40+ Best Bohemian Quotes Perfect For Free Spirits

Rajnandini Roychoudhury
Dec 12, 2023 By Rajnandini Roychoudhury
Originally Published on Mar 17, 2021
Edited by Isobel Murphy
Boho style picnic in nature.
Age: 0-99
Read time: 7.8 Min

Being a bohemian and practicing bohemianism is all about leading an unorthodox lifestyle that’s often based on artistic pursuits.

A bohemian lifestyle can seldom be defined as its meaning tends to change with every person. However, the nomadic people of Bohemia, a region of the Czech Republic, can be named the official Bohemians.

Over time the words 'hippie', 'nomadic', and 'bohemians' have overlapped in their meanings, and people now tend to use them sporadically as a cultural term rather than as a geographical name. Therefore, being bohemian is often perceived to be all about letting go of your inhibitions to find your spiritual self. Bohemianism is also related to fashion, where bohemian style involves breaking any clothing rules and dressing individualistically, with a real focus on the ethical product and procurement of the clothes you wear.

Here are some bohemian quotes and life quotes all about bohemian to inspire you in this free-living style of life. If you like these bohemian quotes, do check out these be true to yourself quotes and free spirit quotes to get to know more about spirituality.

Inspiring Boho Quotes And Sayings For Free Spirits

Here you will find some bohemian lifestyle quotes, bohemian sayings, and boho quotes that will motivate you to live your life the way that you want to. Whilst not all of these quotes are from bohemians, they certainly capture the bohemian approach! This boho quotes collection might help you on the journey towards genuine happiness.

1. “All I'm gonna do is just go on and do what I feel.”

‒ Jimi Hendrix.

2. “When my French side thinks of 'bohemian,' it imagines Montparnasse authors and absinthe - that kind of aesthetic.”

‒ Camille Rowe.

3. “I'm a girl from a good family who was very well brought up. One day I turned my back on it all and became a bohemian.”

‒ Bridgitte Bardot.

4. “My dream is to become a farmer. Just a Bohemian guy pulling up his own sweet potatoes for dinner.”

‒ Lenny Kravitz.

5. “My business is to enjoy and have fun. And why not, if in the end everything will end, right?”

‒ Janis Joplin.

6. “When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.”

‒ Bob Dylan, ‘Like A Rolling Stone’.

7. “Live life for the moment because everything else is uncertain!”

‒ Louis Tomlinson.

8. “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time.”

‒ Jack Kerouac.

9. “Well, isn't Bohemia a place where everyone is as good as everyone else — and must not a waiter be a little less than a waiter to be a good Bohemian?”

‒ Djuna Barnes, ‘Becoming Intimate With The Bohemians’.

10. “We are all a little bit hippy, a little bohemian. We take that from the culture we knew, from the '70s and the '80s.”

‒ Nicolas Maduro.

11. “Bohemia can be anywhere because it is not a place but a state of mind.”

‒ Arthur Ransome.

12. “I do my thing and you do your thing.

I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,

And you are not in this world to live up to mine.

You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.”

‒ Fritz Perls, ‘Gestalt Prayer’.

13. “At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.”

‒ Toni Morrison.

14. “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

‒ Ralph Waldo Emerson.

15. “All the time, I've felt that life is a wager and that I probably was getting more out of leading a bohemian existence as a writer than I would have if I didn't.”

‒ Christopher Hitchens.

The Best Live Free Bohemian Quotes

Two beautiful young woman in elegant boho dresses outdoors at sunset.

Are you looking for bohemian love quotes or boho life quotes for some motivation? Here are some great bohemian quotes to get you started. Remember these quotes while talking to your friends, girls and boys alike, or to anyone who loves to be inspired by good quotes.  

16. “They were all brilliant. They wrote books and painted pictures, and if they ever stopped talking, which I was sure they would never do, they planned to change the world.”

‒ Gloria Whelan, ‘Listening For Lions’.

