90+ Beautiful Desert Quotes To Get Lost In

Deserts bring out different perspectives in everyone.

For some, deserts are a vast expanse of sand with no respite. For others, it is their home and their lifeline.

A desert is officially a desert if, in a year, it receives less than 25 centimeters of precipitation. Deserts are usually located in parts of the earth where there is little to no rainfall. These dry lands become desert regions. Did you know that deserts help in the formation of important minerals? This occurs when the water evaporates due to the high temperatures of a desert.

Let us see what this wonderful natural occurrence means to different people with some beautiful desert quotes. Read on to find the best desert quotes, desert flower quotes, desert sunset quotes, and more. With desert quotes from Jan Majernik, Paulo Coelho, Brian Herbert, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Nadine Gordimer, Terry Pratchett, and more, you truly are spoilt for choice!

For more quotes, check out these [nature quotes] and sun quotes.

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These quotes about the desert might inspire you.

1. “The desert, when the sun comes up. I couldn't tell where heaven stopped and the Earth began."    

- Tom Hanks.

2. “But in the desert, in the pure clean atmosphere, in the silence – there you can find yourself.”

- Father Dioscuros.

3. “If a flower can flourish in the desert, you can flourish anywhere.”

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

4. “The desert is a natural extension of the inner silence of the body.”

- Jean Baudrillard.

5. “All you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation.”

- Paulo Coelho.

6. “A rose in a desert can only survive on its strength, not its beauty.”

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

7. “A desert is a place without expectation.”

- Nadine Gordimer.

8. “Water is a desert’s gold.”

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

9. “What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate in the remote.”

- Edward Abbey.

10. “The desert is so huge, and the horizon so distant, that they make a person feel small, and as if he should remain silent.”

- Paulo Coelho.

11. “What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.”

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

12. “Like water in the desert is wisdom to the soul.”      

- Edward Counsel.

13. “A flower blooming in the desert proves to the world that adversity, no matter how great, can be overcome.”

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

14. “The desert tells a different story every time one ventures on it.”

- Robert Edison Fulton Jr.

15. “A man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands, knowing it is something that feeds him more than water.”

― Michael Ondaatje.

These quotes about deserts are guaranteed to make your day no matter what your mood is. Read on to find some meaningful quotes, as well as some funny desert quotes from authors like Terry Pratchett and more.

16. "Night comes to the desert all at once, as if someone turned off the light."

- Joyce Carol Oates.

17. “The desert is so vast that no one can know it all. Men go out into the desert, and they are like ships at sea. No one knows when they will return.”

- Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.

18. "I love the desert and its incomparable sense of space."

- Robyn Davidson.

19. "You can't fight the desert. You have to ride with it.”

- Louis L'Amour.

20. “This creed of the desert seemed inexpressible in words, and indeed in thought.”

-T. E. Lawrence.

21. “This is the sense of the desert hills, that there is room enough and time enough.”

- Mary Hunter Austin.

22. “If seeds waited for perfect conditions to grow, there would be no plants in the desert.”

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

23. “The desert could not be claimed or owned- it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names.”

- Michael Ondaatje.

24. “I would not sacrifice a single living mesquite tree for any book ever written. One square mile of living desert is worth a hundred ‘great books’ – and one brave deed is worth a thousand.”

- Edward Abbey.

25. “Desert… is a very good place to find yourself. Or lose yourself.”

- Maynard James Keenan.

26. “There were no lies here. All fancies fled away. That's what happened in all deserts. It was just you, and what you believed.”

- Terry Pratchett.

27. “The desert does not mean the absence of men, it means the presence of God.”

- Carlo Carretto.

28. “In the empire of desert, water is the king and shadow is the queen.”

- Mehmet Murat İldan.

29. “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

― Paul Hoffman.

30. “Magic of the shadows can best be seen in the deserts.”

- Mehmet Murat İldan.

Below are some wonderful desert quotes that will put a smile on your face.

31. “For all the toll the desert takes of a man, it gives compensations, deep breaths, deep sleep, and the communion of the stars.”

- Mary Hunter Austin.

32. “On your journey to your dream, be ready to face oasis and deserts. In both cases, don't stop.”

