"It seemed an advantage to be traveling alone. Our responses to the world are crucially moulded by the company we keep, for we temper our curiosity to fit in with the expectations of others. . . Being closely observed by a companion can also inhibit our observations to the companion's questions and remarks, or feel the need to make ourselves seem more normal than is good for our curiosity."
In this quotation, Botton muses about the benefits to traveling solo. Without the influence of your traveling companion, you are likely to come to different conclusions about the places you're visiting. What sights would you notice better without someone else there? Who would you talk to if you didn't already have someone you know to talk to? What would draw your eye if someone hadn't first directed it elsewhere?
"The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to."
Traveling isn't the exception to human experience. Just like in every other aspect of your life, what attitude you approach an activity with will determine how you experience that activity. In Botton's travels, she's concluded that mindset is the most important factor to a successful trip.
"It is perhaps sad books that best console us when we are sad, and to lonely service stations that we should drive when there is no one for us to hold or love."
This book is about the human experience in every regard. Botton describes the need to feel consolation in our surroundings when we're sad. Our surroundings influence our mood, so choose your space carefully. Where someone chooses to travel also reflects how they're feeling, the same as a trip to a "lonely service station."
"A danger of travel is that we see things at the wrong time, before we have had a choice to build up the necessary receptivity and when new information is therefore as useless and fugitive as necklace beads without a connecting chain."
Travel leads to unfiltered encounters. As someone explores a new place, he or she will inevitably see or hear things which are entirely new. Perhaps they aren't in the correct mental place of development to process these things. Traveling inherently can challenge a person's resolve to experience new things.
