Don’t settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon.
It’s not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong.
It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it.
As a means of motivating people to be cruel or inhumane-as a means of inciting evil, to borrow the vocabulary of the devout-there may be no more potent force than religion.
It is true that I miss intelligent companionship, but there are so few with whom I can share the things that mean so much to me that I have learned to contain myself. It is enough that I am surrounded with beauty...
But somethings in life are more important than being happy. Like being free to think for yourself.
Mr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don’t want one.
What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?
That’s what was great about him. He tried. Not many do.
According to the moral absolutism that characterizes McCandless’s beliefs, a challenge in which a successful outcome is assured isn’t a challenge at all.
Getting to the top of any given mountain was considered much less important than how one got there: prestige was earned by tackling the most unforgiving routes with minimal equipment, in the boldest style imaginable.
Mr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th Century invention and I don’t want one. You don’t need to worry about me; I have a college education. I’m not destitute. I’m living like this by choice.
I think part of the appeal of Antarctica is experiencing some sort of power, the forces of the natural world.
To the contrary: His life hummed with meaning and purpose. But the meaning he wrestled from existence lay beyond the comfortable path: McCandless distrusted the value of things than came easily.
Antarctica has this mythic weight. It resides in the collective unconscious of so many people, and it makes this huge impact, just like outer space. It’s like going to the moon.
It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it’s great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you.
The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.
Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet.
In climbing, having confidence in your partners is no small concern. One climber’s actions can affect the welfare of the entire team.
Antarctica is a very alien environment, and you can’t survive here more than minutes if you’re not equipped properly and doing the right thing all the time.