- Paulo Coelho.

33. “The magic of the desert is hard to define.”

- Henno Martin.

34. “If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There is no place to hide and so we are found.”

- Terry Tempest Williams.

35. "I don't see the desert as barren at all; I see it as full and ripe. It doesn't need to be flattered with rain. It certainly needs rain, but it does with what it has, and creates amazing beauty."

- Joy Harjo.

36. “Life is a desert of shifting sand dunes. Unpredictable. Erratic. Harmony changes into dissonance, the immediate outlives the profound, esoteric becomes cliched. And vice versa.”

- Ella Leya.

37. “The thing about tears is that they can be as quiet as a cloud floating across the desert sky.”      

-  Benjamin Alire Saenz.

38. “Polish comes from the cities; wisdom from the desert.”

-Frank Herbert.

39. “The desert’s an old dream of the sea.”

― Holly Ringland.

40. “A forest is mystery but the desert is truth. Life pared to the bone.”

― Keith Miller.

41. “This was the desert, everything all at once, whether it was needed or not. What survived had learned to save, live carefully, and keep a low profile, even appear to be dead for long periods. Perseverance and patience.”

― James Anderson.

42. “In the desert you become a discoverer. You discover your soul, which had been submerged in vain pursuits, which had been lost in the coils and toils of modern life.”

― Ameen Rihani.

43. “The desert sky is encircling, majestic, terrible.”

― Paul Shepard.

44. “No law. No order. No time or space. Danger was the desert’s breath, and the landscape changed with every wind.”

― Zita Steele.

45. “I am convinced now that the desert has no heart, that it presents a riddle which has no answer, and that the riddle itself is an illusion created by some limitation or exaggeration of the displaced human consciousness.”

― Edward Abbey.

These quotes by famous men and women will make you wonder and raise questions in your mind.

46. “I had to clear up my messy life. By letting go of the debris and filth, I have come to a deeper, more soulful beauty and clarity like an oasis in the desert.”

― Sharon E. Rainey.

47. “The desert is a capricious lady, and sometimes she drives men crazy.”

― Paulo Coelho.

48. “Without music, life is a journey through a desert.”

― Pat Conroy.

49. “Take care that the voice of God and the Devil sound one and the same in the desert. Trust your instincts. You were not put on this earth to be naïve, blindly optimistic, or passive; you are here to be vigilant, to survive.”

― M.B. Dallocchio.

50. “The desert wears… a veil of mystery. Motionless and silent it evokes in us an elusive hint of something unknown, unknowable, about to be revealed. Since the desert does not act, it seems to be waiting — but waiting for what?”

― Edward Abbey.

51. “We all have our own deserts. That may not be the same as my desert, but we all have to cross them to find a purpose in life and be free.”

― Yeonmi Park.

52. “All at once the desert was everywhere, and I was overcome with a feeling of relief. Sand, rocks, hills—the whole landscape was tinted the same shade of orange as the sky.”

― Jasmin Darznik.

53. “It is easier to accept the message of the stars than the message of the salt desert. The stars speak of man’s insignificance in the long eternity of time. The desert speaks of his insignificance right now.”

― Edwin Way Teale.

54. “The sand doesn’t care if you’re made of flesh or stone.”

― Joaquin Lowe.

55. “The desert sings of loss, always loss, and if you stand quiet with your eyes closed, it will grieve you too.”

― Nafiza Azad.

56. “I saw the desert, it grew upon me. There are times, when I have sorrows, that I hunger and thirst for it.”

― Isabel Burton.

57. “In the desert, in the pure, clean atmosphere, in the silence – there you can find yourself. And unless you begin to know yourself, how can you even begin to search for God?”

― Father Dioscuros.

58. “The immense desert, empty as a bird’s wing, inspired him with promise.”

― Mike Bond.

59. “The vastness of the desert frightened her. Everything looked too far away, even the cloudless sky. There was nowhere you could hide in such emptiness.”

― James Carlos Blake.

60. “It is like being in the desert. At first, you listen to the absence of sounds and call it silence. Then suddenly you may be taken by the presence of stillness where you are one with listening to itself.”

― Jean Klein.

