishing you the happiest fresh start!” The short quotes section above has 21 ready-to-send lines that work perfectly in a card or text message.

What should I write in a card for someone moving away?

Start with one of the goodbye quotes from this collection, then add one specific memory from your time together and one genuine wish for their new city. Specific and sincere always beats long and generic.

How can I make a new city feel like home faster?

Say yes to every invitation for the first three months, learn your neighborhood on foot, and find one regular spot — a café, a park bench, a library corner. Belonging is built one small routine at a time, and a little patience goes a long way.

More to Explore

If these quotes about moving to a new city fired you up, keep exploring:

• Change quotes for embracing life’s turning points
• Adventure quotes for your boldest days
• Travel quotes for wanderers at heart
• Courage quotes when you need to be brave
• Inspirational quotes for life’s big moments
• Funny quotes for a good laugh
• Life quotes full of wisdom
• Hope quotes for brighter days
• Friendship quotes for new and old friends
• Family quotes about the ties that bind
• Strength quotes for tough times
• Happiness quotes to lift your mood
• Dream quotes for big dreamers