Jon Krakauer quotes - page 2

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. (Jon Krakauer)
Common sense is no match for the voice of God. View quote
Jon Krakauer
It was titillating to brush up against the enigma of mortality, to steal a glimpse across its forbidden frontier. Climbing was a magnificient activity, I firmly believed, not in spite of the inherent perils, but precisely because of them. View quote
Jon Krakauer
Alaska has long been a magnet for dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all the holes in their loves. The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that care nothing for hope or longing. View quote
Jon Krakauer
Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency. View quote
Jon Krakauer
Everest has always been a magnet for kooks, publicity seekers, hopeless romantics and others with a shaky hold on reality. View quote
Jon Krakauer
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. View quote
Jon Krakauer
Mountains make poor receptacles for dreams. View quote
Jon Krakauer
My reasoning, if one can call it that, was inflamed by the scatter shot passions of youth and a literary diet overly rich in the works of Nietzshe, Kerouac, and John Menlove Edwards... View quote
Jon Krakauer
The desert sharpened the sweet ache of his longing, amplified it, gave shape to it in sere geology and clean slant of light. View quote
Jon Krakauer
Now what is history? It is the centuries of systematic explorations of the riddle of death, with a view to overcoming death. That's why people discover mathematical infinity and electromagnetic waves, that's why they write symphonies.. (Jon Krakauer)
But [Everett] and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That's what was great about them. They tried. Not many do. View quote
Jon Krakauer
It's not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong. View quote
Jon Krakauer
Some people feel like they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past. View quote
Jon Krakauer
When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God's light shines upon you. View quote
Jon Krakauer
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. View quote
Jon Krakauer
But now that I was finally here, standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care. View quote
Jon Krakauer
Mr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one. View quote
Jon Krakauer
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. View quote
Jon Krakauer
People don't get it. He didn't even have a fuckin' map; what kind of idiot? THAT was the point. There's no blank spots on the map anymore, anywhere on earth. If you want a blank spot on the map, you gotta leave the map behind. View quote
Jon Krakauer
Early on a difficult climb, especially a difficult solo climb, you constantly feel the abyss pulling at your back. To resist takes a tremendous conscious effort; you don't dare let your guard down for an instant. (Jon Krakauer)
Rob Hall was, without doubt, the most competent guide in mountaineering. View quote
Jon Krakauer
I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking. 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
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. View quote
Jon Krakauer
I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life. View quote
Jon Krakauer