Inspiring California Quotes for Perfect Instagram Captions

Consider one of these quotes for the caption on your next California vacation post.

As a destination, California has it all: culture, mountains, beaches, wine, cities brimming with energy, national parks, and of course, the Pacific Ocean. Thanks in large part to the immense creative presence in Los Angeles and San Francisco, some of the best authors, musicians, and journalists have put the beauty of California into words. To hear these writers, actors, and artists articulate the joy that can only be found in California is to broaden your understanding of the state. With that in mind, these are 25 of our favorite California quotes, all of which could serve as memorable and poetic Instagram captions.

Best Quotes About California

“Dean’s California — wild, sweaty, important, the land of lonely and exiled and eccentric lovers come to forgather like birds, and the land where everybody somehow looked like broken-down, handsome, decadent movie actors.” — Jack Kerouac

“The future always looks good in the golden land, because no one remembers the past.” — Joan Didion

“I’m with you in Rockland in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-journey on the highway across America in tears to the door of my cottage in the Western night.” — Allen Ginsberg

“For this is the real nature of California and the secret of its fascination; this untamed, undomesticated, aloof, prehistoric landscape which relentlessly reminds the traveler of his human condition and the circumstances of his tenure upon the earth.” — Christopher Isherwood

“In California gold was what God was in the rest of the country: everything, everywhere.” — Claire Vaye Watkins

“The two girls grew up at the edge of the ocean and knew it was paradise, and better than Eden, which was only a garden.” ― Eve Babitz

“California: bordering always on the Pacific and sometimes on the ridiculous. So, why do I live here? Because the sun goes down a block from my house.” — George Carlin

“California is always in my mind.” — David Hockney

Best Song Lyrics About California

“Made up my mind to make a new start, going to California with an aching in my heart. Someone told me there’s a girl out there with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.” — Led Zeppelin

“California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.” — The Mamas & The Papas

“My heart cried out for you, California.” — Joni Mitchell

“You could travel the world, but nothing comes close to the golden coast.” — Katy Perry

“I’d like to dream my troubles all away, on a bed of California stars.” — Wilco

“She stood there bright as the sun on that California coast.” — Bob Seger

“California, I’m coming home.” — Joni Mitchell

“California knows how to party.” — 2Pac

“Your shadow weighs a ton, driving down the 101. California here we come, right back where we started from.” — Phantom Planet

“So won’t you carry me back to California? I’ve been on the road too long.” — Carole King

“I just found out her ghost left town, the Queen of California is stepping down.” — John Mayer

“Going back to Cali, strictly for the weather.” — The Notorious B.I.G.

Best Quotes About San Francisco

“If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.” — Scott McKenzie

“Now there’s a grown-up swinging town.” — Frank Sinatra

“San Francisco is the only city I can think of that can survive all the things you people are doing to it and still look beautiful.” — Frank Lloyd Wright

“Anyone who doesn’t have a great time in San Francisco is pretty much dead to me. You go there as a snarky New Yorker thinking it’s politically correct, it’s crunchy granola, it’s vegetarian, and it surprises you every time. It’s a two-fisted drinking town, a carnivorous meat-eating town, it’s dirty and nasty and wonderful.” — Anthony Bourdain

“I’m just mad for San Francisco. It is like London and Paris stacked on top of each other.” — Twiggy

“San Francisco is poetry. Even the hills rhyme.” — Pat Montandon

Best Quotes About Los Angeles

“But here I am, next to you. The sky is more blue in Malibu.” — Miley Cyrus

“In Los Angeles, everyone is a star.” — Denzel Washington

“I love Los Angeles, it reinvents itself every two days.” — Billy Connolly

“When I came to Los Angeles, it was the first time that I ever felt like I belonged somewhere.” — Jennifer Love Hewitt

“Los Angeles gives one the feeling of the future more strongly than any city I know of.” — Henry Miller

“You got that special kind of sadness, you got that tragic set of charms that only comes from time spent in Los Angeles, makes me wanna wrap you in my arms.” — Dawes

“Los Angeles is like a beauty parlor at the end of the universe.” — Emily Mortimer

“Sometimes I feel like my only friend is the city I live in, the city of angels.” — Red Hot Chili Peppers

“Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.” — Frank Lloyd Wright