17. “She was born to be free, let her run wild in her own way and you will never lose her.”

‒ Nikki Rowe.

18. “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”

‒ Henry David Thoreau.

19. “I used to be frustrated about being called bohemian, but I don’t really care now. If that’s what you are, you should celebrate it.”

‒ Alice Temperley.

20. “In my secret life.

I smile when I am angry,

I cheat and I lie,

I do what I have to do

to get by,

In my secret life.”

‒ Leonard Cohen.

21. “Choose only one master - nature.”

‒ Rembrandt.

22. “To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”

‒ William Blake.

23. “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a ride!’.”

‒ Hunter S. Thompson.

24. “Things were sort of Bohemian in Montmartre - one lived, one painted, one was a painter - all that doesn't mean anything, fundamentally.”

‒ Marcel Duchamp.

25. “Do not be a magician - be magic!”

Leonard Cohen.

26. “If you obey all the rules, you’ll miss all the fun.”

‒ Katherine Hepburn.

27. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve always imagined.”

‒ Henry David Thoreau.

28. “If you want to be free, be free. Cause there’s a million things to be.”

‒ Cat Stevens, ‘If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out’.

29. “My sympathies lie with the people; I must go to them directly. I must draw my wisdom from them, and they must give me life. For that reason I have just embarked on the grand, independent and vagabond life of the bohemian.”

‒ Gustave Courbet.

30. “Don't tell a girl with fire in her veins and hurricane bones what she should and shouldn't do. In the blink of an eye, she will shatter that ridiculous cage you attempt to build around her beautiful bohemian spirit.”

‒ Melody Lee, ‘Moon Gypsy’.

Bohemian Quotes To Follow In Life

If you are looking for boho chic quotes and inspiring hippie sayings, these bohemian quotes are a great way to guide your life. Here are some bohemian quotes that will inspire you to feel love and live your life the way you want to.

31. “A Bohemian life, filled with poetry, it cuts like a knife, without coquetry!”

‒ Ana Claudia Antunes, ‘Peirot & Columbine’.

32. “I am a wild woman. It would take a warrior to tame my spirit.”

‒ Nikki Rowe.

33. “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”

‒ Friedrich Nietzsche.

34. “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”

‒ John Muir.

35. “Their nineteen-sixties with the flowers in the guns and their summers of love, as if all we'd had was winter, all we'd had was rations. Just very good at keeping quiet, is what we were. We had to be. It was the way. Them with their jet-age.”

‒ Ali Smith, ‘There But For The’.

36. “Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills.”

‒ O. Henry, ‘The Country Of Elusion’.

37. “She's a dark-eyed, red flame, bohemian hurricane.”

‒ Melody Lee, ‘Moon Gypsy’.

38. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

‒ William Shakespeare, ‘All's Well That Ends Well’.

39. “Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been.”

‒ Alan Alda.

40. “To risk life to save a smile on a face of a woman or a child is the secret of chivalry.”

‒ Dejan Stojanovic.

41. “If it’s going to be a world with no time for sentiment, it’s not a world that I want to live in.”

‒ Christopher Isherwood, ‘A Single Man’.

42. “Make your interactions with people transformational, not just transactional.”

‒ Patti Smith.

43. “Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”

‒ Paulo Coelho, ‘The Alchemist’.

44. “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

‒ Albert Einstein.

45. “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”

‒ Joseph Campbell.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for bohemian quotes then why not take a look at these be present quotes or beautiful soul quotes for more great quotes that you will love?

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Written by Rajnandini Roychoudhury

Bachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English

Rajnandini Roychoudhury picture

Rajnandini RoychoudhuryBachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English

With a Master of Arts in English, Rajnandini has pursued her passion for the arts and has become an experienced content writer. She has worked with companies such as Writer's Zone and has had her writing skills recognized by publications such as The Telegraph. Rajnandini is also trilingual and enjoys various hobbies such as music, movies, travel, philanthropy, writing her blog, and reading classic British literature. 

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