Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild, 1996 Jon Krakauer
“Happiness [is] only real when shared”
“Some people feel like they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly
into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.”
“It's not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong.”
“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...”
“I now walk into the wild.”
“Mr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one.”
“I don’t want to know what time it is. I don’t want to know what day it is
or where I am. None of that matters.”
“To explore the inner country of his own soul.”
“Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously
never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy
circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are
conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to
give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit
within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion
for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there
is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and
different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous
security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once
you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”
“I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money,
than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth. ”
“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...”
“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.”
“We like companionship, see, but we can't stand to be around people for very long.
So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again.”
“The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences.”
“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.”
“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.”
“On July 2, McCandless finished reading Tolstoy's "Family Happiness", having marked several passages that moved him:
"He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others...
I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness.
A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it
is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which
one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books , music, love for one's neighbor -
such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children,
perhaps - what more can the heart of a man desire?" ...”
Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild, 1996
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