Route 66 is an iconic road that has inspired travelers for decades. Taking a road trip on Route 66 means taking a nostalgic journey where every turn reveals a slice of American history and a piece of the collective American dream. Route 66, The Mother Road, isn’t just a stretch of pavement; it’s a symbol of adventure, resilience, and the pursuit of the unknown. So it is no wonder this beloved road has been paid tribute to in books, movies, songs, and other pop culture moments throughout the years. In these declarations you’ll find a variety of Route 66 quotes inspired by the beloved road.
Find some of the best Route 66 quotes below and use the sayings to inspire your next road trip. Or, use them in TikTok, Instagram, or other social media captions to help express your feelings about your own nostalgic journey on The Mother Road. Each quote also comes with a shareable image that you can download to your phone to add to Instagram stories or Facebook posts!
Route 66 Quotes, Sayings, and Phrases
Get Your Kicks on Route 66
If you ever plan to motor west,
Bobby Troup (Songwriter), Nat King Cole (Original Singer), “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66“
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on Route Sixty-Six.
The Migrant Road
Highway 66 is the main migrant road. … 66 is the path of a people in flight. … 66 is the mother road, the road of flight.
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
On the Road
Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Meramec Caverns
Sometimes there’s a tackiness about Route 66 that out-tacks any tackiness I’ve ever seen anywhere else. And the Meramec Caverns are the pinnacle of that tack.
Billy Connolly, Billy Connolly’s Route 66: The Big Yin on the Ultimate American Road Trip
Rattling along Route 66
Oh, I can picture myself rattling along Route 66 on that thing, headphones on, singing along to ZZ Top’s ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ or the opening line from ‘Born to be Wild’ by Steppenwolf – ‘Get your motor running…’ The trike brings out that in all of us, which is no bad thing. Forget Viagra, get yourself a trike!”
Billy Connolly, Billy Connolly’s Route 66: The Big Yin on the Ultimate American Road Trip
Why We Are Walking At All
Sometimes, it’s only in walking the path that we discover why we are walking at all.
Richard Paul Evans, The Forgotten Road
We Forgot About Taking the Slow Way
The sad truth is, John and I and the kids only took Route 66 once on our trips to Disneyland. Our family, like the rest of America, succumbed to the lure of faster highways, more direct routes, higher speed limits. We forgot about taking the slow way. It makes you wonder if something inside us knows that our lives are going to pass faster than we could ever realize. So we run around like chickens about to lose our heads. Which makes our little two- or three-week vacations with our families more important than ever…
Michael Zadoorian, The Leisure Seeker
As for the time that elapsed between those vacations, that’s another thing altogether. It seems to have all passed breathlessly, like some extended whisper of days, months, years, decades.
Peppered with Hope
This highway, if you just think about it, is peppered with hope; it is peppered with tears.
Angel Delgadio, co-founder of Arizona Route 66 Historical Association, source
