Jon Krakauer quotes

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. (Jon Krakauer)
That's what was great about him. He tried. Not many do. View quote
Jon Krakauer
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. View quote
Jon Krakauer
He needed his solitude at times, but he wasn't a hermit. He did a lot of socializing. Sometimes I think it was like he was storing up company for the times when he knew nobody would be around. View quote
Jon Krakauer
I thought climbing the Devil's Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams. View quote
Jon Krakauer
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. View quote
Jon Krakauer
If you don't take it, I'm going to throw it away," Alex cheerfully retorted. "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. View quote
Jon Krakauer
I don't know what God is, or what God had in mind when the universe was set in motion. In fact, I don't know if God even exists, although I confess that I sometimes find myself praying in times of great fear, or despair, or astonishment at a display of unexpected beauty. View quote
Jon Krakauer
The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences. View quote
Jon Krakauer
Most climbers aren't in fact deranged, they're just infected with a particularly virulent strain of the Human Condition. View quote
Jon Krakauer
But somethings in life are more important than being happy. Like being free to think for yourself. (Jon Krakauer)
I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong... to measure yourself at least once. View quote
Jon Krakauer
I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth. View quote
Jon Krakauer
I'm intrigued by fanatics - people who are seduced by the promise, or the illusion, of the absolute. View quote
Jon Krakauer
I love being outdoors, being in the mountains and the desert, and my wife enjoys that too. That's one of the things that sustain our relationship. View quote
Jon Krakauer
I think part of the appeal of Antarctica is experiencing some sort of power, the forces of the natural world. View quote
Jon Krakauer
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. View quote
Jon Krakauer
What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now? View quote
Jon Krakauer
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... View quote
Jon Krakauer
Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often. View quote
Jon Krakauer
He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight. (Jon Krakauer)
I understood what he was doing, that he had spent four years fulfilling the absurd and tedious duty of graduating from college and now he was emancipated from that world of abstraction, false security, parents, and material excess. View quote
Jon Krakauer
The trip was to be an odyssey in the fullest sense of the word, an epic journey that would change everything. View quote
Jon Krakauer
At long last he was unencumbered, emancipated from the stifling world of his parents and peers, a world of abstraction and security and material excess, a world in which he felt grievously cut off from the raw throb of existence. View quote
Jon Krakauer
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. View quote
Jon Krakauer