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.
Jon Krakauerweeping...betraying a sense of loss so huge and irreparable that the mind balks at taking its measure.
Jon KrakauerThe sad end he met in Afghanistan was more accurately a function of his stubborn idealism - his insistence on trying to do the right thing. In which case it wasn't a tragic flaw that brought Tillman down, but a tragic virtue.
Jon KrakauerHours slide by like minutes. The accumulated clutter of day-to-day existence โ the lapses of conscience, the unpaid bills, the bungled opportunities, the dust under the couch, the inescapable prison of your genes โ all of it is temporarily forgotten, crowded from your thoughts by an overpowering clarity of purpose and by the seriousness of the task at hand.
Jon KrakauerBut perhaps the greatest attraction of Mormonism was the promise that each follower would be granted an extraordinarily intimate relationship with God. Joseph taught and encouraged his adherents to receive personal communiquรฉs straight from the Lord. Divine revelation formed the bedrock of the religion.
Jon Krakauer