50 Portal Quotes About Crossing Through Gateways

By Stephanie Kirby | Published August 3, 2023

Take a look at these portal quotes to learn more about these gateways.

Portals are simply any door or gateway that leads to another area.

It is also a crossing of boundaries, either real or imagined.

There is something symbolic and transformative about crossing from one portal to another area.

Some portals that are easy to identify are:

The door to your home
An entrance to a cave
A stone heap
Crossing under an arch, either manmade or natural

Portals that are harder to identify or maybe symbolic include:

The door to your heart.
A natural opening in a stone or crystal that you may wear as a necklace.
In fantasy, portals lead to secret areas or another world.

Have you ever crossed a threshold that made you feel like you were in a different place, either symbolically or in reality?

Take a look at these portal quotes to learn more about portals.

Top Portal Quotes

There are many examples of what people view as portals, as shown in these quotes.

1. “A man’s eros are his portals of discovery.” — James Joyce

2. “Stand guard at the portal of your mind.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. “Praise is the portal to the presence of God.” — David Brazzeal

4. “Your dream is a portal to your destiny.” — Michael Bassey

5. “Portals of divinity are everywhere.” — Akiane Kramarik

6. “Guard the portals of your mind.” — Patricia McCormick

7. “My portal to another world was fiction.” — Ransom Riggs

8. “A mother is the portal by which you enter the world.” — Meghan O’Rourke

9. “The portal into people’s hearts is being interested in them.” — Peter Guber

10. “This moment is your portal to the future. Use it wisely.” — Marion Ross

Portal Quotes from the Video Game

Enjoy these quotes from the popular puzzle platform game Portal.

11. “Science isn’t about why, it’s about why not.” — GLaDOS

12. “Warning devices are required on all mobile equipment.” — GLaDOS

13. “Please note that we have added a consequence for failure.” — GLaDOS

14. “Starting now, there’s going to be a lot less conversation and a lot more killing.” — GLaDOS

15. “No further compliance information is required or will be provided, and you are an excellent test subject!” — GLaDOS

16. “As part of a previously mentioned required test protocol, we can no longer lie to you.” — GLaDOS

17. “We are pleased that you made it through the final challenge where we pretended we were going to murder you.” — GLaDOS

18. “As part of a required test protocol, we will not monitor the next test chamber. You will be entirely on your own. Good luck.” — GLaDOS

19. “I have your brain scanned and permanently backed up in case something terrible happens to you, which it’s just about to.” — GLaDOS

20. “Well done! Be advised that the next test requires exposure to uninsulated electrical parts that may be dangerous under certain conditions.” — GLaDOS

Portal Quotes About Books and Reading

Books are often considered portals that allow us to escape to different worlds and adventures.

21. “Books are a portal to another world, but they lead to other places too.” — Willow Winters

22. “Freedom is found through the portals of our nation’s libraries.” — David McCullough

23. “Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal.” — Laura Miller

24. “A library is the first step of a thousand journeys, portal to a thousand worlds.” — Orson Scott Card

25. “Books are portals for the imagination, whether one is reading or writing, and unless one is keeping a private journal, writing something that no one is likely to read is like trying to have a conversation when you’re all alone.” — PJ O’Brien

Portal Quotes on What Can Be a Portal

These quotes give more examples of what people think of as portals.

26. “Mistakes are portals of discovery.” — James Joyce

27. “Artwork can be a portal, a kind of rethinking and reseeing of the world as we live it.” — Todd Solondz

28. “No other discipline has its portal so wide open to the general public as history.” — Johan Huizinga

29. “Twilight is like death; the dark portal of night comes upon us, to open again in the glorious morning of immorality.” — James Ellis

30. “Disneyland is like Alice stepping through the Looking Glass; to step through the portals of Disneyland will be like entering another world.” — Walt Disney

Portal Quotes Full of Different Perspectives

Learn more about how people think of portals in this world.

31. “Death does not end my life; it opens the door to a life without end.” — J.R. Rim

32. “Heights of the spirit can only be climbed by passing through the portals of humility.” — Rudolf Steiner

33. “The portal of healing and creativity always takes us into the realm of the spirit.” — Angeles Arrien

34. “How lovely are the portals of the night, when stars come out to watch the daylight die.” — Thomas Cole

35. “But if you are willing, then the portal to what you say you want is truly on your plate.” — Geneen Roth

36. “Beauty is momentary in the mind—The fitful tracing of a portal; But in the flesh it is immortal.” — Wallace Stevens

37. “In the hues of October sunsets, we see the portals to other mansions than those which we occupy.” — Henry David Thoreau

38. “Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still. A portal is opening up.” — Eckhart Tolle

39. “Through the portals of silence, the healing sun of wisdom and peace will shine upon you.” — Paramahansa Yogananda

40. “Know thyself’ was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, ‘Be thyself’ shall be written.” — Oscar Wilde

Additional Quotes About Portals

Here are a few more portal quotes for you to enjoy.

41. “Each life is unique. But for all, repentance will surely include passing through the portal of humble prayer.” — Henry B. Erying

42. “I think that music opens portals and doorways into unknown sectors that it takes courage to leap into.” — Wayne Shorter

43. “There’s a way that mirror can be portals towards vanity, but there are also ways they can be portals towards self-reflection and understanding.” — Fab Moretti

44. “Eons ago, the creative genius of God foresaw that it would take the shattered pieces of my ‘yesterday’ to construct the sturdy portal to my ‘tomorrow.’” — Craig D. Lounsbrough

45. “Behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal or a window opening on something other than itself.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

46. “Work is the open sesame of every portal, the great equalizer in the world, the true philosopher’s stone which transmutes all the base metal of humanity into gold.” — William Osler

47. “The grandest and simplest things contain worlds within worlds. Seeing them is a matter of the right point of view, and your painter’s eye is the special portal to such sights.” — Richard Schmid

48. “To begin to understand your soul as an integral part of yourself and begin to connect with your soul as a part of your full being and your true nature is the beginning of wisdom and the portal of true joy.” — Genevieve

49. “An environment-based education movement—at all levels of education—will help students realize that school isn’t supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world.” — Richard Louv

50. “We as journalists know intuitively what scientists of the brain are discovering through brain scans, which is that emotional stories tend to open the portals and that once there’s a connection made, people are more open to rational arguments.” — Nicholas Kristof