The endless, agonizing recycling of what might have been, soon followed by a litany of rationalizations and self-deceptions as you struggle to reconcile the void between the person you want to be and the person you fear you are.

To the contrary: His life hummed with meaning and purpose. But the meaning he wrested from existence lay beyond the comfortable path: McCandless distrusted the value of things that came easily.

Mountains make poor receptacles for dreams.

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

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.

I think part of the appeal of Antarctica is experiencing some sort of power, the forces of the natural world.

Don't settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon.