When a young person is moved by a passion and feels compelled to go on this sort of quest, I think you have to let him. You can't stop him. In our culture we don't have formal rights of passage like in some ancient cultures. Subjecting yourself to risk... may be something you have to go through to be a man or a woman.
Jon KrakauerDon't settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon.
Jon KrakauerYou are wrong if you think Joy emanates only...from human relationships. God has placed it all around us...and all you have to do is reach for it.
Jon KrakauerHe 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 KrakauerI'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth.
Jon KrakauerEarly on a difficult climb, especially a solo climb, youโre hyper-aware of the abyss pulling at your back, constantly feeling its call, its immense hunger. To resist takes tremendous conscious effort, you donโt dare let your guard down for an instant. The void puts you on edge, makes your movements tentative and clumsy. But as the climb continues, you grow accustomed to the exposure, you get used to rubbing shoulders with doom, you come to believe in the reliability of your hands and feet and head. You learn to trust your self-control.
Jon Krakauer