Jon Krakauer, Into The Wild Quotes

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 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.

I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth.

What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?

Mr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one.

I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong... to measure yourself at least once.

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.

But [Everett] and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.

Happiness [is] only real when shared

When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God’s light shines upon you.

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.

I was stirred by the dark mystery of mortality. I couldn’t resist stealing up to the edge of doom and peering over the brink (…) That was a very different thing from wanting to die.

It's not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong.

When you forgive, you love.

The revelation that he was merely human, and frightfully so, was beyond my power to forgive.

Unlike Muir and Thoreau, McCandless went into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature or the world at large but, rather, to explore the inner country of his own soul.