These quotes might inspire you to achieve greatness and perfection in everything you do.

61. “The breeze across the desert as the light died was so sweet she could almost drink it.”

― Mike Bond.

62. “The true call of the desert, of the mountains, or the sea, is their silence – free of the networks of dead speech.”

― Freya Stark.

63. “Drowsing, they take the noble attitude of a great sphinx, who, in a desert land, sleeps always, dreaming dreams that have no end.”

― Charles Baudelaire.

64. “Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert can pass through them. Close them, and all you can feel is a bit of grit.”

― Taisen Deshimaru.

65. “It is true there is a scent in the desert, though there may be no flower or tree or blade of grass within miles. It is the essence of the untrodden, untarnished earth herself!”

― Rosita Forbes.

66. “I left a piece of my soul that will always rightfully belong in the desert.”

― M.B. Dallocchio.

67. “The dunes are changed by the wind, but the desert never changes. That’s the way it will be with our love for each other.”

― Paulo Coelho.

68. “Love is wild; its whole beauty is in its wildness. It comes like a breeze with great fragrance, fills your heart, and suddenly where there was a desert there is a garden full of flowers.”

― Osho.

69. “Nothing is all bad. There are very beautiful flowers in the desert amidst the spikes and thorns. Just don’t let them take over. In the garden of love there is little room for prickly things.”

― Kate McGahan.

70. “I knew I was a grain of sand in the vast desert that never ended and he was a sparkling star in the sky.”

― Aleena Yasin.

71. “The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.”

― Edward Abbey.

72. “I love like I’m thirsty. Can I offer you a tall glass of Sahara sand?”

― Unknown*.

73. “If my love were an ocean, there would be no more land. If my love were a desert, you would see only sand. If my love were a star- late at night, only light.”

― Jay Asher.

74. “She thirsted for love, but found only a mirage. Some hearts are a desert you can die wandering in.”

― John Mark Green.

75. “The field of the soul must be watered by the rain with tears of love; otherwise, it will become a desert.”

― Sorin Cerin.

The desert quotes might be short in size but they make up for it in meaning.

76. “In the desert of the heart, tears do not touch the ground.”

― Charles de Leusse.

77. “I was like a desert and she came into my life as the storm.”

― Avijeet Das.

78. “Everything that ever happened to me that was important happened in the desert.”

― Michael Ondaatje.

79. “Once again, there was the desert, and that only.”

― Stephen King.

80. “If you spend enough time in the desert, you will hear it speak.”

― Nnedi Okorafor.

81. “Any thoughts of guilt, any feelings of regret, had faded. The desert had baked them out.”

― Stephen King.

82. “In the desert, the only god is a well.”

― Vera Nazarian.

83. “A desert is a place without expectation.”

― Nadine Gordimer.

84. “The desert tells a different story every time one ventures on it.”

― Robert Edison Fulton Jr.

85. “If you want water, do not go to desert…”

― Alen Sargsyan.

86. “Being in the desert was brilliant and it was hard.”

― Toni Collette.

87. “Let those desert places in our hearts bloom.”

― Pope Francis.

88. “Books are… oases in the deserts of time.”

― Lawrence Clark Powell.

89. “I’ve come to believe that everyone who reaches the best that life holds for him reaches it through some Desert of Waiting.”

― Annie Fellows Johnston.

90. “When you’re in the desert, you look into infinity… It makes you feel terribly small, and also in a strange way, quite big.”

― David Lean.

Below are some of the best desert quotes picked especially for you.

91. “The desert still has a memory of water. And that memory is a living thing. It is infused into the sand. It is part of its essence.”

― Thomas Lloyd Qualls.

92. “The deeds of men, as footprints in the desert. Nothing under the circling moons is fated to last. Even the sun goes down.”

― Guy Gavriel Kay.

93. “The desert sharpened the sweet ache of his longing, amplified it, gave shape to it in sere geology and clean slant of light.”

―Jon Krakauer.

94. “I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams...”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 'The Little Prince'.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 100 beautiful desert quotes to get lost In, then why not take a look at these exploring quotes or bucket list quotes too?

*Do you know where this quote originated? Please email us to let us know at [email protected]

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